[Palladium]

Hey y'all
I have an 03 manual 2wd
At 107K, driving down I95 I dropped 'out of gear'.
Touching gas does nothing.
Clutch, shift, back in gear and on the way. Happened a couple more times.
Same thing the next day.
Then nothing for a couple days, but happened again the day I was dropping it off to my service guy.
Who experienced nothing. Ugh

Picked it up, two days later, same thing, this time at lower gears too, not just while tooling down the road in 5th.

I cannot immediately put it back in gear, need to wait a couple second, clutch, shift, back in gear.

Took it back, service guy looked up svc bulletins, which directed him to replace tranny fluid.
Done.
Two days later, same problem, once. Then nothing for 4 days.

I do notice it happens more when it is either warm out (OK, rare with the 60m some INCHES of snow around Philly these past 3 weeks) or when it has warmed up after 30 min of driving.

Service guy today says they need to take apart the transmission to get to where it needs to be fixed, sorry cant reacall where, just remember it costs about $1000 or so.

I have heard of Odyssey tranny slipping a lot for 03 and 04, but Elements?
Ideas
Thanks!
PS i was an EOC member years ago, but cant find my sign on and dont that email anymore, so now I start from scratch.

 

[Honda Tech]

You really cannot compare automatic (Odyssey) transmission issues to any manual transmission issue. Apples / Oranges type comparision.

If a manual transmission pops out of gear while driving, your technician needs to make sure that there is no damage to the external shifter linkage / cables, and nothing wrong with motor/transmission mounts that would allow enough movement of the powertrain to "pull" the transmission out of gear by straining the shift cables.

If all the externals check out OK, then the problem is inside the box itself, typically bent shift forks or excessively worn shifter hub sleeves. This type of wear is most common when the driver has abused the transmission, or if the driver tends to rest their hand on the shifter while driving - probably not too common given the Element shifter location.

Obviously while the transmission is apart, a full inspection for wear and backlash should be performed, and if there is any metal debris inside, Honda recommends replacement of all bearings and seals. Truth is, this can become a fairly expensive repair pretty quickly.

Good luck!

 

[MikeQBF]

It's sort of a good thing it's happening with lower gears. Nearly everything I can think of that would affect all gears (lacking other, much bigger symptoms) is accessible without removing the transmission from the vehicle.

First, what Honda Tech said - we need to be checking for something tugging on the shift cables, or shift cable binding. Bad or loose engine mounts allowing the engine/transmission to move around could do it. Loose air cleaner ducting (or something else up top) dropping down to interfere with the cable or levers above the transmission would also interfere with full engagement and/or pull on something.

Not finding anything there, I would then check the selector rod detents, on the truly odd chance that a spring has broken. They are accessible from the top. If nothing there, I'd pull the change lever assembly and check for any binding or unusual wear.

It would be helpful to know exactly which gears (we know about 5th) have experienced the disengagement problem. Certain patterns could narrow it down for us.

Possible bad news is that the countershaft is sensitive to clearance tolerances. If wear is now to the point where it is "floating" due to too much clearance, movement could push it out of gear from any gear. That's going to take removal and disassembly to fix.

Good luck.

 

[Spam16v]

number one reason for manual transmission problems is lack of lubrication, close second is linkage or outside influence. if the fluid has been changed with the correct juices, and the shifter is functioning correctly, the problems mike and hondatech described are very possible. my guess is age influenced something and the shift linkage/cable were pulled slightly out of adjustment wearing a fork or sliding gear and syncro assembly and the detents aren't very happy.

mike/Hondatech what style internal detents are used in the element trans on the sliding gear? i've never had a honda trans apart personally.

 

[1fastvx]

What tranny fluid did he use?

John

 

[noco]

Hello, My 2005 E just started popping out of 5th gear. Not all the time but enough that I think I need to look at it. It is only 5th and none of the others. Im at 150k miles. Ive read the above and if there is anything to add I would appreciate it.

 

[slimerdogs]

You can get most of the answers in the above lines. Can't really say more then they did.

 

[Mott Power]

Check slave/master cylinder and related hydraulic functions. Wouldn't hurt to bleed the clutch line, too.

 

[Timent]

Hey guys, I'm hoping you can help, I replaced the clutch out of my 03 and everything was shifting fine. Made a stop and started my turn and it popped out of first it wouldnt engage ANY gears and there's now rubbing noise. I read a few articles and decided the next step would be a new slave. Installed and bleed the line. It shifts but none of the gears engage and there's still a sound of something making contact but not engaging. I haven't done the transmission fluid yet. Not sure what else could be a problem. I wrote a post, but no one replied.

Please help?

 

[Timent]

Wow, what does it take to get a response?

 

[Toddfree]

Similar issue here. What I noticed is that my transmission disengages after driving for a while AND when the RPMs are above 3000. As long as I drive under 3000 rpms there is never a problem. This is why it is probably most notable in highway driving situations and in fifth gear.

as far As I have read in the above posts, nobody mentioned the RPMs. Does this information alter any of your above diagnoses?

thanks for commenting if you have any ideas.

todd