I've got a 99 Civic HX with a CVT.

This car is currently on it's 3rd transmission.

Original factory tranny died.
Honda replaced it with a rebuilt for free cause it was under warranty.
The rebuilt died 6 months later. Honda claimed the rebuilt they threw in was "defective".
Car was still under warranty. They put another rebuilt in at around 50K.

Now I'm sitting at around 104K and I think my CVT is shot.

When I accelerate, I always hear a grinding and gurgling noises. When I hit about 40MPH and let off the gas, the noises goes away. If I give the car gas, the noises start again. I've got some lag when I accelerate. The car shakes occasionally when accelerating. Sometimes it shakes when I go up hills under 45MPH.

I took the car to Aamco and they test-drove the car. They told me that it sounded like my torque converter was shot.

Wanting a second opinion, I took the car to Honda. Honda test drove it and said the transmission was shot. They offered to put in, what will be this car's 4th CVT transmission, for a "mere" $2600. I'm not under warranty anymore.

Given the track record I've had with CVTs, and the horrible experiences other people have had with CVTs, I'm looking to put something OTHER than a CVT in my car.

Is it easy to throw a EX automatic tranny in my car?

A world famous tuning shop just a few miles away said they could do a manual conversion for $2000 labor.
I found a 5 spd tranny on eBay for $600.

What do I need besides the tranny (and shifter/clutch pedal obviously)? Any idea how much I'll end up spending on the rest of the parts (everything but actual transmission)?

Any input, at all, would be greatly appreciated.

 

Unfortunately, the HX CVT's were terrible. No, you can not put an EX auto in your car unless you change the engine harness, ecu, and possibly the floor harness that goes to the shifter. If you want to do a 5 speed swap, you would need to get the pedals, trans, shift linkage, engine harness (they are cheap enough so you may as well do it right), and a 5 speed HX ECU. You'll also need the rear T bracket and I'm pretty sure the trans top bracket and trans torque mount. There will be a few intricacies when doing the 5 speed swap but at least you will be fixed. 2000 for just labor sounds VERY high to me. Heck 2k parts and labor sounds pretty high honestly since all of the parts you need to do the trans swap will probably only run 300-400 if you take your time to find them. That price includes the ECU...

Good luck!

 

Yeah, that quote was from a pretty prestigious tuning shop. 2K seems expensive to me as well, but I doubt I'm capable of doing the work myself. I'll have to find a few other shops.

I asked my dealership if they could do a manual conversion and they laughed at me. All the other shops I've called so far have pretty much done the same.

 

i don't think the hx came as a 5spd. so the hx 5spd ecu is out of the question. i would do the 5spd swap yourself....it's not hard...i did mine in my driveway in about a day. fairly easy to do as well. good luck.

 

of course the Hx came in a 5 speed. you shouldnt use a tranny from anyother civic because hx has vtec-e which the tranny has special gearing for. it will work, but it will drive really screwy.

 

hx trannys suck, they are hard to find,
and no you cant just throw another tranny in.

 

yea i had to change an hx manual tranny with another $500 used one and this one i put it blows too

 

^^ they all do. every hx tranny is garbage, i dont know what honda was thinking.

 

What's wrong with your 5spd HX tranny?

I did some googling and the *only* people who've had issues with HX trannys were the people like me with CVTs. The CVTs are crap. I can't imagine anything going wrong with a 5spd. I didn't see any HX owners with 5spds complaining about putting a new tranny in every 30K miles like the CVT owners...

 

I had a 5 speed HX and had no issues. Pretty sure the issues people have with 5 speed HX's is they try to drive the car like it's an Si. If you drive the car like it's a normal car (it stands for HIGH EFFICIENCY, not HIGH HP) you will go for a long time.

If you can not find an HX trans, you can still use plenty of other transmissions. Just stay away from the LX/EX trannies. The CX, HX, and VX trannies are good choices.

EDIT: If you said what state you were located in, I'm sure someone here could chime in where you could get your car done. If you were in Missouri, I'd do your trans swap for you no problem. I'd need the car for about 1 day.

 

^^ the manual hx trannys suck dick!!
my aunt had one for only commuteing shifted at like 4k daily. was on its 3rd tranny when she got pissed off and bought a hybrid civic lol she bought it new in 99 also.
only had 150k on it.

hx trannys are also a pain in the *** to install due to the mounts, i put 2 of them in my aunts car and i swear i will never do it ever again.

 

??? Guess maybe my HX was different than yours. Mine used the same trans mounts as any other 5 speed96-00 Civic. I know 2 other people with HX 5 speed cars. Mine had 234,000 miles on it when I sold it, another guy has 180k, and the last one is at 300 or 350k. Original transmission and, I think, even the original clutch....

EDIT: I see that the CVT HX has the upper trans mount in a completely different spot. You will have to make the bracket or get the regular Civic manual trans mount that goes on the frame rail and make it work. Looks like that could suck a little but shouldn't be too bad. Here's a link I found to a guy that went from CVT to manual:

http://6thgearadvertising.com/civic-hx/

 

My CVT was starting to go so I did a b16 swap

 

Malfa, I was about to buy a B16B w/ 5spd LSD, but I kinda don't have another $3500 to throw at the car.

98civdx, congrats on being the first person to ever have problems with a 5spd in an HX. I've never heard of anyone else having the issues you had. I know a million people who've blown up CVTs though...

RyanA, I live in Connecticut. Apparently we don't have too many good Honda tuning shops. I don't know where to take this car... Brackets and such are the least of my worries though. I'll get whatever I need off MajesticHonda, eBay, or a junk yard.

 

huh, weird. the cvts do suck tho. she had one for a while and it went out.

maybe she wasnt telling me somthing lol, i to have only heard of a few issues with the hx 5spds and they were pretty much all do to bad drivers eating the syncros...
she had 100k on the oem clutch and it still felt pretty good to me.

 

CVT to 5spd is NOT like a regular auto>man swap. Possible welding of the top tranny mount is needed, among other things.

http://civic-hx.6thgearadvertising.com/

 

You might think of replacing the start clutch, though. anyone have any feedback on that? Links to start clutch repair?

 

Why are we bumping a 3 year old thread?