When There’s a Will, There’s a Way

“When there’s a will, there’s a way.” If one really wants to do something, one can. For this post, I want to share a personal story about our family car, which is now sold.

 

This was our family car for 18 years. It is a 2000 Honda Accord Special Edition. My dad had it brand new when I was still in high school at the time. After he bought another Honda Accord in 2007, he passed it to my younger brother for a while until he went into the military and out of the United States. After he came back a few years later, he kept on driving it – it put him through post-military, college, and his first job. We have put over 200,000 miles into the car.

A few weeks ago, he came to me and reported that the automatic transmission shifted abruptly.

I checked the transmission fluid and noticed that it was at least a quart missing. I happened to have some Honda automatic transmission fluid (ATF) in the garage, so I topped it up. It shifted like it used to, so I told him that it was just low on ATF.

Last Saturday, he came back to me and said that the transmission broke down again. This time, it was much more serious – the car did not shift normally. It popped up the check engine light, and the transmission light was blinking.  I googled the issue and pretty much confirmed that the transmission itself was dying.

So I decided that it’s finally time to sell the car.

This was my plan: when the time comes, we sell it through CarMax located 30 miles away from our house. CarMax has a separate market for buying cars from the public, with a non-negotiable offer for any car as long as it’s running within its own power.

But there were obstacles along this one-way trip:

• The transmission was dying. It was not dead, but it was dying.
• There is a steep hill halfway during the trip.
• We only had a few hours before we had to attend other events, so towing was not our best option.

Since I had intimate knowledge about how the Accord functions, I told my brother that I will drive it, and had him drive my fully functional car.

Now, this gets a little technical, but I hope you’ll otherwise find it useful:

 

In an older Honda automatic transmission, you have ‘D4’, ‘D3’, ‘2’, and ‘1’ (emphasis on the quotation marks – these are shift lever positions). Each performs the drive function differently:

• In ‘D4’, this is the regular driving mode. The car goes (shifting up): gear 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4. It can also do the opposite (shifting down):  gear 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1.
• In ‘D3’, it only goes through gear 1 -> 2 -> 3. It does not go to gear 4. You use this for engine braking during downhill so your brakes don’t overheat.
• In ‘2’, it only uses gear 2. It is not gears 1 -> 2. You use this under snowy or slippery conditions.
• In ‘1’, it only uses gear 1. You almost never use this by itself.

 

 

So, the problem with the transmission was that:

• In ‘D4’, it would go gear 1 -> 2, and then skipped directly to gear 4. Once that happened, it could not shift down. It would stay stuck at gear 4.
• In ‘D3’, it would only go gear 1 -> 2. Gear 3 would not work.
• Shifting from ‘D4’ to ‘D3’ did nothing, and vice versa.

However, I could manually perform the following:

• Selecting ‘2’ worked fine.
• Shifting from ‘D4’ to ‘2’ gave a big shake, but was otherwise working.
• Likewise, I could shift from ‘2’ to ‘D4’/’D3’. It would skip gear 3 altogether.
• The max speed at gear 2 is around 60mph. Highway speed is possible at gear 4.
• So, in theory, I could use ‘2’ for low speed and shift to ‘D4’ or ‘D3’ for high speed. 

With these in mind, I found the ‘way’ part of the proverb. The ‘will’ part would be up to me to make the trip happen.

I selected ‘2’ and on my merry way. First was the local road towards the freeway. So far, so good. Once I was on the freeway, I started getting a little nervous about the upcoming traffic jam that the navigation traffic alerted.

This meant I had to shift from ‘D4’ to ‘2’ while slowing down. Just as expected, it worked fine after the big shake. I kept on ‘2’ for the entire duration of the jam, knowing that I only shift to ‘D4’ when it reaches above at least 50-55mph. Luckily, the traffic jam was cleared before the biggest obstacle: the hill upwards.

 

The map doesn’t fully show the steepness of the hill. This is where gear 3 is necessary. But remember? Gear 3 didn’t work. Other known factors were:

• The average speed in this section is 75 mph, so I cannot use gear 2.
• If I stay in gear 4, the car will slow down while going upwards.

So with the traffic cleared, I decided that my only option was to stay in ‘D4’, put the pedal to the ground, and let it slowly build up speed to around 80 mph before the hill climb.

I did this for the entire run, on the right lane. The result? The car slowed to around 70 mph, but otherwise climbed all the way up! I have cleared the biggest hurdle! The rest was smooth sailing and we eventually went to CarMax!

And we sold it for…. $350. Not bad for 18 years of faithful service! We managed to sell the car with whatever’s in our arsenal!

And to those who say ‘you should not have done that because it’s dangerous,’ ‘the what ifs?’ etc. Well, the risk to me is actually very low. First, I knew exactly how this transmission worked. Second, even if the transmission somehow gave way, the brakes will 100% do its job. The shoulder lane will be next to us, with AAA on the ready. Contingency plans, one after another.

If we want to do something, we think of ways to make it happen. This applies to anything you can think of, and that is one power that no other animal can do. ‘When there’s a will, there’s a way.’

-Sam