Hey guys,

I know its a common prob but it really seems this lazy shift problem has gotten worse recently. I dont know if its the warmer weather or its just breaking in more but its annoying me. Shifts well when you give it more gas. It has done this since new but not as pronounced. Im contemplating changing the trans fluid. Also notice a very low growl between 60-70mph. seems to go away at faster speeds. thought maybe it was the tires so i rotated them. Not sure it did anything. I do want to get another alignment as it likes to dart all over the road. Again this didnt seem as pronounced when i bought the car either. I dont drive it hard at all. Just wondering your thoughts.

thanks,
Erik

 

Is this when shifting after you first start it up or all the time? I've noticed the first few shifts seem really lazy, but once I've been going for a while it gets much better.

 

its worse when just starting for sure. But i also notice it when I get off the highway too. It just drives me nuts considering my 226k mile civic shifted better.

 

Keep in mind on your older Civic the torque converter lock didn't activate until over 50mph. On the Fit's auto, the lock will activate at any speed in any gear (well maybe not 1st or 2nd).

The effect is when accelerating leisurely, you will feel the lock kick in and out before and after it shifts. This might feel laggy but it's really doing its job. Under harder acceleration the torque converter stays unlocked like older transmissions so it doesn't feel laggy.

 

[quote=Steve244;992900]Keep in mind on your older Civic the torque converter lock didn't activate until over 50mph. On the Fit's auto, the lock will activate at any speed in any gear (well maybe not 1st or 2nd).

[quote]

thats interesting. Ive noticed in "S" mode in whatever gear when you give it a good bit of gas the revs raise. And i dont mean in the normal acceleration matter. kicks up a few hundred rpm then holds.

 

This is normal behavior when the torque converter is unlocked. It's a fluid coupling; the transmission fluid is being pumped by a turbine and pushing against a stator to turn the transmission. As RPMs increase, the converter eventually hits its "stall speed" where the engine can't make more RPMs without turning the stator. As you let off the gas, engine torque decreases and the computer (PCM) locks the converter so it's a solid coupling between the engine and the transmission.

The fit's transmission is busy as a bees' nest compared to older transmissions.

I also suspect that it has logic to go easier on the drive-train until broken in by locking the torque converter less until you hit a certain number of miles. This is just a swag but it could explain why you're noticing it more now.

 

at least for my car, sometimes this happens too, I haven't keep full track of what might be causing it but have already changed to trans fluid to dw-1, which did smooth things out to some degree.

I'm suspecting sometimes when I have a full tank of toptier fuel that sometimes causes a positive ressult. Perhaps the additives are adding a minute amount of Upper cylinder lubricant versus discount fuel, which affects the smoothness of shift quality. Doesn't make sense and a long shot I know but it's my observation.

Maybe give a full tank of toptier fuel a try (maybe add Fuel injector additive) just as an experiment to see if it makes a difference for you.

 

My tranny "seems" to shift laggy as well but that's when I baby the gas just enough for the tranny to shift between gears. It takes longer to shift at lower throttle but that's all cars pretty much. If I get on it, it shifts very fast. I also know what your talking about in "S" mode. In "S" mode it's not made to shift further than 4th gear so the gearing is setup between 4 gears instead of 5 making the gears slightly longer, which is where you get the higher RPM's from. Check me on that last sentence, not 100% sure if it's 100% accurate. Someone wanna chime in?

 

wait, what? You think in S mode the car only has 4 gears? That ain't right.

 

Is correct. S mode doesn't use fifth gear.

 

Umm... If you haven't touched the paddles, it only uses 1,2,3. If you have touched the paddles, then it goes into 5th. Either way, that's not right.

Edit: hmm, the manual says that it can go into 4th while in S, "However, during most driving conditions, only first through third gears are used." It must only go into 4th if 3rd would hit the red line.

 

U.S. Sport model
S position (S)－To shift into the S
position, press the release button on
the front of the shift lever, and move
the lever to S. This position is similar
to D, except only first to fourth gears
are selected and fifth gear is no
longer available. However, during
most driving conditions, only first
through third gears are used.

 

Well I didnt think it would cause a prob but I did fill with the "shartier" gas around here this fill. Normally I try to get Shell when I can. Then if that isnt around Sunoco. I figured Ill wait till around 10k to swap out the trans fluid. cant wait to get some synthetic in the crankcase as well. Now I just have to find a GOOD alignment shop around here.

 

Yeah, you have "S" that usually shifts 1 through 4 at least from my experience, when you don't touch the paddle shifters. Then once you get on the highway, you would want to shift to 5th anyway to get better fuel mileage. In this mode it seems easier to rev up too, kind of like the tranny lets it rev higher before shifting.

 

Old thread but just a FYI. At 21k miles I switched the trans fluid over to DW-1 with 2 changes. The low throttle shifts are noticeably better. Higher throttle shifts were never bad but the fluid change did smooth it out a touch. When I dumped the original fluid it was still clear but had a noticeable brown tint to it.

Overall Im happy with the results.

edit: I should say it smoothed and slightly quickened shifts overall.

 

that dw1 is great used it on my aunts 91 accord shift like a beauty