CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2001 Civic has transmission problems, transmission problems & more transmission problems. Did we mention transmission problems? And a dangerous defect with the front airbag that didn't get recalled for 10 years.
Although eventually the defective 2001 Civic airbag inflators were fixed under recalls in 2011 & 2013, that meant for 10 to 12 years airbags were activating with excessive force where metal fragments went shooting into passengers when the airbag deployed.
As for the 2001 Civic's transmission woes? Honda conducted a major transmission recall in 2004 & settled a class action lawsuit for defective transmissions in 2006. But, neither the recall or the lawsuit included the 2001 Civic.
Last thing to consider - the 2001 Civic is the most-recalled car ever, closely followed by the 2002 Civic & the 2001 Accord. The 2001 Civic is the 4th most-recalled vehicle overall, only a Ford truck & two Ford vans have more.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
4 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
3 / 0
Average Mileage:
83,681 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
While driving on a busy street the transmission failed. Car immediately slowed down to idle speeds barely giving the cars behind a chance to slam on their brakes and swerve out of the way. There was no indication that this was going to happen, a Honda dealership had looked at the car for a recall repair and did not mention anything amiss with the transmission. When the tow truck came they checked the transmission fluid was black like the transmission had been malfunctioning and burning the fluid. It cost me 3800 dollars to replace the transmission.
I have a 01 Honda Civic LX with 85,000 miles and needs a new (rebuilt) transmission. I'm actually dropping off the vehicle today at aamco transmission. They quoted me $1600. I just spoke to Honda and requested goodwill assistance and they told me the vehicle did not fall within the parameters being 10 years old. I told them I have had 6 or 7 Toyota in a row and this was my first and probably last Honda. I asked them to pass along my case with that comment and contact me if they want to retain my business.
The contact owns a 2001 Honda Civic. The contact stated that while driving at highway speeds, the vehicle suddenly stalled. She noticed that the check engine light had illuminated on the instrumental panel. The vehicle was towed to a dealer and they advised her that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileages were approximately 91,000. The VIN was unavailable.
I am filing this complaint on behalf of Honda Civic drivers everywhere. It is very clear from doing research that there is an inherent problem with the Honda Civic 2001-2003 transmission. From speaking to professionals who have been rebuilding Honda transmissions for years, it is a problem with materials flaking off the torque converter and the clutch clogging things up. I drive at 2001 Honda Civic and the P0740 error code has come up, but the car is still running fine, but until I get the transmission supposedly repaired I will not be able to pass aircare even though my emissions are perfectly above average. Incidents vary from total transmission failure while driving on a high, stalls, to accidents. If you just google search 2001-2003 Honda Civic transmission you can see for yourself. I can understand that wear and tear over-time does happen, but it is clear that this is not a coincidence and feel that Honda should bear some of the responsibility for building a faulty transmission.
I bought a used 2001 Honda Civic LX back in December 2010, with about 125K miles on it with the carmax report that did not reflect any major problems or accidents for this car, it did reflect the maintance that the privious owner made and it was as schedule. The car ran well and I made the schedule maintainance for oil and general checks. Now after 6-months I started the car to go to work and as I was driving the engine light came out and the car stoped accelarating. After getting towed I took the car to the dealer where they ran a dignosis, that resulted on a transmission failure. Now they are charging me close to $3,000 to get it fixed. This has been a major inconvinience, I had to find a borrowed car in order to get to work, and iam not sure if I should get this fix, iam afriad somenthing else will occur, since this model has had so many complaints.
- Pa 19145, PA, USA
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The contact owns a 2001 Honda Civic. The contact stated that the vehicle was driving sluggish. While parking the vehicle on an incline, the vehicle suddenly stalled. As the contact shifted into reverse, the vehicle began to roll backward. The vehicle was towed to a dealer and they advised her that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileages were approximately 70,000. The VIN was unavailable.
The contact owns a 2001 Honda Civic. The contact was driving approximately 30 mph when the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle would not restart and was towed to an independent repair shop. The contact was informed that the transmission failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was in the process of being repaired. The failure and current mileages were 140,000. The VIN was not available.
My Honda 2001 Civic ex has had 2 transmission failures and both were sudden and unexpected and 1st failure with 70,000 miles on vehicle left car immobile at the end of an interstate on ramp in rush hour traffic and nearly caused an accident and had to be pushed to the side of the road by fellow motorists that risked injury to get my wife out of traffic...the second most recent failure left my wife stranded on a busy 2 lane road blocking traffic until a tow truck was called.I have investigated online complaints and found thousands of reports of low mileage defective transmissions that fail suddenly on Honda Civics and without prior warning yet Honda neglected to warn of this danger of losing all transmission power without any advanced warning...if there is no warning from manufacturer how can the public make an informed decision as to not put their family in harms way?
My 2001 Honda Civic stopped running while I was driving in the fast lane of the 101 fwy in L.a. no indication of any problem. I depressed the gas pedal and the engine just revved like it was in neutral; there was no acceleration. I went from going approx 60 mph to coasting. I managed to get across 4 lanes of heavy traffic and off the fwy without causing an accident. 2 hours later my car was towed to the nearest Honda dealer and I was informed that my car needed a new transmission.
The contact owns a 2001 Honda Civic. The contact stated that while driving 25 mph and making a left turn, the vehicle suddenly stopped accelerating. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer where the contact was informed that the transmission would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired and the manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The current and failure mileage was approximately 130,000.
2001 Honda Civic LX complete transmission failure. While backing out, check engine light came on. Could not shift to reverse nor drive. Stuck in the middle of the street.
I was driving into work this morning when it felt like I accidentally hit the shifter on my 2001 Honda Civic LX into neutral. I looked down to fix the problem and saw that it was in drive and that when I pressed on the gas pedal only the RPM's increased but my speed stayed the same. I was going about 50mph and when my car began to cruise to a lower speed I was almost rear ended by the car behind me. I had to have the car towed to a mechanic and was told that my torque converter was broken and that I would have to have my transmission rebuilt or replaced. The estimated was anywhere from $2,600 to $3,200 depending on what exactly has to be replaced once they start to disassemble it. I have done research on this year make and model and have found the 2001 Honda Civic to be notorious for transmission going out without any warning and that Honda refuses to acknowledge this as a problem even though there are thousands of complaints because it is not what they deem a "safety hazard". had I gotten rear ended, since I was close to being, I would have to say that's a pretty big safety issue to me.
My husband was driving the car, tried to turned left, and the car suddenly would not engage in any gear. The car could not be driven further, was towed to a repair shop, and the transmission was replaced.
Transmission failure, slipping and not engaging properly/ on the way home at the highway transmission start to slip and rev up, lose speed suddenly was able to merge to the emergency lane lucky there was no vehicles around or behind me, the vehicle is at my home now afraid that happened again with my kids aboard. Vehicle only have aprox 80,000 miles 2001 Honda Civic ex sedan.
While accelerating through an intersection engine raping where increasing but car was actually slowing down. Down shifted automatic transmission to D3 and got car through intersection before light changed. Car would go about 2 blocks before transmission would start slipping again. The torque converter and transmission have gone bad at only 85,000 miles without any warning.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Chicago, IL, USA