4th gen torque converter issue

Dollywobbler · Post by **Dollywobbler** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 5:57 pm

Hi folks

My new Prelude goes very nicely - I've covered about 500 miles in it since I bought it on Tuesday. However, there does seem to be a torque converter issue when cold. It tries locking up just past 50mph, as it should, but it really seems to struggle to engage and the revs go up and down as it struggles to lock up. It usually only does this within a few miles of home, and once it has played up, it'll be fine for the rest of the day (which twice has meant covering 200 miles, including a lot of cross-country driving). Flooring the throttle can help force it to engage.

Problem two is that when you're slowing down, and then go back onto the throttle, there's a bit of a thump - it feels as if the transmission has disengaged and is then cutting back in again. Not sure if this is normal or related to the above.

The car did have a fluid change before I bought it, as the previous owner had been having some gear selection issues. The main gears are absolutely fine and changes are swift. I've no idea if the fluid change was done as per the tech bulletin or not, but the fluid does seem clean.

Any thoughts?

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 10:16 pm

solenoids on the way out?

Dollywobbler · Post by **Dollywobbler** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 12:04 pm

Sounds possible. I've seen some posts about cleaning the filters out for the solenoids. Is this easy to do?

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:35 pm

yes very

Dollywobbler · Post by **Dollywobbler** » Tue Feb 09, 2016 5:17 pm

Pulled the solenoids off today, but they're certainly not clogged up. Lovely fresh fluid everywhere, which is nice.

Given that it seems to slightly lose drive on braking (with a bit of a rev blip before the drive is taken up again), I suspect the torque converter itself is the problem. I s'pose eventually, it might be worth changing the 'box/converter but until then, I'll just keep using it. Once everything has warmed up, it seems to behave much better.

'92 Si VTEC · Post by **jjmartin349571** » Tue Feb 09, 2016 6:55 pm

For what it's worth I'll potentially have a good auto box and torque converter available in the next month or so, I have an automatic BB4 that I'm currently taking a view on either breaking or converting to manual. The car drives fine as it is, it's just a bit crusty in places

mart609 · Post by **mart609** » Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:25 am

both my auto honda accords do this

Dollywobbler · Post by **Dollywobbler** » Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:52 pm

mart609 wrote:both my auto honda accords do this

That's reassuring. I did wonder if there was a temp sensor that tells the converter lock-up not to function until fully warm or something, and that makes it a bit fluffy. I'll stick to 'ignore' then!

mart609 · Post by **mart609** » Thu Feb 11, 2016 8:56 am

Yep only happens when its cold too.
No issues once the cars warmed up a bit