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Transmission Failure
2001 Honda Civic (Page 26 of 35)
This problem may be covered under warranty. Ask your Honda dealer.
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.
9.3
really awful- Typical Repair Cost:
- $2,320
- Average Mileage:
- 104,800 miles
- Total Complaints:
- 682 complaints
Most Common Solutions:
- replaced transmission (261 reports)
- rebuilt whole transmission (154 reports)
- not sure (142 reports)
- get Honda to cover the cost (54 reports)
- buy a different car...can't afford the repair (24 reports)
- break down the transmission and fix (15 reports)
transmission problem
Helpful websites
- 2001 Civic DIY Trans Rebuild - here is a forum on rebuilding the auto trans. The clutch disks fail and slip, then wear and clog the internal filter
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Just like all the other cases reported here, the transmission on my 2001 Honda Civic just went out without warning. I do not want to waste time describing the details. Rather, I want to make suggestions on what to do about it. In my case, I have always written to newspapers' editors on current news items so I firmly believe that the pen is a mighty sword. The biggest regional newspaper in my area is called the San Jose Mercury News and they have a columnist named Mr. Roadshow. I am going to write to him about this and hopefully my letter will be printed and if enough people respond, maybe the Mercury will do some kind of investigative report on it. When I called Honda Corporate this morning to open up a case for claiming the repair costs ($2800), the tow charges ($76) and the rental car ($50/day), I made sure that they know I am working with the newspaper. I made a big deal about them taking down my contact information and I repeated every bit of information they gave me. I am going to do a journal on the whole ordeal and make my story into a case study for Mr. Roadshow. Other things I can think of doing is calling a radio station or a TV station. My local Channel 7 (ABC) has some consumer advocacy program called "7 On Your Side". Contacting the Consumers' Union may also help. But, one thing for sure, I will never buy another Honda. It will be Toyota and nothing else for me from now on.
Update from Jun 6, 2009: This is a (very belated) addendum to my posting on July 11, 2008 (#182)
San Jose Mercury News' columnist Mr. Road Show said he has not heard anything about the 2001 Honda Civic being especially prone to the problem (my thinking is that the average mileage for this problem to appear is 96K so it will become more obvious right about now, when more and more cars hit that mileage). He did forward my message to two other columnists (one on consumer complaint, another on technical auto issues) but neither of them chose to pursue the subject. I also called up some transmission shops locally to see if they noticed an abnormally large number of 2001 Honda Civic being brought in for transmission repair. Unfortunately, none of them noticed such.
In any case, I did file a claim with American Honda in Torrance and started a "file" with them. After some back-and-forth communications by phone and fax, mostly in proving to them my Honda was well maintained all along, they agreed to "share" the costs. They told me that: #1, the repair would be coded as "warranty", which will greatly reduce the total costs, and #2, Corporate Honda will share 50% of the reduced costs. I thought it was pretty fair so I said "thank you". However, when it came time to settle the bill, I was asked to pay $1376, a little more than half of the original quoted "non-warranty" repair!!! Since my son has been paying $55 for a rental car EVERY DAY since this whole incident started and it was already day 10, we decided to just paid the amount and picked up the car.
Afterward, I did call up American Honda again to ask why the "warranty repair" cost exactly the same as "non-warranty repair" but they said the pricing is up to the individual dealership and I should take it up with them. They promised to pay 50% and they did and that's that. I called the dealership about 6 times before I finally got to talk to someone live. They said the original quote they gave was actually for "warranty repair" and that "non-warranty repair" would be twice as much. That is not the way I remember it but since I could not prove my case, I had to let it go at that.
Also, my son said that for the first few weeks after it was fixed, it still felt very sluggish and made funny noises when the car was started and taken into first gear. Now that it has been 5 months, it is running OK.
All in all, it was just a very unpleasant situation. We paid for the tow truck, 10 days of rental car and 50% of the so-called warranty repair -- almost $2,000!
I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER buy another Honda.
- Laura C., Palo Alto, CA, US