Ok, I searched and I'm finding nothing, if you find a thread pertaining to my problem then show me the way!

My roomate owns a 2003 Honda Civic EX w/ manual. It has about 85 k and is having some shifting problems. You have to work pretty hard to get it into 1st gear and reverse. It sticks really bad and you have to give it a decent amount of force to get into those gears(1st and R). Would a transmission fluid change be the first place to start when trying to fix the problem? Or does this sound like the transmission itself is going bad? I would think the transmission fluid would be pretty new considering he just got the car from a Honda dealership 2 or 3 months ago. Should he just go to them and complain and see if they will do anything to fix the problem for free? Anyone else had this situation? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

Sounds a bit like the synchro's going into 1st and reverse are worn, meaning the selector struggles to mesh into position.

If it is that it isn't just a flush and refill, it's a strip and rebuild with new synchros or a full gearbox replacement jobbie.

 

I was also having problems shifting at one time.

It only happened occasionally, so I took apart the center console to see what was causing the difficulty shifting.

Turns out the white-ball thingy (that the shifter pivots on) was getting stuck within the surrounding housing.

I sprayed a little WD-40 down in there and BAM! Problem solved. Shifting mint for about 6 months now.

 

^^^ I never thought of that.

 

damn i gotta do that, my 2nd is hard to get in

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ONLYuk7thGen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds a bit like the synchro's going into 1st and reverse are worn, meaning the selector struggles to mesh into position.

If it is that it isn't just a flush and refill, it's a strip and rebuild with new synchros or a full gearbox replacement jobbie.</TD></TR></TABLE>

When your saying strip, rebuild are you saying that theres a problem with the gear box? How much would a replacement for that run? Sounds expensive.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by portaman03 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was also having problems shifting at one time.

It only happened occasionally, so I took apart the center console to see what was causing the difficulty shifting.

Turns out the white-ball thingy (that the shifter pivots on) was getting stuck within the surrounding housing.

I sprayed a little WD-40 down in there and BAM! Problem solved. Shifting mint for about 6 months now.</TD></TR></TABLE>

How much taking apart are you talking about? Do you just remove the shift boot and your able to see the white ball?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dustay22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

When your saying strip, rebuild are you saying that theres a problem with the gear box? How much would a replacement for that run? Sounds expensive. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Not a problem with the whole of the gearbox, just parts of it. Synchros are there to help the selector slide into mesh with the teeth on the gear which is on the main shaft shaft in the 'box.

I'm afraid i have no idea what it would cost to repair over there, i'm across the pond mate!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ONLYuk7thGen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Not a problem with the whole of the gearbox, just parts of it. Synchros are there to help the selector slide into mesh with the teeth on the gear which is on the main shaft shaft in the 'box.

I'm afraid i have no idea what it would cost to repair over there, i'm across the pond mate! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for your input. If you ever want to switch places let me know! I want to be where the real football is king.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dustay22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Thanks for your input. If you ever want to switch places let me know! I want to be where the real football is king. </TD></TR></TABLE>

No problem

I'd switch for the good weather but i need my real football too!

 

To take apart the center console: There are several clips holding it place. Up front, there are one on each side. Be careful with these, they break easily. I believe there are 2 more screws on the rear sides. If you look on top where the cell phone holder ares is, there should be a panel that you can pop out with a small flathead scredriver, I think theres another screw inside there. The entire console comes out as a piece, including the cup holders all the way back.

Once you have this loose, it will still be attached by the shifter **** and boot. To take the whole thing off, you first have to pull down the sivler ring on the bottom of the shftknob, it just unclips. Now you can unscrew the shift **** which is fairly tough at first, but will loosen after a few turns.

With the **** off, you can now take out the center console. Be careful not to pull the boot off the bottom shifter ring, its held on by an inside-out zip tie and is a bitch to put back on.

With everything cleared out of the center, look down into the shifter mechanism. Follow the shift stick to where it connects to a white "ball" pivot-thingy. This is where you want to spray your WD-40, at the base of the stick, onto the white part. Move your shifter around a few times to lubricate it and work the wd40 in.


Assemble everything back together.

If you had the same problem as mine, this should take care of it.

 

Thanks, appreciate all your help.

 

I had the same problem with my 2003 Civic LX at about 55k - 60k miles. First it was reverse and then 1st or 2nd and at that point it had lots of noise as well. I had to replace/rebuild the transaxle - the syncros were shot!

Too bad the warranty only covered me until 36k miles....

I ended up getting a wrecking yard tranny with 40k miles on it for about $600. Now my car has 120K miles on it and this wrecking yard tranny is now showing some symptoms as well. The noise is real bad(input shaft bearing?) but the syncros are still working. Sounds like it will blow up any day.

Just thought I would share

Good luck.