2002 Civic LX 1.7 auto tranny w/ 130,000 miles will not accelerate past 4500 rpm and will not go past 70mph on the freeway. Car accelerates very very slowly from a dead stop and at freeway speeds. Jumping onto the freeway on ramp is a real challenge nowadays since I can be fully floored entering the on ramp and by the time I'm on the actual freeway be lucky if the car has reached 30mph.....then with the pedal still fully floored with the tach needle pinned at 4500 rpm still will be lucky if the car reaches a whomping 70mph 2 miles down the road.... Regardless of how flat the freeway is the needle will pin itself at 4500 on the tach and not reach past 70 under it's own power. NO CEL IS ON.



Rebuilt Transmission, Crank Position Sensor, ECU, wiring harness, timing belt, cv shafts, o2 sensors, and all engine mounts have been completely replaced at a tune of over $5,000(stupid I know) and full tune-up has been performed.

Transmission slipped for a few months till it progressively got worse and had to be replaced. Timing belt was replaced as routine maintenance. 2,000 miles after having transmission and timing belt replaced the car starts crapping out in the 3000rpm range. CEL comes on. Scanned it and get the Crank Position Sensor and bad o2 sensor codes. Replaced both at dealership. Drive for about 200 miles then same crap with the car cutting out at 3000ish rpm range. Go back to the dealership and am told the harness to the CPS needs to be replaced. Done. Then less than 100 miles later same crap with the car cutting out... Back to the stealership it goes. Am told the ECU took a crap and needs to be replaced. Okay...at this point we are just in shock at how much we've spent. Dealership replaces it. Pickup car from dealership and car runs great....for about 2,000 miles. Now the car runs as described at the very beginning of this thread...... No matter what I do I can't get the car to accelerate past 70 mph and it takes about a good 2 minutes to do so on the freeway. To make things worse I have been in many near misses on the freeway while trying to enter. This is our commuter car and depend on it!


Coincidentally just before the car started choking and not being able to go past 70 at idle or while driving there would be a metallic rattling noise. At first thought I figured it was the heat shield on the exhaust manifold since 3 of the 6 bolts were missing. I went to the dealership and ordered the 3 and put them in thinking the rattling noise would go away. Nope.....still there.


ANY Help would be much appreciated!

 

BTW when I rev the car in neutral with no load I can rev it to the moon...just not when it's in gear.....

 

I wonder if the metallic rattling noise you heard could be coming from the electronic valve under the dash that regulates how & when the shift solenoids work? It has a mild click when it engages, usually unable to be heard over normal operations. Even after doing all the above repairs you mentioned, if this unit is defective, you'll still have tranny problems. Find a reputable mechanic or transmission garage that KNOWS electronic shifting trannys and will perform a complete diagnostic BEFORE making any repairs, or one that will guarantee in writing the part they change will fix it. For good, not 2,000 miles.

 

pretty sure you need motor oil. if its too low you wont rev past a certain point.

 

okay u said that in neutral it revs fine but when gears are selected it bogs. These are a couple of things that i'll check. Fuel pressure, Not sure but they usually have a mesh type filter in the tank attached to the fuel pump, if that isn't cleaned it will seemingly create a lot of other issues. Ensure that Injectors are clean. throttle body, vacuum lines are not leaking. Check air filter. Also try disconnecting the CO2 sensor and see if there is any difference. check the selector switch on the transmission. Sounds like the ECU isn't switching the power band from a neutral one (While car is stationary, Park or neutral, To a Power band (torque required to propel the vehicle). Also check the timing on the engine...

 

This thread is from 2009.