Why Won't My '90 Accord Shift Out Of Second?

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J

JohnnyWadd

Junior Member
So, my back-up car started acting funny yesterday. For some reason, it decided to stop shifting. When I drive along, it won't come out of second. At 50 MPH, I'm pushing 4 grand on the tach. When I shift manually, I can get it into first... otherwise it's all second, all the time. No other gear is working at all. When I take off without manually shifting into first, it takes off in second.

I have my theory as to what's going on, but I'm gonna hold that back for right now. Another symptom has to do with the little green Sport Shift light on the dash... it won't shut off. No matter how many times I push the button on the shifter, that green light keeps teasing me and won't shut off. I hate that light!!

In another possibly related/possibly unrelated symptom, I'm getting this funny buzzing or vibrating somewhere under the dash. When I push the brake pedal, it stops. When I release it, it comes back. Not sure if that has to do with the shifting or not, but I find it funny that they started at about the same time.

Let me know what you're thinkin'. Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jon
 
So, I'm pretty sure my Transmission Computer is shot (a.k.a. the TCU). Anybody know where I can get one other than walking into a parts store or a dealer?

I mean, of course I'll try the salvage yards... I'm just wondering if anybody out there has got a parts car...
 
I just opened up my TCU... it doesn't show any obvious signs of damage. No burnt smell or anything like that. According to this website:

"The resistors R41, R42, R43, are overheated or burned and capacitors C27, C28, C32, C33, C5 leaking or shorted."

I see no burnt areas surrounding those resistors, nor do I see any corrosion around those capacitors... the whole thing looks pretty clean.

I did try to pull out the codes... I didn't get anything. I didn't have a jumper wire... so I used a screwdriver. Is that bad?! The plug has two male leads in it, so it shouldn't matter. Anyway... all that happened was that the "S" light turned off. When I pulled the screwdriver out, it turned back on.
 
So, I put the TCU back in... now the car shifts fine. We'll see how long this lasts.

If it messes up again, I'll pull the codes out and post them up here...
 
We replace the TCU at work when they start off in second and when the sport light will not go off. You can replace the internals with parts from radio shack but I do not know the part numbers nor have I done it before. I just knew of some techs that fixed their cars that way. The TCU is expensive at the dealer, but I would not buy a used one unless I could try it first. This is a very common problem
 
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