Honda Accord 1994 LXI

[Damien Hill]

Hi Guys,
Just a quick question… I have a 1994 Honda Accord LXI 5 Speed Manual here which has a slight problem with its transmission. Whats happening is, when you push the clutch in to change gear it sometimes won’t engage properly and it feels like you have to really pull or push it into the appropriate gear. This happens even when you are stationary. If I take it for a drive on the road, and shift through the gears it holds them perfectly and doesn’t slip or anything, only difficult engaging gears. But before I get too far into this, it is a hydraulic clutch so you can’t adjust this like a cable. Also if I jack the car up and take the front wheels off and start the engine, with the car in neutral it spins the front rotors. So looks like its catching somewhere as well. So if I hop in the car and push the clutch pedal in, you can feel it grab close to the floor. So the first half of the pedal does nothing. I had someone look at the slave cylinder when I pushed it, and even in the first half of the pedal which feels loose apparently moves the pin on the slave cylinder. So if that is all working fine, could this just be a matter of bleeding the system? or could this be something like a pressure plate or clutch?

Any input would be great.

Thanks

Topic

[college man]

If the car is in neutral and the wheels engage then the clutch
is not disengaged. It sounds like your trans is not going into
neutral.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-transmission-problems

[Bill]

It appears that there is either air in the hydraulic system or the clutch master cylinder is failing or the pedal pushrod has gone out of adjustment. Another possibility is a failing clutch pressure plate.

If I had your car in front of me I would try bleeding the clutch before anything else.

[Tom]

The fact that the wheels spin when the trans is in neutral is disturbing to me.

You didn’t say how many miles were on the car, and that could be important. In my experience, the clutches in these cars are typically good for around 180k miles or so.

Do make certain that your clutch master cylinder is properly filled with DOT3 brake fluid, and that there are no leaks in the lines, master, or slave cylinders.

If that all checks out, bleed the slave. Honda standard transmissions tend to be a bit notchy to shift. I found that replacing the 10 W40 oil in the trans with Penziol Synchromesh fluid helped a LOT on my transmission. I would def give that a try, might help with it being hard to get into gear.

Do you get any grinding when shifting? Especially when downshifting into 2nd or 1st? Or, if you shift a bit too fast? I had all of those issues before changing to synchromesh. Now, every once in a while it is still hard to shift into 1st or Reverse at a stand still, but otherwise it shifts pretty nicely, and never grinds.

[Damien Hill]

Hi Guys, sorry for the late response here. Thanks for all your feedback. Unfortunately I haven’t had much time to work on the car due to other commitments, however I did have a quick play with it when I was washing it the other day and it seems when it won’t shift into gear without a bit of force, I found pumping the clutch a few times would allow it to move in perfectly. I will definitely try a bleed as that sounds more like a fluid issue at this stage. Will let you know how I get on.

Cheers

[Tom]

Eric did a video on clutch hydraulics which might be of some help to you. Look under the dash, where the rod from the clutch pedal goes into the clutch master cylinder for any signs of leakage. Also look over the slave cylinder near the front of the engine for leaking. If either shows signs of leakage, it is probably a pretty good idea to replace both.

Also, don’t forget to check the rubber section of the hydraulic hose, as that can develop leaks as well. This past summer, I wound up replacing all of that stuff on my ’94.

Some of my symptoms included the clutch going nearly all the way to the floor, and needing to pump it two times in order to shift. A quick refill of brake fluid got it working decently for long enough to go buy the parts to fix it.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Ignore the wheels spinning when it’s in neutral, this is normal. The input shaft can still spin when the engine is running. It will only spin one wheel though. Like I said, normal and nothing to worry about.

Your problem sounds like one with clutch hydraulics. These videos might help.

[Author]

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