I recently bough a 2002 civic with 250k miles. When I first got it, it would not stay in 5th gear unless I held it in and when I did it worked perfectly.

So I put about 500 miles on it and then just the other day left for NC (600 Miles) the car refused to stay in 5th and started kicking out every 30-50 miles then the intervals kept getting shorter until finally it seems 5th gear is gone and immediately grinds and pushes out.

When that finally happened it made it physically impossible to get into reverse and gave my 2nd gear the same slipping issue.

I only paid $500 for the car so If I need to put some money into it I guess I will, I was just curious what you guys think the issue is and whether I should look into a rebuild or replace it with a used tranny.

One more thing I wanted to ask, is do you guys by any chance know how high this engine/tranny revs in 4th around 60? I need it to get to work and dont wanna rev the Sh*t out of it.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.

 

Check lever and all bushings/pins/cables and connections to shift arm and shifter itself, look for loose worn out connections...



94

 

5th/reverse gear issues tend to arise when the fluid is low and lubrication is limited to those far away parts. It's highly likely that there is too much damage inside to do anything other than pull and rebuild or replace.

Also, holding the shifter in place while driving will accelerate wear to the fork and sleeve.

 

I had a transmission that had the issue you described. 5th would not go in, reverse I could get in but had to muscle it. One day accelerating onto the freeway, there was a loud bang, lots of grinding, then zero shifting. I believe the selector hub on 5th broke and jammed it into 5th gear. Attempting to use any other gear would engage 2 and make moving impossible.

I havent opened the transmission but I had to drive 40 miles locked in 5th so im sure most of it is junked. Especially since the grinding noise of metal bits being pulverized started to vanish as they turned to dust.

Op dont let what happened to me happen to you. Yank the transmission amd replace/rebuild it