Hi all,

In early December my wife & I purchased a 2011 Accord EX-L V6 with automatic transmission. During the test drive the car operated like a well oiled machine, steering was responsive, acceleration was excellent, braking was clean and shifting was smooth. Only in the last two weeks have we noticed a difference. We have two new and undesirable symptoms and I think they’re related. While driving in D we’ve noticed that under light acceleration the shifts are lazy & rough (akin to a manual tyranny where the driver completely lets go of the gas before pressing the clutch). Its not violently abrupt, put its enough to jolt my cell phone off the armrest. When shifting during accelerating next to other automatic cars from a stop light, you can easily notice when my car shifts as the other car speeds ahead during the shift. Second symptom is that when I brake at a stop light on a flat piece of road (there are no hills in Houston ), there is an abrupt engine braking around 20mph ( I assume from 2nd to 1st gear). This happens at other speeds too, but is most noticeable at 20mph. This same effect is found when I decelerate by coasting (again on a flat piece of road) where I touch neither the gas or brake pedal. Lastly, all of these effects go away if I drive in D3. In D3 I get smooth shifting and no engine braking when decelerating. I want to reiterate that this all occurs on very flat roads. It’s my opinion that it’s the grade logic control system that’s causing the problems. Inappropriate GLC activation would cause the engine braking. Would anyone know if GLC is deactivated (or less sensitive) in D3? If so, this would also hint at a GLC problem. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to troubleshoot this or can venture a guess as to the cause?

Thanks,
Koss02

 

Have you been back to the dealer? If you can re-produce the issue (which it sounds like you have it nailed), take the service manager for a test drive. If they tell you "it is normal" ask to test drive a new one.

 

Thanks poorman212.
I have not yet been back to the dealer. The dealership I purchased the Accord from is massive (>40 2011 Accord sedans on lot). The typical process for a non-emergency service is to first call or email the service department and explain your concern. They then contact you and discuss your problem(s) and schedule a service appointment. I contacted them Friday of last week and they called me back yesterday to say that a technician will call me today to discuss the problem. I'll post back here how the whole thing turns out.

 

Ok. PLEASE let everyone know how it turns out....it helps everyone down the road if they search for issues.

Thanks.

 

Sorry for the delay. School's been rough lately. The mechanic called and I explained my concerns to him. He told me to note down everything I was concerned about and to bring in the car this coming Saturday for him to personally take a look at. We're to compare it to another new V6 Accord. He thought it was likely to be a minor fix. But before hanging up, he had me check the transmission fluid. Wow. I drove the car around Houston for a good 20 min switching between city and highway driving to warm it up. After parking the car on a flat surface and allowing it to cool for 60 seconds, I checked the fluid and found it to be barely on the dipstick. I wiped and checked multiple time and found it to be barely on the stick every time. After the engine sat for 15 mins, the dipstick still showed low fluid, being 1/4 inch below the "low" line. I called him back and explained that the fluid is low. Funny enough, he seemed not overly concerned and didn't think it was anything to rush on.

I think it's a huge rush! Any thoughts? I'm thinking of running it over tomorrow right before they close (I can't get out of school before) so they can top off the fluid, then bring it in Saturday for checking. What really concerns me is whether there may already be permanent damage (I've been driving for 1500 miles like this!). I definitely will get this all documented in case of problems down the road. I'd be tempted to ask them to change the whole transmission system out. How disappointing.

Thanks

 

Yes, stop by as soon as you can. Yes take it back on Saturday for a full inspection. Yes, document everything...and by the way, make sure they note step one and two in their documents. That way your VIN and issues should be recorded in case another dealer or Honda America ever has to search for anything about the car....1,500 with low fluid??? hard to say.

 

Drove it to the dealer last night. They acknowledged that the ATF fluid was low by approx 1.5 quarts (WTF? At 1500 miles?). They kept it over night to pull some specs, check for leaks & test drive it in the morning. They gave me a Prius to drive. Ha.

The technician admitted that my description of the problems was reproducible, but not severe enough to warrant further investigation. He said he sent the specs over to American Honda (AH) and talked with them over the phone about his impressions. My complaint was the first customer complaint that AH heard concerning the V6 shift quality. They provided the technician with no suggestions and simply said that the specs are acceptable and that the car is 'drivable'. Both the technician and I test drove another new V6 Accord and we both agreed that the shifting was better in that car, though he still thought that my car wasn't 'scary shifting' just 'unpleasant' .

It says a lot that my wife & I noticed a beautiful shift quality in the Prius rental as compared to the Accord. I even mentioned that to the technician, but he took no notice. No car I have ever ridden shifts this poorly.

So in the end, all he did was flush the transmission 3x with ATF DW-1 and filled it appropriately & submitted his work as well as my complaint form to American Honda. They still couldn't explain why the ATF was low to begin with though they are considering a transmission warranty extension.

My next step is to mail American Honda directly about my concern. I also intend to submit a formal complaint about the shift quality at every oil change.

There is a part of me that doesn't even care for the car anymore & would be interested in selling it. I'm disgusted by the whole thing. It's going to be hard to write that monthly note to American Honda every month when I'm this dissatisfied. The problem with selling it is that the shifting will turn-off any potential buyers. In saying that, it may be time to read the TX Lemon Law specifics.

 

hey Koss02,

You just described my exact problem in your post to the last little detail. I'm out here in California. On a flat piece of road, doing about 50 - 60 mph with 2100 rpm, when I let my foot off the accelerator, I notice... instead of a gradual drop in RPM's to a coast, I see this abrupt rise in RPM >3000 with the engine braking hard. I have never had that happen on any AT vehicle. Sometimes randomly, when city driving, it seems to just get stuck on 3000 rpm! I have to kinda punch the accel to make it snap out of that sticky spot. This is a brand new car.... why is it doing this. I don't know what to do. Where are you at with your problem.

 

Ebolbol,

I brought mine in to the dealer because I also noticed low ATF. I don't think the dealer would have given my complaints any attention had I not also mentioned I had low ATF; that being said, check your ATF as described in your manual to make sure yours is up-to-code. I don’t get the engine braking in D3, meaning there are ‘systems’ operating in D that cause the problem. My most noticeable downshift is at 20 mph, but I do get the same thing at other speeds (esp ~40). I spent a good deal of time discussing (and arguing) with the Honda technician about this. It was hard to get him to give me an answer; lots of double-speak. But in the end, he admitted (unofficially) that these types of specific operating dysfunctions are out of his hands and that they require the attention of Honda in the form of TSBs and PUDs. He’s advice was for him to pull operating specs off of the car and to send them along with my complaints to Honda (which he did). I also filled my complaint with autobeef.com and sent a certified letter to Honda. We must be vocal about our concerns and build a critical mass to get Honda’s attention. I’d suggest you visit your dealer about your concerns and think about sending Honda a letter too. Keep me up-to-speed if you learn anything new or get some feedback from your Honda dealer.

 

Some of that sounds like the transmission computer trying to "learn" your driving style. So if you drive "spiritedly" it thinks you WANT engine-braking. Trailing throttle into a corner on the track... right.

Transmissions so smart they run amok. That's why I buy cars with 3 pedals.