coupe99vtec

Hey, around tuesday last week i started noticing my car slipping a little through all the gears. I am at school 8 hrs away from home. A guy i met up here who used to work at honda told me it could be from dirty tranny fluid. I was able to drain and replace about 3 qts and noticed an assload of shavings on the drain plug. I drove a total of maybe an hour between thursday when i changed some of the fluid and saterday. slipping still continued. I went to the mall closest to this middle of nowhere in georgia college, which was about an hour and 15 minutes away on on sunday.

On the way back i got off the highway and got to a red light, leaving the light the car slipped a lot and finally caught first. at around 15 mph it was ready for 2nd, but redlined and bounced off the limiter 2 times before i got my foot off the gas, and finally caught 2nd, same problem with 3rd, when it needed to shift to 4th it could not make up its mind about wether it wanted to be in 3 or 4, so i took it out of Drive and put it in the D3 position and drove to walmart. I checked the fluid, and it was slighly below the min line. topped it off with the unopened 4th qt of fluid i had.

I let it run in a little bit then shut the car off while i had a smoke and threw out the dirty paper towels to a trash can. After starting the car, it would barely hit reverse to get out of the parking spot. Then shifting to drive, it would not move, i let it sit waiting for my friend that i met here to tow it for me. (the one who used to work for honda) Stepping out of his truck, "Damn dude wtf were u burning." he started it, wow, reverse worked, put it in drive, it worked! Good i can make it back to campus! Driving down, same shifting problems, woud not catch for squat. coming around a slow turn, and giving gas, nothing, stuck again. towed it the half mile to campus.

Today i talked to me Caterpillar instructor who told me to take it to automotive department, no idea what they are going to do about it.
As it stands right now, my buddy and i think its a slipping clutch (the burnt clutch smell), it will sorta catch gears when cold, i mixed decron III with honda fluid, which might have broken down any cooling chemicals.

I would just like to know if anyone has had similar problems, and what i should do? If i need to replace the entire tranny, I'd rather do a convertion to manual, rather than deal with POS autos. Besides, i kinda beat on it a lot.

Thanks in advance for any (helpful/useful) input.

chairlifttypes

what year is this civ? cuz my friend has an 01 and he had the a problem similar to this where it wouldnt shift back down, he ended up needing a brand new tranny but it was covered under the warranty so I'd check with the dealer about that or a honda place

MG9783

I had a similar problem last year with my 01 Civic. I was driving to school and about a mile away from the entrance the tranny started to slip alot. FInally when I came into school I had to stop completely and the car would refuse to go back into first. None of my gears worked. I even tried to hit reverse into the parking lot and that didn't work either. Ended up having the car towed to Honda and they replaced the whole transmission and it got covered under warranty. The only thing with me is that I never beat on the car so it was kind of strange that this happened. The dealer told me that the trannys on the 01 civics were defective and tended to overheat too much so it was just a matter of time before this happened. This happened two years ago and I havent had a problem since with the new tranny.

Redline96LX

I know you may not like this....but consider an aftermarket transmission cooler?

coupe99vtec

ok... ****...
So i'm 8 hrs away from home, i need to leave in less than 3 weeks to go for my internship. I have about $230 to last me until i get home and a week till my parents get back.

I dont't have a warranty on it anymore, its an 02 built in canada that my parents baught at a hertz rental car sales lot.

Think it will be cheaper to have it rebuilt by honda? i'm trying to find a place here that is capable of rebuilding it for me here, so far no luck, car shops refuse to do anything further than completely tranny fluid flush and filter.

Otherwise i'm gunna seriously put thought into going ahead and getting a tranny conversion. I've seen people just drop off the clutch at idle rev limiter in 1st gear a few times with no seen aftereffects.

Again right now i'm money minded, but if both run me about the same i'll most likely end up opening another bank account and see if i can get this on a credit card, one of those 15 months 0% apr type deals. Maybe american express blue, lol.

TrueZen

This is what you get for not driving a manual. Factory auto tranmissions are crap, never use them. About the best you could do without rebuilding the tranmission would be changing the auto tranmission fluid, beyond that, you're screwed. $230 is nothing compared to what it'll cost you to either do a auto-manual conversion or even rebuilding the auto. As far as the first choice, you still need a manual tranmission, shifter cables/rods, and the shifter box/rod. Even if you did the conversion yourself you probably still wouldn't have the money just for the parts. I forget if you still had it under warranty or not, but the best bet is that it still is, or else you'll have to pay a hell of a lot to get it fixed. Always drive manual

Redline96LX

dude, shut up man before you realize what your saying.

Look, this particular tranny had a problem. I will admit Honda manual transmissions are pretty bullet proof (ONLY problem is when street racers get a DX model with a m/t and race it and the 1-2 synchro wears out after 100k).
The automatic Honda transmissions will go 150k at least, but may die then if you never change fluid or if you abuse it, dont maintanence it enough.

Wait....
I reread what you typed.
THERES your problem. I just said that Honda a/t cars will wear is ABUSED. You have a USED RENTAL CAR?
"Buying a used rental car is like getting it on with a *****. Why would you want to ride something THAT many other people stuck there key into?"
As a rule of thumb, because its a rental car, people abuse the **** out of em. My friend is a SUPER caution drivers but he got a Chrysler Sebring as a rental and ****** offroaded with it.

Not the simples option, but DO consider a auto-to-manual swap. Better MPG, simpler, last longer...and manuals are more fun. They just are.

For now, get the OLDER style automatic transmisson fluid. The shifts will be harder, but the transmission may grab a bit better, and youll be a little more likely to get home.

coupe99vtec

Right now that car won't move, smells like burnt clutch out the *** (now that my nose isn't stuffed up anymore i can smell it) when i start and try to run it, the only gear that even engages is reverse, and you have to floor it to make it move as fast as it usually moves just letting off the break. Last nite i went to a shop where i was told it would be more expensive for them to rebuild, then to find a used tranny. They do not do conversions, so they referenced me to another place that may, i'l try find another ride to go there today after class or during my lunch break or something. Gunna try get some quotes from them, then head to a bank near my school and see if i cna open an account and credit the money, i'll be leaving around the 10th of october, and starting internship on the 18th, only getting paid $9 and hour before taxes, but working 40 hrs a week i MIGHT be able to pay it off intime for those no-interest periods.

Redline96LX

This may sound like blasphempy, but.....how attached are you to that car?

I'm just sayin, according to...well everyone, the 7th gen civic with its D17 is considered too much of a comprimise, too utilitarian to try to sell to everyone, and that D17 is considered Honda's weakest motor ever built, will be okay I'm sure bone stock, but I guess the automatic transmission isnt any better.

Not to be insulting, but your parents actually bought a USED rental car?

P.S. I havent found a car rental place in the US that rents Hondas.

coupe99vtec

try looking up hertz, it was a hertz rental place. and yes, they baught a rental car, had something like 27-28K miles on it for around $11500 price range. In all honesty i would have been happier with a used 240sx for $2000 then 5 times the expense for a POS. Found out this one was even made it canada....

hondaluver

my tranny fucked up... so i got a swap...

pon55

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hondaluver &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my tranny fucked up... so i got a swap...</TD></TR></TABLE>
A BIG swap LOL

coupe99vtec

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hondaluver &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my tranny fucked up... so i got a swap...</TD></TR></TABLE>

How much did it cost you?

did give you a manual dash, ecu, console? other than looking at the vin, can you tell it was ever auto?

rac_one7el

Ive had similar problems with my d17a1 auto tranny aswell. I drive an 01 Acura el(us spec 4 door civic ex, just more stylish body). I have 180,000 kms and my tranny has been sliping during/between shifts. I did the usual changed tranny fluid. Problem still there. Brought it to a couple shops and they told me it wasnt worth rebuilding. If I replaced the tranny with auto again, it would cost the same as a M/T, and the same problem could come back with another a/t.

Honda told me that some 01 d17a1 auto trannys had a defect, but I was past the warranty so I was SOL. What I plan to do is, finish paying off the car(1year 1/2) and do a full k20a swap.

You have to decide what you want this car to be. For those of us that bought this particular dseries we got screwed(weakest engine from honda). Also the people with 01 civic the macphearson strut also screwed us(you should know what I mean)

I wont make money selling it(too much mileage, wont even have enough to pay it off), and Im not jus going to swap to a M/T.

I definetely didnt buy this car cause I wanted a fast car, but thats what I want it to be now. 6 speed here I come.

Good Luck

short parts list....Tein super street damper, Greddy evo2 exhaust, neuspeed front strut bar, aem intake,

STL01Civic

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rentacar4dr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

How much did it cost you?

did give you a manual dash, ecu, console? other than looking at the vin, can you tell it was ever auto?</TD></TR></TABLE>

He did a K24a1 swap w/ k20a2 head and 6spd manual type s tranny convertion.

For a manual converation. You are looking at ~$1600 w/ parts and labor.