My Accord started having an issue the other day, it was making a strange noise while I was driving it and I noticed that the RPMs were running really high. I was going almost 80 on the freeway and it was at 4 RPMs, when I slowed down to 65 mph and it was still at 3 RPMs, but it would idle as it normally does when I was at a stop. I went and had it diagnosed but since there is no code they couldn't tell me much except that when they hooked the computer up to the reader for live data while they were driving it, it was acting like it was carrying a 90% excess load and working too hard. They said that they thought it was something in the transmission and that the engine was over working try to make up for whatever was wrong in the transmission. I had recently had my tranny rebuilt as the torque converter was slipping so the had to fix that and I have a warranty so I transferred it from Kniesels where they told me about what is going on to Aamco who now says that everything is running normally but I know I did not just imagine that sound and the high RPMs because I know how my car sounds and how it drives and something is definitely up.

My mom said she had a problem similar to this one and that it was the Harmonic Balancer. Is that plausible for the issues I described above? If so, about how much would it be to fix? Because at this point I just want to give up. I had to have the tranny rebuilt as said above, replace the starter, full tune up on stuff that was supposedly brand new, a radiator hose when I had a leak in the radiator, all the sensors that tell the fan when to click on, an O2 sensor as well, among other things. This car has been a money pit and I would like opinions as to what is wrong now so that I can fix it and get rid of the car, even though I know that I will never get back what I have put into it.

 

Personally, those are very good cars.

Anyway, are you doing this or taking it somewhere? I've got a few ideas but spending money vs testing/try a few things is preventing me from throwing them out there.

Here is a few questions that might help.....was the high rpm's there before the trans change (and before it went out)? At 60 mph (I'm old so don't go much faster than that) and on a flat section of road and steady throttle, what are the rpm's?

 

Also, what rim level is this car....DX, LX or EX? and can we assume it is a 4 cyl?

 

This all sounds oddly familiar!