I have a 1998 crv 4wd automatic 37k miles.

I also had a problem with a "whining" noise whenever I turned the
steering wheel all the way to the left or the right while moving
forward. I also noticed that the car was shifting hard and the gas
mileage was down about 5mpg. I took it to my Honda dealer and they
ended up replacing the rear differential fluid with a different
formula. The noise went away and the mileage returned to normal.
The shifting also got smoother. Before I had the fluid changed, it
almost felt like the car was constantly in 4wd. The fluid change was
fully covered under the original warranty.

I still have one problem. Sometimes, when I'm driving between 35 and
40 mph, and the engine is at 3000 rpms, it will downshift and the
rpms will go up to around 4000. This happpens without warning and
wheather I'm on a flat road or an incline. It also doesn't seem to
matter if I have my foot on the accelerator or not. Is this normal?
If anyone has any ideas, please drop me a line.

I too had my differential fluid changed when I  had the same noise, and it
went away. I also had downshifting and high revs on a fairly level surface
and not accelerating.  I later had a slight wine in the rear end, (at 96,000
miles) took it in and needed a new trans. (auto) and complete rear end.  

$5,250.00 but it was covered under my extended warrantee.  I would advise
keeping close eye on the transmission & rear end.



Joe

That is the exact same problem, your service dept. can drop the cover and
see, I think it is a common occurrence since the dealer knew right away I
needed both replaced.



Joe

Oh well....

I took it to the dealer and they were unable to duplicate the
problem.

Both my wife and I took a tech out for a drive and the car shifted
without any problems.

Of course, a couple of days later, it's shifting hard again
(intermittantly) and the 3000-4000 rpm problem is back. The tech
told us that it is probably a sensor problem. I told him that I
didn't buy it. Since they put it in writing that they could not find
a problem, I'll just have to keep a close eye on it and keep
driving. I hope that they will find out what is going on when I have
the 60,000 mile service done. Unfortunately, I'm only at 42,000.

If anyone has any other ideas, please drop me a line.

Thanks
Don

That the dealere didn't find anything about this is probably a
complete farse because my girlfriend has a CRV, same problem.

Whine in rear end, kind of sounded like bad power steering.

Mark