Ok well I bought my accord at the beginning of june 2007. A month later the transmission starts going out, slipping and downshifting. The emergency brake light was constantly on, and the automatic lock on the passenger door broke. I took it to Honda and called corporate and they were willing to pay half the repairs but it still added up to 1300 dollars just for the tranny. They also told me the Idle Air Control was putting out a bad code too. From what i gather online and from other people who own them, there is a known deficiency with this transmission and Honda is unwilling to recall it. Still they only offer to pay half. I didn't have the money at the time so I just kept on driving it. It was a pain in the ass to drive and I ended up just letting it sit in the parking lot for about 4 months. I was away for the army at the time and I told my dad to start it every once in a while so it wouldn't die on me. Well let's just say he is forgetful so it sat unstarted for 4 months. I come back home and it wont start and there are about 5 warning lights on the dash. The battery is dead so I open up the hood to jump it and there are animals living in my engine. Needless to say it wouldn't start so I took it to Honda again. They are quoting me 900 dollars for just those two wires? Sounds like a ripoff to me. Also they are quoting 1800 for the transmission. They also told me that the computer is putting out a bad code for the Solenoid Valve (He mentioned something about this having to do with the traction control system). So 3000 dollars with tax just to fix the wires and tranny, and the Idle Air Control is still messed up along with possibly the Solenoid Valve and the passenger door lock. Also the braking system has possibly gone bad because of the e-brake light constantly being on.. The rotors are all rusted out from sitting for so long.. It's just ridiculous how many things are wrong with this car and it's going to cost more to fix than the car is even worth? Is it possible to claim it being totaled to the insurance company or does that only apply to accidents? I just don't know what to do, I don't have that kind of money. I just got out of the army and I don't have a job yet.

I have a 1998 Honda Accord coupe with 123K miles and recently the transmission failed (early March 2007). I took it to a repair man and he says that the transmission is slipping in 3rd gear. m He told me that in his opinion, Honda has made bigger engines, but did not build stronger transmissions to support those bigger engines. In addition, I talked to a friend of mine who has a '98 Accord, and her transmission has failed, as well. Furthermore, she knows of two other people whose transmissions failed around the same time that her transmission failed. After reading the comments on this webpage regarding these failures, I think that it is ridiculous that Honda is having such problems with transmissions and is not fixing the problem. What can we do about this?

I have a '98 accord ex with 143000 miles. Yesterday my transmission went out. My father is a mechanic and has taken good care of my car. I had the same problems as complaint #'s 19,23,25,29 (check engine light on, catalytic converter, O2 sensor all those codes came up with diagnostic, then it began to hesitate). Basically I had considered trading in my car for the last twenty thousand miles; I waited too long. Its a wonder, based on what I have read that I have gotten all this mileage before the transmission went out. I was so in love with Honda Accord, I had a '91 in college and it was so low maintenance that when I got a full time job I wanted another. Thats when I bought the '98. Its been a good ten years. Im just sorry it ended this way. I'm no longer in love.

Purchased in 2003, used, had transmission replaced in 2006. I'm wondering how far back this known transmission problem goes. And if the seller and the transmission guy might have known before work was done. Is there any recourse if they didn't tell me before doing the work. Anyway, the piece of crap has gone out again 3 weeks ago and is now the problem of Carmax. They will take it as a trade in. I feel ya'lls pain. I wasn't even aware there was a transmission problem with the 98's until I unloaded it. I called Honda and of course as all you 98's know "there was no recall for my VIN #." I agree, don't buy their products. I only wished I had known this sooner I wouldn't have spent the $2100. on the first transmission. Thanks AutoBeef I will be returning before any other repairs are made on my other cars!!

Hi all,

I have read all about the Accord problems and I have a pretty good bunch of stories myself. First I bought the top of the line 1998 Honda Accord EX V6 Coupe the black current with light grey interior with all the accessories. Long story short before the car hit 12,000 miles it was towed because it wouldn't start, it shifted abnormally Honda said they would do anything nothing was wrong. Keep in mind this was February 1998 I bought the brand new style so they didn't know about tranny problems back then. Well within that one year I had so many problems I searched out the lemon law. I won they had to replace that one with a 1999 Honda Accord Ex V6 coupe. I only kept both cars for less than 20,000 miles. THANK GOD I DID! Then I bought a 2001 Acura CL Type S very similar to the accord we sold it close to 60,000 miles and the tranny was starting to shift weird and the paint began to do this white oxidizing yet the car was garaged its whole life and never sat outside over night once.

Good news my brother had a brand new Civic (back in 2004) my brother had a brand new TSX, my mom bought my CL type S and we all got rid of them and bought Lexus and Toyota. Since then I bought all brand new products a Lexus IS300, Toyota Corolla S and a Toyota Solara convertible, my mom a Lexus IS300 and a 200& Toyota Corolla S, my brother a 2007 Lexus GFS350 and my brother a 2007 Toyota Camry Sport. (we kind of are car people we love cars!) I have to say we are SO happy we no longer have Hondas because the Acuras had issues too even the civic and the TSX. We are so happy to say that NONE of us have brought any of our cars in for service and our first product was back brand new in 2002! I will never go back to Honda neither will my family. The products were great in the 80s and early 90s but then they were no good anymore. So if you thinking about getting a new car I can highly recommend Lexus and Toyota we have a wide range of cars from inexpensive and economical to expensive and higher end and the quality is the same! Even the corollas we haven't had to bring in even once for a squeek or rattle. With my Honda I was bringing it in monthly for little squeeks, rattles and who knows what else. Good luck to everyone, hang in there! My family and I decided the best way to handle a company that doesn't want to help the customer out when its a faulty product is just tell all your friends and family about your bad experience and never buy one single product from that company again, just go the the competitor. We are all happy driving reliable cars! By the way the service is a 10 at Lexus especially! Good luck! and take care!

My check engine light has been on for about 2 years, I went to the mechanic and he said it was my catalytic converter so I had it changed, problem still there, then they told me it was the sensor before the catalytic converter so I spent another 200 dollars, and finally they said it was the sensor after the converter so I said forget it, I decided to live with it. Finally my transmission started slipping and finally it just went out. I just found out that there was a recall on the transmissions, does anyone know about the recall, can I call Honda to get it fixed.

Well I do feel a little better knowing that I am not the only one that has a Honda that has basically been proven to be a POS. I had been having problems with my car for a year now and at first it was only in the mornings or whenever the engine was cold. The car would stall at take off and if I stopped at a stop sign or red light the car would jerk forward while I was still on the breaks. Then last week while out Christmas shopping the car jerked the whole way home even when the engine was warm. Its so embarrassing considering that my car is fixed up and when people see it they dont expect it to act the way it does. On the expressways everything is cool because the car is going at a constant high speed, but as soon as I drive on the city streets the car stalls. I was driving about 45 mph and suddenly the car stopped like someone had slammed on the breaks... The check engine light is also on now. Fed up and scared for my safety I PARKED the car. Called Gillman Honda and after keeping my car overnight they determined that it was my transmission and that "Honda Recommends a new one.. so this job will cost about 2,900 dollars... I love my car.. and i've put money into it just fixing it up, but now I'm at a point where I dont have a car to drive because I brought the car home so I could think about what I want to do. I'm seriously thinking about just getting rid of the car and getting something more up to date and staying AWAY from Honda Motor Company all together. I have owned a 96 accord before this one but it was a 4cyl and I never had problems with it but now I'm scared of buying a new transmission since I've read of people having it replaced 3 times or more. Spending almost 3K for this on a car thats valued at less than 10K seems pretty pointless... I am very disappointed by Honda and feel that in a way i've been betrayed... I mean I know the car is 10 years old next year but still... why is it happening so often? and since I bought this car used in 2003, I'm wondering if this is even the original transmission that came with the car. I wish I had found this site before purchasing this car..Now Im stuck with a useless hunk of metal in my garage that I can't do anything with!!!! Thanks a lot Honda! :-(

There are already SOOOO many complaints on this issue, the only point in adding mine is that hopefully someone thinking of purchasing a used 98 Honda Accord V6 will change his/her mind after reading about our misfortune.

I bought my Honda used at 68,000. I replaced the alternator within a year of having it. Then, I was told earlier this year by the dealer that the check engine light had come on because my catalytic converter needed to be replaced at a whopping $1000. I went elsewhere and was told that the diagnostic code could be for the catalytic converter (which they could replace for $560), or my O2 sensor. I went with the sensor for $250. Well, I continued to drive the car with the check engine light coming on again after a few months. The light stayed on for about a week, then went off on its own. It stayed off for another month and then came on again for about two days. Then, off again for about three weeks. All was well until five days ago while we were driving the car. It sluggishly revved in third gear (it's an automatic, so I believe that it was third gear), then got itself together. Drove fine until yesterday when the light came on again and the sluggish movement re-surfaced. I decided to take the car in this morning, trying to decide between the dealership and the non-dealership repair options. I decided to go with the dealership just for peace of mind. Fine on the interstate, of course, but within 1/2 mile of the dealership, on the secondary roads, my car refused to go beyond 2nd gear. It was awful! I slowly revved to the dealer who sheepishly quoted $2700 for the repair of my transmission.

I have called around, even to a used parts spot that quoted me $1000 for a tranny with, get this, a 30-day guarantee! No thanks! The non-dealership repair place quoted me $2500 for a rebuilt tranny and $2700 for a re-manufactured tranny. If I buy a used tranny from somewhere else, they say tranny replacements are 12-hour jobs ($926 in labor). Also, they don't do rebuilt trannys, only buy re-manufactured ones from the Honda factory because Honda supposedly puts in these new parts that get rid of the problems they've had with the old ones.

I'm going to continue to surf the net for a re-manufactured tranny that will give me at least a 24 month, 24,0000 mile warranty and hold onto the Honda until I can find something else. I am SOOOOO disappointed. Honda won't help us out because replacing trannys to all 1998-2002 owners would probably send them into bankruptcy. Their stock would fall and everything. Four years worth? Never in our lifetime. Too bad, so sad. I'll definitely do my homework better the next time. Good luck to all who are in my boat.

This transmission problem just started happening and it's really ticking me off! Not to mention the fact that I live in highly congested Los Angeles with impatient drivers all around me. This is really a hazard, and I can't drive the car safely anymore.

When the car is cold and just started up, the transmission is fine, but after a little driving and it gets warmed up, that's when the problems start. When I coast to a stop, the gears seem "confused" and will downshift too quickly, or it will go into a "slip" which feels like it's in neutral. Then when the light turns green or I leave a stop sign, I start giving it gas and the gears "slip". Then the engine just revs until finally the gear engages with a hard thud and the front wheels will often briefly screech. I was on the interstate and almost had to coast off into the emergency lane because the car just wouldn't go back into gear, but I was able to maintain a slower speed in the far right lane and make it home.

I'm really disappointed in Honda. The car had been fine up to this point. I only had two problems before this. My catalytic converter went out and I had to replace it for $600, but I got the work done at Midas, not Honda. Honda wanted almost $1200 for the same replacement. I could have had it replaced by Honda for free within 8 years or 80,000 miles, but I was already outside both those warranty windows. Honda also had a recall on my ignition that they replaced for free.

I do regular maintenance, oil changes, etc. This a huge problem and should be covered by Honda. I'm going to call on Monday to see if they will step up or not. Probably not, but we'll see :-)

i've owed this car for 9 years and it has been excellent until now. we have mantained this car to manufactures specification from oil changes to replacing the timing belt just before the transmission went. the most annoying part of this is that the dealer i went to check out the problem after my regular mechanic gave up was more interested in getting the $90 bucks for the diagnostic test then letting me know that this dealer HERITAGE HONDA on YORK ROAD in TOWSON, MD. only replaces transmissions dosn't repair them.

The transmission began to slip, esp. between 1st and 2nd gear, then progressively worsened into all gears. It became a safety risk, so I brought into the dealership for diagnosis. It came with code P240, hence replacement is recommended. BTW, timing belt needs to be replaced as well. We have been reasonably happy with this car and I recommended to many of my family and friends. But I now have second thought, esp. reading the complaint #1: i. e., repeated problem around every 35K miles after replacement. That is ABSURD.