I now have a Honda Civic with the famous transmission problem. My daughter was out of town, driving the car I thought would be safe transportation for her, when it stalled at a red light. I looked at this website and when I called 2 Honda dealers they almost laughed at me and said they had not heard of this problem with the civics. I told them to look at the internet!! They have offered no help with payment for the repair, a rebuilt transmission, with a cost of 2894.00. The car will have to be towed to the dealership so there is another 50.00. I plan to call Honda America tomorrow as I have gotten the money together-thanks to Uncle Sam, to get the car fixed and see what, if anything they offer!! The car I bought so my daughter would be safe left her stranded. The car I bought for its reputation as "dependable" with a long lifespan is dead!! The repair money does not come easy for anyone, especially a single parent whose daughter is in college so I will plead my case to Honda America but I'm not expecting much and will not do business with Honda again. I drive an American car with 182,000 miles and have very few repairs done to this car--America may be the way to go. I will join a Class Action suit if one is prepared. Wish me luck tomorrow!!!!

I have an '01 Honda Civic EX 4cyl. automatic. It has always had a problem shifting between 2nd and 3rd gear and this problem grew progressively worse over the years (and miles). It was especially bad in the wintertime when the transmission was cold. The transmission would go to shift to 3rd and wind out before catching. This winter it began to whine while it was not fully warmed up. A few weeks after the whining began the transmission began to jump between gears and then within the course of an hour failed completely and required a tow. The best price I could find for repairs was $2,844: $1794 for a rebuilt transmission from Honda with a 3 year 36,000 warranty, $1,000 to ship the new transmission to me and then the old back to the factory, and $750 for labor. Plus a refundable $1,200 core charge that I did not include in the repair cost.

On Saturday January 31, 2009 I noticed some jerking when I was trying to accelerate to get onto the freeway. This happened a few times that day before my transmission went out that evening as I was entering a shopping center (never made it to Del Taco). The car simply wouldn't accelerate and I was stuck in the middle of the parking entrance for half an hour until AAA arrived. For the past few months I was under the impression I was having a problem with the timing belt (my boyfriend's guess), but since it was only a 'sprinkler noise' and no actual performance problem, I decided to let that go... now I'm wondering if it had to do with the transmission. The place that I was towed to quoted $3000+ for a brand new transmission, $2,600 to fix/rebuild my transmission, and $1575 to find a transmission from a wrecking yard and fix it. Needless to say, I don't have that kind of money set aside for a rainy day, so now my mother is taking her 25 year old daughter to and from work until I figure out what to do with this problem. I'm pissed because the reason I chose to buy a Honda was so that it would last for 200k miles. I will also mention the unresolved issue I've had with my "automatic" door locks: It took me a month to realize that when I was pressing my Lock button, nothing was happening on my driver's side door. This had been going on for 6 months with me having to manually lock my door and then all of a sudden, one day it started working again. Three weeks ago, however, it went back to being unresponsive... but I guess that doesn't really matter since my car is unable to drive anywhere anyways! I don't foresee myself ever purchasing a Honda car (or Acura) again. This is ridiculous and I feel bad for all the other Honda consumers who had the same problem with their transmissions. I don't know what I'm going to do...

I will do my part to try to keep others from making the same mistake I did. I've taken this car, which I'd become emotionally attached to (it's my second Honda Civic), to a very good dealership mechanic ever since I bought the car new. I have every service record for this car and was saving for the down payment for my next Honda Civic. I have now spent a significant part of the down payment for replacing the timing belt on the maintenance schedule at the end of 2008 and now had the transmission fail at 81,000 miles ($2200 thanks to a dealership goodwill discount). I feel sick about how disappointed I am in American Honda motors, about Simon Ng who was the case manager at American Honda, who never spoke to me in person, but decided from California to not negotiate anything on this repair. I had to rent a car for a week. Throughout, the dealership where I take the car was very courteous and helpful, and they helped some with the cost, but because they have no control over the way American Honda runs their business, I will no longer be loyal to Honda or the Honda Civic. Check out that the 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid already has a transmission problem on record! I've decided to put a note on all the other Honda Civic cars in the parking lot at work (there are probably 50 of them) to check out carcomplaints.com so they won't make the same mistake in their decision-making about getting rid of the 2001/2002 model years of the Honda Civic. And the only reason is that Honda is not standing by their problems with those years. I laugh cynically now when I see the Honda ads on TV.

I am the original owner of a 2001 Honda Civic EX Coupe. The car has about 150,000 miles. The car has been very reliable until now. It was maintained regularly but not always at the same dealer. I noticed some slipping and jerky acceleration so I made an appointment at my local non-Honda dealership mechanic a few days later. By the morning of the appt. the car would not go over 25 mph. He immediately recognized that it was a transmission problem. He said that the early 2000 accords and civics had a bad run with transmission problems. We had it towed to a transmission shop who reported the car had a failed transmission as a result of the filter blocking from the disintegration of the clutch/torque converter. The trans. shop also relayed that this is a very common problem in '01 Civics. My husband did some research and found out that this is the 2nd most common problem for all cars on this site with a rating of 9.2 of 10. I called Honda of America. They said that I had to have the car towed again to a dealer in order for any assistance to occur. I said that I didn't want to bother having it towed unless they were definitely going to help. They said to go ahead and tow it...that they would probably work out a parts labor split on the repairs. I had it towed to the dealership where I bought the car...approximately 30 miles away. The dealership would not work with Honda of America to get the price down from $3100. The Honda of America rep said that I should go ahead and take the car back to a private shop and that Honda would pay for the part. I asked, are you sure you can't help me get the repair done through Honda. She said she would call me back. When she called back, she said the only thing she could help with was the tow. I freaked out and finally we worked out a deal where I could have the car towed (for a third time) to a different dealer getting the price down about $1300. In order to reach this agreement, I had to engage in negotiations that were shady and slimy. I asked at least 5 times to speak with a manager to resolve my issue. She would not put me through to a manager. I asked if my rental car expenses could be covered, but she would only say that she might be able to offer "something" later but would not say what "something" would be. When I pressed the issue, she threatened to "release the call" (aka hang up on me). Our family has owned Hondas almost exclusively for the past 20 years including a new Honda Odyssey ('03), New Accord ('00), another new Accord ('87), used Civic ('86). used Prelude ('88), and a used Civic Wagon ('83). Honda should stand behind its product and issue a recall. Making customers negotiate on a case by case basis is unacceptable.

I had originally read about this problem nearly a year ago on CarComplaints. I guess I thought I would be lucky and avoid the problem, but no such luck. Early last week the car began to make an odd whining sound. A day later, the transmission started slipping. The next morning, the car would no longer shift out of first. I used to think Honda was a reliable company, but after this experience, I will never buy from them again, and will be sure that no member of my family does either!

Following the advice of other users, I called the Honda Customer Service center at 1-800-999-1009. I was assigned a case officer and told to get an estimate from a local dealer for the repair costs. Besides my personal complaint about the case officer himself who took several days before even getting a hold of me, I was told in the end that Honda would only cover a small portion of the repair ($700 putting the total repair cost at $2250). This seems ridiculous to me as well as a total PR disaster on Honda's part. With nearly 300 complaints, something is clearly wrong with the transmission and is not simply attributable to wear and tear. I really feel Honda should have stepped up to the plate and covered the entire cost of the repair considering this simple fact.

With that said, I am considering filing a class action lawsuit against Honda as was done in the state of California 2 years ago due to the same problem on other Honda models around 2000 and 2001. I am trying to get a feel if others will be supportive in this effort. Please e-mail me at HondaComplaints@gmail.com if you feel you are in the same situation.

I am a mechanic. After working on Honda's for several years, I decided to invest our money in our Honda Civic EX. This was our first real new car that my wife and I purchased together. I have maintained this car religiously. Every oil change has been done on time. All other maintenance including the automatic transmission service has been done on time. I had just done an oil change and inspection of the car the day before on Thursday. The very next day (yesterday/Friday the 23rd), my wife calls me frantically saying that our Civic just stopped accelerating while taking our 2 children to school. They were less than a mile from school so they had to run with backpacks and all the rest of the way to get there on time. I looked over the car and noticed that the transmission dipstick had popped out of the transmission and some of the fluid had leaked out. The fluid was not reddish orange like it should be. The fluid was a burnt black color. Suspicious, I got online and found this site along with others acknowledging the widespread problems with these transmissions. I called American Honda Cust Service and advised them that as a mechanic who has maintained the mechanicals of this vehicle to the very best standards, that I did not want to have to pay for a new transmission. I advised them that I could replace the transmission myself to avoid the expensive charges of the dealership, but that I wanted them to cover the cost of the transmission. I was advised that they will not deal with an outside mechanic and that they will only deal with a Honda Dealership service dept to fix the issue. The rep would not tell me what kind of compensation they could offer and that if I wanted anything at all, I would have to deal with the Dealer and a case manager would further contact me. At the mercy of Honda, I had to have the vehicle towed to the nearest Honda Dealer. I got a call today that confirmed what I already knew. TRANSMISSION FAILURE has occurred and it will cost me $2,895 to replace a transmission that has been properly maintained and only has 117k miles on it. Meanwhile, my wife is having to drive a rental car costing an additional $40/day, we were charged almost $100 for the tow truck, and the transmission won't be in for at least 3 days starting next week. HONDA NEEDS TO TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THIS WIDESPREAD PROBLEM! The exterior will be getting another complaint from us due to it's fragile nature.

I am 7 months pregnant and on my way home from work. I was at a stop light and when it turned green i pushed the gas and it just sat there! I was on a hill so my car started to coast down the hill as i tried to get over the assholes socal would not let me. The hill started to slope back up and i was stuck across two lanes! Not one person stopped to help me! I am 5'3" and 182lbs trust me you can tell i am pregnant. As i sit there and cried calling my husband uncle and brother people laughed and and honked at me to move! The only people that helped me were two junior boys waiting for the bus. My father in law is a retired mechanic so he knew right away that it was the transmission. My husband is unemployed and i am the only one working and paying the bills right now and we have an 18 month old son. This is our only car that we thought would last us a while. My husband bought it 5 years ago and not one problem! I am irate! I am going to get my car fixed free of charge because of the obvious history that these cars have!!

During rush hour traffic in the evening, the car never run after I stopped in stop light on the left side hand lane of four with heavy traffic horn me behind. Car was towed after couple of calls. The Dealer gave me a diagnosis with 22 transmission gear box parts to be replaced and almost half of car value in service cost. After investigate in the Web I found several comments in AutoBeef, but decided to ask for a transmission specialist. The final diagnosis was that automatic clutch requires replacement of clutch fluid at every 30,000 Km - I don't know when it was replaced last time. The Civic models 2001 tru 2006 has small fluid filter cavities - so more failure. A Filter set was replaced and now is running fine. It cost me 1/5 of Dealer quote. I suggest to always try third party opinion. My car had no transmission gear problem even it appear to be, but it was on clutch which is attached to gear housing.

Like every one else, I expect reliability from HONDA. I got my car from a used dealer with 108,000 miles on the day of January April 1, 2008. I bought the car with a few minor suspension problems but the engine and transmission felt good as i test drove the car. My transmission failure came early one morning while driving to work. Prior to my transmission failing, my gears would sometimes slip outta 5th while riding on the highway. The slipping gear started for me approximately a month before the tranny failed. After exiting the highway, i shift down like all good drivers. As i pulled through the light, and eventually back into 5th gear, the gear slipped from 5th and the gear no longer worked. I could ride the first 4 gears yet 5th gear was gone. I had to ride home in 4th gear. (I had to take the streets home with a speed limit of 45-50mph. being that i put almost 20,000 miles in 7months, I thought the problem came from excessive driving but after finding this site I realized that I was not the only person with this issue. Other than the tranny pissing me off, i have been somewhat satisfied with my car only because I bought it with the intentions of breaking it car down and rebuilding it as a tuner. Its just a shame that I had to spend money to fix issues that should have never happened. $1200 could have done a lot for my car other than REBUILDING a freakin tranny.

We bought this car for our 17 year old daughter because "Hondas are the most dependable car that will run for hundreds of thousands of miles". Yeah, right! Anyway, sounds like we got the lemon year for Honda. This is an ongoing problem with this vehicle, 2001 year being the worst. Torque converter blows up and trashes the transmission! Of course we took it to the Honda dealer for a diagnosis, when it was still drivable and got the "Oh, sounds like the transmission needs replaced, that'll be about $4,000!!!!" Do you think they could have told us about the problem with the torque converter before it trashed the whole tranny? Oh NO! Anyway, luckily we have mechanics in the family and they are fixing it for about half the price. Isn't that lucky, only $2000. So if you own a 2001 Civic, dump it before it hits 120K miles.

The transmission on this car gave up on me today, I had to tow it to the nearest auto shop and they diagnosed that I have a bad transmission, and will cost me $3000 to fix it. It only has 80K miles on it and is only 7 yrs old. I have filed a complaint with BetterBusinessBureau, and request everybody to do so that at least we can make a case....

here is the link-- https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/ComplaintRedirect.aspx?military=1

Company Name: American Honda Motor Company Incorporated 1919 Torrance Blvd. 500-2N-7A Torrance, CA 90501

I have experienced the same problem as many have you. I have a 2001 Honda Civic HX with 96500 miles at the time of the 1st incident (June 2008). My car was experiencing a jerky movement and I took it to the Honda dealership that was able to duplicate the problem. There was a bulletin on the Honda Recall website. They said the recall warranty was for 7 years/100k miles and since my car was outside of the warranty period, they performed all repairs �as a 100% goodwill per DPSM #25126.�

After the car broke down the 1st time, this is what they did ( condensed version): Clutch and burnishing procedures & start replacement OP CODE# 218511C

95217 Found fault codes P1873 CVT Pulley pressure valve, P1882 reverse inhibitor system, P1890 Shift control malfunctions present. Replaced transvalve body, filter, & programmed PCM/CVT with new updated software. Performed road test & operation of system is now normal.

On October 19,2008, my car broke down and I was unable to drive it home. I had AAA tow it to the dealership thinking it was related to the transmission problem. Here is there finding and repair work:

99082 Found #1 15amp fuse under dash blown. Fuse supplies power to the ignition coils. Found wiring for engine harness shorted. Performed engine harness wiring repair short to ground. Operation of system is now normal. No codes stored & no transmission issues are present.

On December 20th, 2009, my car broke down coming home from work. The �check engine� light came on and the illuminated green around the �D� started flashing. I immediately exited the freeway to a safe area and called AAA. AAA said this is the last tow for the year because I have exhausted the 4 free tows per year ( I used AAA for another car). I had the car towed to the dealership that night and left it in the early morning drop-off. The next morning, the service advisor called me and said the mechanic was able to duplicate the problem. This is his finding:

102099 Transmission INOP technician verified transmission concern on road test. Technician performed trouble shooting, found transmission required for replacement. At this point, the service manager had to contact Honda which took a which had to review my case and determine if they were going to �authorize� a remanufactured transmission. I week later and the service manager said HONDA OK�d the replacement.

Technician installed Honda reman transmission, performed four wheel alignment. All ok at this time. OK American Honda.

After the road test, the technician found a leak in the left axle seal. Technician installed L/F inner axle seal. Submit under defective parts warr.

That is my story and I felt compelled to inform other Honda owners. This car has been very good to me when it�s working. I keep all of the maintenance up to date and even change the oil every 5k miles. I get close to 41 miles per gallon on the highway and this is why it�s my commuter car because I drive close to 400 miles per week to work. When it�s not working, it�s a pain. I suggest everyone that has a problem with their Honda to contact the service department and request a �Goodwill� repair.