Transmission would shift really hard into second and third gear. This is the infamous symptoms of the impending doom of a Honda V6 transmission. These trannies have a design flaw (actually, several!) that causes them to overheat and melt clutches and the torque converter. To give myself a bit more life, I replaced the transmission pressure switches (if you haven't replaced these, do it! It's one of the causes as to why these transmissions fail!) and drained and filled the fluid 3 times. Shifted fine for a few months and now getting rough shifts again. Only solution is to rebuild. Sigh. Any Honda/Acura V6 between 1998-2004(and bleeding into 2005) will have transmission failure eventually.

We are the original owner and have had our car serviced at the dealer since it was new. So every 5,000 miles or so a mechanic was looking over the car. At 90,629 miles was told Transmission fluid was brown. They drained and replaced. Then was told to have it flushed and new Honda fluid put in at 97,894 miles because it was dark brown. At 117,342 miles was told fluid was brown again. So another flush and fill. At 126,412 miles the whole transmission leaked out fluid and white smoke billowed from car on the 5 frwy in Orange County, CA and was slipping gears. Barely made it off the frwy. Dealer wants $5,900 to fix. There was a recall up to the 2004 model but not 2005 (SAME car style, SAME transmission). Acura Client Relations said "Sorry nothing we can do" and would not even open a complaint or send me a follow up letter/email stating why. Very frustrated.