1994 Integra: Strange RPM Behavior

I have a 1994 Acura Integra LS automatic with about 175k miles. I've
noticed that something occurs when I'm cruising in the higher speeds.
When I'm going about 70mph the RPMs are roughly 3000. When I hit the
gas to speed up to 75 or so, the RPMs sometimes (not always)
*decrease* by around 200 RPMs . Then it will jump back up to the
correct higher RPM a few seconds later. Please note that I'm not
hitting the gas hard enough for the transmission to gear down when
this happens. At first I thought that it was just the RPM gauge
behaving strangely. But, after doing this a number of times, I can
actually feel the engine losing the RPMs ever so slightly. I can't
seem to recreate this issue in lower speeds, however.

Any ideas what could be causing this and how to possibly fix it?

 

=========================================

My '97 CR-V with 240,000 Km on it does the same thing. It's like the
tranny is 'sucking' the life out of the engine. Probably wouldn't hurt
to do a drain-n-fill a couple times anyhow, at your age. Use ONLY Honda
Z1 atf.

'Curly'

 

Curly,
Thanks for the reply. So you're saying you replaced the tranny fluid
and that problem went away -- or you still have the problem?

 

If engine RPMs decrease,then your speed HAS to decrease,or your igniter(in
the distributor) is sending a bad signal to the speedometer/tach.


Any tranny slippage would work the opposite,I believe;RPMs would increase
but speed would stay the same,then catch up.

 

check the tachometer. the tach in my crx was faulty and dropped from
3krpm to 2.5krpm as speed increased from 60 to 70.

 

--------------------------------

At highway speed it _seems_ to slow down a bit if I touch the gas to
'help' the cruise. I'll have to observe it more closely, now that the
tach's behavior has been brought into question.

'Curly'

 

At highway speed it _seems_ to slow down a bit if I touch the gas to

I'm fairly sure it is not the tachometer just acting strangley
(unfortunately). It still seems like it slows down a bit and it also
seems to be getting a little worse lately. Have you tested your car
lately to confirm?

Anymore thoughts on what the problem might be?

 

Could a dirty or clogged fuel filter be causing this problem?

 

-------------------------------

No chance. Fuel filter manifests when climbing hill into headwind.
Usually starts to sputter after you pull out to pass semi-trailer unit.

The tranny is 'skimming' some power for the downshift, which never comes
unless you punch it harder. That was my conclusion, but I don't have
time to read the 80 or so pages of autobox section of the Helms manual...

'Curly'