Honda Car Forum

Hello, My daughter just purchased an 02 Honda Civic with 110,000 miles,
4 cyl. and an auto transmission. The car has been running great until
yesterday when it would rev up between second and third gear. She had
me drive it this morning and it took about a second to shift from
second to third so I told her to take it easy till I checked around on
it. Checked the fluid and it is full and looks clean. She called about
two miles from the house and the transmission is now not doing
anything. No forward and no reverse. There were no strange noises or
grinding from the tranny it just quit pulling. Any ideas?

Dave wrote:

> Hello, My daughter just purchased an 02 Honda Civic with 110,000 miles,
> 4 cyl. and an auto transmission. The car has been running great until
> yesterday when it would rev up between second and third gear. She had
> me drive it this morning and it took about a second to shift from
> second to third so I told her to take it easy till I checked around on
> it. Checked the fluid and it is full and looks clean. She called about
> two miles from the house and the transmission is now not doing
> anything. No forward and no reverse. There were no strange noises or
> grinding from the tranny it just quit pulling. Any ideas?

Was the fluid ever changed? If yes, did you put genuine Honda fluid in it?

Dave wrote:
> Hello, My daughter just purchased an 02 Honda Civic with 110,000 miles,
> 4 cyl. and an auto transmission. The car has been running great until
> yesterday when it would rev up between second and third gear. She had
> me drive it this morning and it took about a second to shift from
> second to third so I told her to take it easy till I checked around on
> it. Checked the fluid and it is full and looks clean. She called about
> two miles from the house and the transmission is now not doing
> anything. No forward and no reverse. There were no strange noises or
> grinding from the tranny it just quit pulling. Any ideas?
>
you're going to need to pull the diagnostic code from the ecu on this
one. it could be something relatively cheap & simple like a solenoid or
even loose lead connection. or it could be a new transmission. the
code should tel you pretty much what you need to know. a reader costs
less than $100 these days - comparable to what the dealer will charge to
do exactly the same thing, and you'll then own the tool.

Dave wrote:
> Hello, My daughter just purchased an 02 Honda Civic with 110,000 miles,
> 4 cyl. and an auto transmission. The car has been running great until
> yesterday when it would rev up between second and third gear. She had
> me drive it this morning and it took about a second to shift from
> second to third so I told her to take it easy till I checked around on
> it. Checked the fluid and it is full and looks clean. She called about
> two miles from the house and the transmission is now not doing
> anything. No forward and no reverse. There were no strange noises or
> grinding from the tranny it just quit pulling. Any ideas?
>


yeesh. a 3 year old car with 110k miles on it? sure hope it was cheap!
sounds like the torque converter on its shot.

S.S. wrote:
> Dave wrote:
>
> > Hello, My daughter just purchased an 02 Honda Civic with 110,000 miles,
> > 4 cyl. and an auto transmission. The car has been running great until
> > yesterday when it would rev up between second and third gear. She had
> > me drive it this morning and it took about a second to shift from
> > second to third so I told her to take it easy till I checked around on
> > it. Checked the fluid and it is full and looks clean. She called about
> > two miles from the house and the transmission is now not doing
> > anything. No forward and no reverse. There were no strange noises or
> > grinding from the tranny it just quit pulling. Any ideas?
>
> Was the fluid ever changed? If yes, did you put genuine Honda fluid in it?

My wife knows the people that purchased this car new and the only
thing they have ever done to it was change the motor oil every few
thousand miles. They have had zero problems with it. Really has me
puzzled and of course all the Honda service centers are closed today.

I am hoping for something simple (aren't we all). The fluid looked,
smelled and felt good and I know the car has never been mistreated. I
have done a lot of reading today on the Honda cars and I see a lot of
people complaining of transmission problems. It was purchased cheap
enough that if it does need a couple thousand in repairs we can do it
and dump it to get a Ford or Chevy that I know will go 160 or 170K
without any big surprises.

Dave wrote:

> I am hoping for something simple (aren't we all). The fluid looked,
> smelled and felt good and I know the car has never been mistreated.

You cannot go by looks and smell alone. Since you said in your other post
that you are aware only of oil changes, I am NOT going to assume that the
tranny fluid was ever changed. The interval should be 2 years or 30,000
miles, whichever comes first.


> I
> have done a lot of reading today on the Honda cars and I see a lot of
> people complaining of transmission problems.

Those tranny problems are limited to a handful of Hondas with V6 engines
mated to 4-speed automatics (from about '98 to '02). Honda extended the
warranty on the tranny on those cars to 7 years or 100,000 miles, or
something like that. Newer models have 5-speed automatics which, as far as
I know, have been fine even despite a recall a couple years ago. When mated
with 4-bangers, Honda auto trannies are bulletproof. I have never heard of
a tranny failure on a 4-cylinder Honda that was properly maintained.


> It was purchased cheap
> enough that if it does need a couple thousand in repairs we can do it
> and dump it to get a Ford or Chevy that I know will go 160 or 170K
> without any big surprises.

I hate to break this to you, but Fords and Chevys (especially non-V8 models)
usually experience more non-routine problems than Hondas do, especially when
they are at least 5 years old and the mileage gets up there. You'd be lucky
to get that kind of mileage with few problems. In fact, Fords have a higher
rate of transmission failures than Hondas do. But unlike Honda, Ford
refuses to acknowledge and fix the problem.

Dave wrote:
> Hello, My daughter just purchased an 02 Honda Civic with 110,000 miles,
> 4 cyl. and an auto transmission. The car has been running great until
> yesterday when it would rev up between second and third gear. She had
> me drive it this morning and it took about a second to shift from
> second to third so I told her to take it easy till I checked around on
> it. Checked the fluid and it is full and looks clean. She called about
> two miles from the house and the transmission is now not doing
> anything. No forward and no reverse. There were no strange noises or
> grinding from the tranny it just quit pulling. Any ideas?
>

-----------------------

She may be able to drive it a bit if she starts out in D1, then manually
shifts it. You need to be sure that the idiot lights are all working.
Perform the 'Lamp Check' as described in the Owner's manual to be sure
the Malfunction Indicator light isn't actually trying to tell you
something. 110,000 miles it 177,000 Km. I'd have changed that tranny
fluid at least three times (twice each time) by now if i was the
Original owner.

Let us know how it goes. 'Curly'

motsco_ _ wrote:
>
> She may be able to drive it a bit if she starts out in D1, then manually
> shifts it. You need to be sure that the idiot lights are all working.
> Perform the 'Lamp Check' as described in the Owner's manual to be sure
> the Malfunction Indicator light isn't actually trying to tell you
> something. 110,000 miles it 177,000 Km. I'd have changed that tranny
> fluid at least three times (twice each time) by now if i was the
> Original owner.
>
> Let us know how it goes. 'Curly'

I tried the different positions on the shifter and it does noting.
Does not even try to pull forward or reverse. When I drove it this
morning it did not slip even between second and third. It was like it
was going into freewheel for a second then catching good and solid.
When it quit on her this morning it had shifted from second into the
freewheeling and never shifted up or down again.
Just talked to the original owner a few hours ago. He said he did all
the oil changes himself but had the Honda dealer do the transmission
servicing at 30, 60 and the last at 90k (give or take a thousand) so it
has been serviced.
Was kind of hoping this might be something someone had experienced
before and could give us an idea of what to expect from the dealer.
I will see what happens next week and post the results. Thanks guys

Letting everyone know what happened. Just got off the phone with
Cottman transmission and he told me it was a solenoid that had failed
and burnt up the transmission. 14 hundred bucks. A fail safe of some
kind sounds like a good idea on some of these components now days. I
guess ya cant win them all.