What’s Causing Third-Clutch Failures in Honda Five-Speeds?
For a while now I have been interested in finding out what is causing third-clutch failures in Honda five-speed transmissions. An opportunity finally presented itself when a customer brought in his 2003 Honda LX with a 3.0L engine and a BAYA five-speed automatic transmission. We had overhauled this transmission three years ago when the vehicle had 60,000 miles. Now with 134,000 miles the vehicle had an erratic 2-3 shift and code P0780 “Problem in Shift Control System.” When we disassembled the unit the only problems we found were burnt third clutches (Figure 1) and badly burnt fluid.
