Hi,

We have a Honda Civic HX 2002 that has only 80,000 miles on it and an automatic transmission. Recently it appears that two separate issues (unrelated?) occurred at the same time. The first was that the multi-plex in the fuse box was failing, causing things like the air conditioner to not work. We go that replaced, thinking the car was fixed. Shortly afterwards (a few days) we would be driving when all of a sudden the RPMs would shoot up for no reason. A couple days later the "D" gear just stopped working (the "check engine" light came on and the "D" light was flashing) and we had to drive the car in "L" all the way to the repair shop. When we took it back to the Honda repair shop, they claimed that it was just the transmission fluid and that it "had burnt particles in it." We got the car back yesterday but I am still skeptical about the so-called "fix."

I'm pretty sure that the transmission fluid was replaced only about 25,000 miles ago, so why would it have burnt particles in it that were clogging a valve? Is there some underlying issue that the repair guys aren't catching? I don't really trust these guys at this point....they failed to catch this transmission issue earlier when we brought the car in after the RPMs started shooting up for no reason.

And is there any relationship between the multi-plex part and this other issue occurring at the same time?

Thanks for any help!

 

The 2001 and 2002 Civic automatics are well-known for premature failure. Not to be all "doom and gloom" but your transmission may be on it's way out. The burnt particles could be from normal wear-and-tear, or the transmission is beginning it's self-destruction. Did you have the fluid changed yourself, or did someone claim to have done it prior to your purchase of the vehicle? (in reference to the 25k miles ago comment)

How long ago did you take it to the shop? Is the transmission still exhibiting any problems after the fluid change? Is the "D" light still blinking?

You don't happen to know which code(s) it was throwing, do you? That would certainly to help pinpoint the issue.

 

Oh wonderful. Well it's good to know that anyway (about 2001-2001 Civic automatics). No, we had the fluid changed at a Honda dealership service center. They also performed the 80K service about a year ago or so (~25K miles ago).

The car appears to be running fine now...the "D" light is not blinking and the engine is not revving up for now reason. I'm just wondering if the fluid change is just covering up the underlying issue. Also it's weird this all happened around the same time to multi-plex part went out.

How do you find out what code the car was throwing? If I can find it I can get it for you....Thanks so much for your help.

 

They likely already erased the codes from the ECU, but you can take the car to Autozone (or numerous other parts stores) and have them scan it for stored codes. At times codes will be stored although the MIL isn't on.