My daughters car had something forcing the carburetor to stay open on the highway and she pulled off the road and stopped using the emergency brake and regular brakes while turning the engine off. Now the car makes a loud rattle from the engine/transaxle area when in neutral or reverse. Also the car will not engage the trans in reverse. Please help with any ideas.

 

What year/model car does she have? Because 2001-2005 Civics don't have carburetors. They're fuel injected. Also, what kind of transmission is in the car? Manual, automatic... CVT?

 

Ok it wasn't the carburetor but the throttle that got stuck. We figured out the cause and corrected that and everything drove fine until the car was placed in reverse. It is a 2002 civic LX sedan with automatic transmission. I am not familiar with front wheel drive cars but it sounds like the engine and trans are not engaging in reverse but making some contact due to the noise. It also makes the same noise in neutral but is fine in all forward gears.

 

That makes me think that the transmission is toast.

 

Any idea what a rebuild costs or should I look for a used one?

 

Could the stuck accelerator have damaged the torque convertor? Not sure why when the Engine was revving in drive, that drive is still fine and reverse is not working.

 

If you tried shifting into reverse with the high idle, it could have caused damage. To be honest, you would be better off looking on car-part.com for a used 2004-2005 Civic automatic. They're a little bit more durable then the 01-03 models.

 

That's the weird part she never shifted into reverse until after the throttle was fixed. She turned the car off and came to a stop then placed it in park. So if I choose to replace the tranny what do I need to know before I shop such as vin# or is there something on the tranny I need to find? Appreciate your help.

 

One other thing I want to mention the car only has 70000 miles. It was her grandmothers and has been very well cared for so just wondering if I would be better off rebuilding this unit rather than risking a used one. Any idea what an average rebuild costs and are there honest shops that only replace what is needed? She just got the car and is overwhelmed with the initial cost of title and tags in Maryland and now this is killing her.