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2003 Element transmission problem - hard shift

22K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  2003 
#1 ·
Greetings, I have 2003 Element with automatic transmission. It has 115,000km on it. For the past 10,000km, it has developped a very hard shift between 1st and 2nd gears. It does not happen all the time. It almost never happens if you let it accelerate through the shift on it's own with no throttle. It won't happen if you accelerate quite agressively. It happens about 80% of the time during what I would call 'normal' acceleration. My local dealer is stumped and said it needed a new transmission. It's not on warrantee and I find that hard to believe. A technician at another dealership that I met casually said he thought he could fix it by replacing some pressure switches. He has done so with no success. Granted, I have not returned it to him for further review, but I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this? It does not seem to matter what the outside temp is, nor what the vehicle temp is, cold or warm. Engine RPM will rise above what used to be the normal shift speed, continue to increase, then 'slam' into 2nd gear with a jarring motion. I also reset the ECU and that did not help either.
 
#6 ·
2003 Hard shift

Our 2003 DX is just under 100,000 miles and is having the same issue, hard shift from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd sometimes has an intermission before changing gears. Its headed for fluid change and I find it odd that its not generating a fault code. Has anyone reached resolution with this issue ?
 
#6 ·
Hard shifting fixed

I had hard shifting from 1st to 2nd and sl. hesitation from 3 to 4th on my 2004 Honda element front wheel drive with 200K miles. "D" on the shift indicator was not flashing and the transmission did not show a trouble code. I had it look at 2 different transmission shops and both said the clutches were bad and the transmission needed to be rebuilt. I pull off the dual solenoid (part number 28260-PRP-014) and checked it with a multi meter and both side test OK at around 5.8 ohms. I hook up the power to both side and one side clicked louder than the other. I replace the dual solenoid with a remanufactured one I got off ebay for $65. The transmission is now working great. No more hard shifting.
 
#9 · (Edited)
I had hard shifting from 1st to 2nd and sl. hesitation from 3 to 4th on my 2004 Honda element front wheel drive with 200K miles. ... I pull off the dual solenoid (part number 28260-PRP-014) and checked it with a multi meter and both side test OK at around 5.8 ohms. I hook up the power to both side and one side clicked louder than the other. I replace the dual solenoid with a remanufactured one I got off ebay for $65. The transmission is now working great. No more hard shifting.
Interesting. I knew there was a solenoid between the battery and starter, but didn't realize there's a solenoid for the transmission too.

Found a video of someone testing one that's already out -- got a good source for pulling it? Or is it intuitively obvious once you start looking?



Guess I also saw this one that says it's "how to replace the solenoid assembly", but he keeps saying what he's pulling is a valve, and I didn't see anything skimming its 23 minutes that shows a transmission...

 
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