Recommendation for local Honda transmission shop

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:26 pm

Can anyone recommend a local independent Honda shop that has does good work on Honda automatic transmissions?

The transmission died in my Honda Odyssey last summer (worn out 4th gear clutch pack). I decided to rebuild it myself and that "mostly" went OK. I replaced the clutch pack plates, o-rings, internal filter, and torque converter. Post rebuild the 1st gear clutch pack will not engage reliably (acts like it is in neutral). It works sometimes, but VERY infrequently. All other gears work fine and I can manually start out in D2 then once rolling manually shift up into D3 or D4 and all is good until I come to a stop and it tries to downshifts into 1st. It might be something simple as a misbehaving solenoid, or something more serious that would require pulling the transmissions out again. Anyhow, I was going to try to diagnose and fix this myself, but it has just been sitting in the driveway for months and I have decided I just don't have the time to fiddle with it myself.

Richard

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Sun Jan 06, 2013 7:35 pm

Gary Gordon
919-244-1042
He's off wake road now.

He built the transmission in my wife's TL two years ago. Did a great job, and he's done a few.
Tell him a Westerfield sent you.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:44 am

Rex over at Happy Japs might be able to do that.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Jan 07, 2013 7:10 pm

I had thought about Happy Japs, but when I look at their website, they say they do pretty much everything except try to deal with the internals of automatic transmissions. So I think they are out.

But I have "some" hope that this is a simple problem. I think I have found a repeatable scenario in which everything works. When you first start it up and it is cold, it shifts into 1st just fine (D1, D3 or D4). I was able to drive around my neighborhood this morning in D1 for about 3-5 minutes. I was able to apply the brake and try to give it gas and the clutch pack wasn't slipping, so I think it was getting good pressure. I then tried D4 (to let it upshift out of 1st and downshift into 1st on it's own). It worked Ok for a bit longer, but I eventually had it act a bit funky (as if it wasn't going to stay in 1st as I accelerated) as I pulled away from a stop and then it went back to it's old mode of refusing to engage 1st the next time it tried to downshift into 1st. I have spent a little time looking at the fluid flow diagram and charts on which solenoids are activated and I can't find a smoking gun, but I am thinking it might be something as simple as a loose connector (I have already checked connectors) or a bad/flaky solenoid that acts odd when warm.

I will probably give Gary a call. Let me know if anyone else has any recommendations.

Richard

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:37 pm

Called Gary Gordon and he said he can't do it right now as he is working out of his house and doesn't have the room. He pointed me to "Ted's Automatic Transmission" shop off Westgate. I called Ted and will be bringing the van over for him to scan it later this week as see if it self reports any issues.

Anyone have experience with Ted's?

Richard

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:41 pm

Ted's is a good family business. Dealt with them alot when I worked at Japan Direct, a little bit now. He rebuilt my step dad's transmission back 12 years ago, did a good job.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2013 3:24 pm

I wanted to give everyone an update on this...

I ended up having Ted's do it and have been happy so far. As mentioned above, I had decided to rebuild my transmission after it failed middle/late last year. Problem post rebuild was a refusal to shift into 1st gear once the transmission was warm. Ted did replace a few external solenoids that I hadn't (he said he does it on all rebuilds as standard practice). He didn't find any smoking gun issues with my rebuild when it was pulled apart. He said it may have been a sticky valve in the valve body.

Richard

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Recommendation for local Honda transmission shop

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