Ive been on phone with Honda cust. serv. all day. transmission failed. they are going to try fill and drain 3 times and see if helps and check for metal. ive found so many people with similar issues and complaints about same thing. reason i think we all go with Honda and pay little extra is quality. If they don't stand behind this ill never buy another Honda again or take my car to the dealership who has been up to now only people to work on my car. i also filed a complaint with the nhtsa. and filed complaint with honda and had my case refereed to a regional person and im asking for compensation or do partial pay of maybe 200 to get a warranty on part. dont really want a used tranny but don't have much choice

I had a check engine light come on, which the code was revealed to be a P0741 Torque Converter Clutch Circuit Performance or Stuck Off. I called the local Honda Dealership. The service rep was reportedly not aware of any transmission problems with the 2003 Accord, but knew immediately that the code signified transmission replacement. She went on to say the re-manufactured transmission would cost approximately $3,300 to $3,500 to replace and would be warranted for 36,000 miles. She also said that Honda America had limited any financial help on this issue beyond 5 years or 75,000 miles. She was surprisingly well-versed on this issue with respect to her original representation that this model year had not been problematic. In fairness to her, she may just know that a P0741 code spells doom for transmissions in general???

I am going to attempt to contact Honda America to see if there is any relief given what appears to be a fairly pervasive problem. Meanwhile, I have not scheduled the replacement yet, seeking a better answer and the end to this cold sweat of disbelief...

Ok, not going to beat a dead horse. As everyone else posted, the transmissions slips out and then won't go back into gear. Contacted Airport Honda, Alcoa TN and they said I had to get a new transmission, and when they say new they mean a re-manufactured one (used) for $3200 plus tax. It will take AT LEAST 2 weeks to get one. One of the other posters/complainers mentioned that they had to open a plant just to redo these transmissions.

One person mentioned calling a lawyer in New York. Her number (212)566-4356 and please report this problem! As more people join the movement, the more likely Honda will have to just fix this.

Also, on top of getting your name on the list with the lawyer, let the government know about this known safety hazard! My wife was stuck in a 3 lane road, stranded....this is an issue that needs to be addressed! Please take the 6-10mins to fill out a complaint at:

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm

I can't believe my 2003 Honda Accord, V6, has transmission failure! I have just under 109000 miles on my car.....I totally did not expect a problem like this....this soon! Also, I'm surprised to see that I'm not the only person having this problem!

About 2 weeks ago, I noticed my car slipping out of gear.....my foot was on the gas pedal, but there was no acceleration, and the engine is revving. It happened a couple of times over a 2 week period, but then today it happened about 30 times over a five mile stretch. I was driving on the side of the road, with my hazards on, letting go of the gas pedal and stepping back on to the gas pedal trying to get it to shift into any gear for power. So after about 30 times and finally getting to my destination.....I was then thinking....Now how am I going to get home???

I took my car into the Honda dealer today, where I have all my car maintenance done, religiously I might add, and the service guy at the dealer said 'HE'S NEVER HEARD OF ANY TRANSMISSION PROBLEMS FOR THE 2003, V6, HONDA ACCORD.' Because of the fact that I've taken my car into the dealer for everything else in the past....and have developed a 'certain' level of trust over the years seeing the same people all the time.....AND then having this problem with my car now, AND finding this website with the same type of transmission complaints before I went into the dealer to talk with this guy.....I can honestly say....I feel that this guy was hosing me!....if you know what I mean?!?!

To explain further, I called that American Honda number, explained my problem, got a case number. They then told me they would call my dealer for me and "brief" them of my situation. So, by the time I got my car into the dealership service center, it seemed that they all knew I was coming, they had their story to tell me before they looked at my car, once they did look at my car, they confirmed it was transmission failure, they gave me prices etc. I pointed out to the service guy that I found many complaints regarding my car's make and model having transmission failure problems, I mentioned the goodwill, out-of-warranty compensation.....I mentioned why isn't this a recall??? .....I mentioned why isn't this a class-action lawsuit???.....and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do.

The service guy told me he was "briefed" of my situation....which leaves me feeling like....they had plenty of time to get their story together.

Why isn't this a class-action suit yet??? The preceding models have class action lawsuits for their transmission problems.....and I believe we are having similar if not the same types of transmission problems. Seriously, why isn't this a recall???

The service guy today told me 'he sees people come in all the time with transmission problems....of preceding years models....but that doesn't include the 2003 model' ....I don't know....it seems to be about that time.....I think they'll start to pour in.....it just takes time for everyone else to catch up in mileage.....

I initially found this site when I was quoted a 4000 for parts and labor to replace the transmission. It was shocking to see how many people have had the exact same experience that I am having. Honda customer service was for the most part attempting to be helpful. Albert Chin was handling my case and to make a long story short it took almost a month to get a final offer from corporate. He often times would not call back when he said he would. Also he wanted copies of all records any work done on the transmission. Since I was the second owner I could not provide that. He said that I had to prove that I have maintained the transmission. During my attempt to find all documents regarding the transmission, I found out the transmission had been replaced in 2004 because it failed after only one year. Therefore in the 6 year life of this car it has had 2 transmissions fail. WTF According to corporate this car is "technically not considered a lemon, but it sure is sour. This whole situation is very disappointing because I had a 1990 accord before this car and the original transmission failed just last year.

Since I lacked documentation and I guess I have not bought enough Honda cars to be considered a loyal customer (I have owned 3 hondas) the best they would offer was 10% off the total cost. My husband was really irked with the offer and expressed that to our case worker, at which point the case worker said he was advised to rescind the offer if we were not happy with it (really great customer service). Luckily (I guess) the general manager of downtown L.A. Honda was kind enough to offer to do the job for 2500ish. So a month after we initially took the car in to the dealer for repair we are finally getting the car back today (theoretically)

Honda just isn't the company they once were and I will not be buying another car from them again.

The transmission failed in this car, which has been well maintained and never abused. It was in to the dealer for a recall to have some modification done during my warranty period, and the required maintenance was performed on this vehicle. Honda was not helpful at all, they wanted me to pay up front to have the dealer replace the transmission at a cost of $3,500 plus applicable taxes with no guarantee that they would assist in any way with the cost. I refused to put in another Honda transmission that was same as the one that had just failed prematurely; one which had a 20k warranty only. So, I bought a used transmission at a wrecker, one that had been rebuilt by a transmission shop and had 30k on it. It is still working fine and I now have 165,000 on the car.

I feel that I was not treated fairly by Honda and I would not recommend that anyone buy from Honda since when you have a problem they were not very easy to deal with. This transmission expired only 10k after the warranty was over, as a tradesman who builds and races cars, I know a great deal about transmissions and I am confident that this failure was a result of a long term build up of wear material that finally plugged up the fluid passage in the transmission causing complete failure of the unit. Honda never even offered to look at the old transmission which I still have at home.

The other issue I have had with this vehicle was with the brakes. They have been replaced multiple times, three times up front both pads and rotors, four times in rear.

Sorry for a long message and for possible errors, English is not my native language.

I have a 2003 Honda Accord LX V6 automatic. Bought it 5 years ago by spending all the money I had earned during grad school years, thought it should be a reliable car…

My story started by me taking my car to Midas for 90K maintenance where the guys told me the car is in "perfect shape", only the front tires need to be replaced soon. Two weeks after that, the car transmission broke down – the same symptoms as described here: the car would not shift from 2nd gear up, the transmission fluid was burned. I brought it to Midas, Midas took it to a local Honda dealership, where it is right now. I was quoted $3400 to fix the problem.

I looked up the problem on the Internet, found this forum and other websites and called American Honda and asked for a Goodwill Repair. Talked to a guy called Ray I think Hasini was his last name, or something like that. He has asked me to collect all the original invoices and receipts for all of my maintenance for the past 5 years. Believe it or not, I have done so, for all but a couple of maintenance's and faxed it over to him!

Long story short, he at first offered to cover 50% of the transmission parts (not labor). Then he called me and said that he had called a mechanic (Mike) at the Honda dealership and had changed his mind and nothing will be covered. When I asked him what had changed and why he changed his mind, he said the car was at $96K mileage and the warranty has expired. When I tried to explain to him that he had known (and even had told me) about all this already - before asking to fax additional papers and that he had already made his 50% offer knowing this – he just said he made his final decision and would not change his mind. Interestingly, I called Mike after that and Mike told me he has not heard from American Honda in a while, so either Mike or Ray were not telling me the truth – you have to love Honda people.

I tried then to talk to Ray's manager, "Alfred Chen". This guy was constantly pushing me and twisting and bending my words, trying to find all the reasons not to offer a good will repair. For instance, he was saying I should have repaired some problems the dealership has discovered and I had to explain to him, time and time again, that, Midas told me that the "car was in perfect shape" just two weeks before the problem and that I could not fix anything since nothing has been found. But he just would keep on twisting and bending this for quite a while.

I was at lunch when Alfred called me and did not have the paperwork or a Honda Manual on me, unlike him. He used it by lying to me that according to the Manual I was supposed to do a transmission fluid change at 30K and have not done so till my 90K maintenance. That was a lie. Firstly, the Manual says the first change should be done at 60K and not 30K. Secondly, I have done it at 60K, ironically at a Honda dealership! Honda rejected a goodwill repair.

I found this site only after I had transmission failure yesterday on the interstate during rush hour traffic. There really isn't much more I can say that others have not said already. I bought my 2003 Honda Accord in September '06 from my cousin who had bought it new. I basically went to accelerate to pass someone who was going 60mph (the speed limit was 70mph) and my car hit about 6,000rpms but would not get past 40mph! I had to pull off to the side and turn off my car. I was okay the rest of the way on the interstate, but when I pulled off at my exit it happened again. I turned off the car again and restarted it to get to the traffic light. I basically went about 5mph the rest of the way to get to work. I couldn't even pull into a parking spot without restarting my car again!

I had the car towed to a reputable Aamco shop. My cousin has a local mechanic shop and recommended this transmission guy. They told me that I was looking at a complete transmission rebuild! They quoted me $1,600 low end and about $2,200 worst case scenario.

I called Honda Customer Service and basically they told me that there was nothing they could do for me since the recall work had been done in '04 (a bandaid fix if you ask me!) and because of the mileage on my car. My father will be talking to the local Honda dealership (which I've already had a rough history with) today and I am really not sure if anything else can be done. I may just be forking over $1,600.

I am quite disappointed in Honda because everyone sings their praises. I will not buy a Honda again.

Update from Aug 10, 2009: So, an update... I had the transmission rebuilt at AAMCO in March and paid about $2,200 when it was all said and done. I have a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty with them. Over the July 4th weekend, my fiance and I were driving down to South Carolina for the weekend and my engine light came on. The car seemed to be running okay though, and we kept driving. It smelled like something was burning when we were idling, but we couldn't see any leaks, etc. We made it back to Tennessee alright after the weekend, but were still having issues with the smell and weird jerking sometimes. We took the car to my cousin and of course the indicator light was off at this point. We had the code checked in SC before we left and I cannot remember what it said at this point. Anyway... my cousin couldn't find anything wrong with the car besides the smelly transmission fluid.

The car was running alright until yesterday. I was on my way back to TN after being in Ohio for the weekend and I noticed my RPMs jump up to around 4 and back down to 2. I started freaking out and all of a sudden my TCS light, triangle/exclamation light, and engine lights came on! I pulled off the first exit (middle of nowhere) and parked at a Chevron station. I called my cousin during this time and he was telling me what to look at. I popped the hood and there was smoke coming from around the transmission fluid dip stick. There was oily fluid all over the place. The dip stick was also up significantly. A friendly person came and helped me out a little and I got the card of a local mechanic. He came and test drove the car and at this point the car had cooled off enough to where only the engine light was on.

Basically, he towed the car to his shop, I found a place to stay for the night and it is being towed to the closest AAMCO as I type this update! I've done some more research and it looks like others have had this same follow up problem after a tranny rebuild on this make and model of car. It's like the line pressure is overheating and spewing transmission fluid out of the dip stick. When the mechanic ran the code, he got a 717 code (speed sensor problem). My cousin seems to think that it does have something to do with the fluid overheating, etc. Someone else mentioned something on here about pressure solenoids being destroyed. I think that may be what it is.

We'll see what happens...

We bought the 2003 Accord EX-V6 for my wife from Herb Chambers in January 2003. I immediately brought it to a local dealership (Bernardi Honda) and complained about the sluggish shifting from 1st into 2nd gear. Of course I was told that this was normal and everything was ok.

In 2004, at 28k miles, we brought the car in for a recall of the oil jet kit. I complained again about transmission issues. I still have the paperwork, my complaint in the document is recorded as:

"Customer states perform 2nd gear inspection, possible lack of lubrication during certain driving conditions, inspected transmission - all check ok."

In the fall of 2008, the transmission was serviced a Honda dealership and the transmission fluid was replaced.

Today the car has 130k miles on it and the transmission went. It shifts into first, and that is it. No reverse, no higher gears. Now my suspicion that something was wrong with the torque converter from the start seems to have been proven correct.

I have yet to contact Honda about who will pay for this repair. We paid thousands in various other repairs over the last years and we are

I bought this car in September of 07 for 15k with 59k miles. A year and a half later and 25k miles the transmission goes out. When it happened I was upset but thought it happens and I was going to go about my business and get it fixed. Then, I found this website and 131 other complaints! The same problem, same car, same avg. mileage. Now i'm very disappointed, I bought this car for the reliability. That's why the name Honda adds 7k dollars to the cars value is for Reliability. I could have bought a Ford but I spent an extra 7k for Reliability. Next I take it to the dealership, they tell me to contact the corporate office and they will most likely take care of me because this is a common problem with the 03 accord. The district manager at corporate was rude and basically told me that since I don't spend a lot of money at Honda I am not an important customer. He told me they would not cover any of the cost. I am extremely disappointed in the product and even more disappointed with the customer service I recieved with Honda Corporate. After this experience I will not be taking any business to Honda ever again. Its very sad to see as I strongly believe in the Honda product, but I am very disappointed that Honda in represented by someone who can not make the moral and ethically correct decision to take care of the customer. This is an obvious manufacturer defect and I will be waiting for my recall paperwork.

As all other complaints about the transmission failures I think Honda needs to fix something. They know of the problem but do little to help. I bought my car used with 65K miles on it and at 99285 miles hada small shift problem. I took it to Honda who charged me $200 to change the fluid and then tell me I needed a transmission @ $3500. I contacted Honda hot line and they said they would do a good will repair if I paid $2400 (plus tax of course) they would cover the rest. Since I was not the original owner and I did not have it serviced at 30K and 60K they would not do any more. Still sits in yard and I am still trying to get Honda to belly up to the bar.

I'm another transmission failure victim of the 2003 Honda Accord EX V6. The transmission started slipping at around 100K miles and then failed at 102K. Honda agreed to replace the transmission under a one-time goodwill split of 40% to Honda and 60% to me. While they had no legal obligation to offer this, it is obvious that Honda is well aware of the problems and is trying to limit expense by waiting for problems to surface instead of recalling and replacing the transmission. The failure of these transmissions could cause a major accident and possibly someone's life and it will end up costing much more to Honda.

Car winds out (4K RPM) before it will shift from 2nd to 3rd. Reputable shop found nothing with computer diagnostic, but acknowledged the problem (for $100) and claimed there was a Honda warranty extension for the transmission - not sure how they determined that. When I called my local dealer, they claimed there was no recall or warranty coverage. So I Googled the problem and Voila! - there are hundreds of similar complaints. I scheduled to take it in to the dealer tomorrow. I will report back...................

After owning 5 Honda's, I was really disappointed with my 2003 Accord V-6. With only 39,000 miles, the transmission slipped in the first three gears and jerked violently as if it down shifted on its own after exiting a major highway to the point where I was lucky to have been wearing my seatbelt. After barely making it to my local Honda dealership, I was told the Torque Converter was bad. I insisted to Honda after reading the complaints on this website that there is a design problem with this transmission, they insisted this wasn't the case. After much complaining, Honda USA finally agreed to pay all but $600.00 and needless to say, this expense really hurt. Honda should recall the transmission but obviously refuses to do so. I am VERY disappointed and probably will sadly end my relationship with Honda.

I was taveling 200 miles on business yesterday (one way) when I passed through a small town and began to accelerate as I was leaving the town but the car would not cooperate. I turned back to the small town because something wasn't right and parked at a gas station to ask for help. I was told to go to a local business so they could check it out but the car would not go into reverse or drive. I waited a while then the car drove fine so I took it to the local business. They test drove the car and confirmed that it was slipping in and out of gear and that the transmission fluid was black and it smelled. In addition, I had the car repaired the week before (new rear break pads, tire rotation, oil change -when the dealer called to tell me I should replace the transmission fluid because it was very dark - which I did).

I cancelled my work appointment and I continued on my journey after being told I could make another 50 miles to a Honda dealer. (This small town did not have a tow agency available) I made it (barely) and was told they would put in a "used" transmission for a total of $2327 with 120 day warranty (yes 120 days!). I asked what the price would be for a rebuilt transmission and was told it would be another $1,000 for a total of $3200 (ish). I then was told by a friend that this website was out there and I then called the 800 number.

I had the car towed home last night ($466 for 200 miles) after paying the local dealer $11 for car rental (two hours) and $83.38 for driving the car to tell me I was correct in my assumption that I needed a new transmission. Total cost thus far: $560!

I called the 800 number and was given a case number and a recommendation to take it to my local dealer who will do another diagnostic assessment (and charge me if I don't have the repair done there). I took the car to a local tranny company and they diagnosed it for "free" then I took it to the local Honda dealer and informed them of the whole story - they said they would get back to me with details later. I did get a quote from a reputable company about the rebuilt transmission cost and they recommended that I make sure they (Honda) don't inflate the price. (I am not sure I can prevent that from happening). I am also concerned about the warranty miles/time when it is all done.

I am basically in a holding pattern right now and I am hopeful that I can get my dealer to pay a significant portion of the cost. I too, loved my Honda, kept up with repairs and servicing etc. I intended to keep this car for several more years; however with this impending issue I am not so sure... Time will tell...