I purchased my car brand new in January 2003 and after my Accord was recalled in 2004 for the 2nd gear overheating/exploding, I decided I better follow the maintenance schedule closely after the recall was fixed. I have probably had the transmission fluid changed (only at Honda dealerships) more often than necessary. It has been changed no less than once every 2 years as the maintenance book suggests independent from mileage. I had my transmission fluid changed two weeks ago and a couple days later my transmission began slipping. It did not want to shift into 3rd. I would ease of the gas and it would shift properly. This happened about once a day for a week. The problem went away for about 3 days but it did seem to shift more firmly than normal. I left work on Friday afternoon and while pulling out of the parking lot I had 2 HARD jerks when it began shifting. I went to get on the highway and my car would not shift into 3rd gear. I limped home after going 40 mph maximum and contact the dealer where I had the service done. They asked me to bring it in and I was able to make it to the dealership Saturday morning. Diagnosis - transmission has failed. I have an open case with Honda about this and the dealership says that I have all the maintenance records and my mileage is well under 75k. They are having their district manager contact Honda about this also and did provide a free loaner. I am waiting for my Honda case manager to contact me at this point. If Honda does not pay for this repair, I will never be a Honda car owner again. For a transmission to fail this quick, shows that this part is faulty. The 2001 and 2002 Accords have an extended warranty and this should be extended to 2003 with all the transmission failures that have occurred.

Update from Dec 10, 2010: Honda paid 40% leaving me with $2700 to pay on my own. Corporate Honda rep was more than just rude to me. Honda has now lost a customer for life. I will tell as many as I can my experience with hopes to get word of mouth out about the way Honda is now building their vehicles. I think we can all agree that extended warranty on the transmission for 2001 and 2002 Accords and Civics must be extended to the 2003 Accords and all consumers should be refunded for repairs already made. The Honda dealership I dealt with was wonderful and has provided me with a lifetime unlimited mileage warranty on my transmission. They fought as hard as they were able to get the costs covered but corporate Honda will not take the responsibility. I have contacted my lawyer and hope to recover my lost funds in the future.

My car only has 71,000 miles on it and the transmission is trashed. This is absolutely ridiculous for the amount of miles and excellent care this car has received. I have patiently been waiting for the case manager at Honda to call me back in response to my inquiry for help with this situation. I was totally loyal to Honda and my entire family owns them but this just may make me stray to another maker. I'm so disappointed that a Honda product has failed to live up to its reputation and hopefully they will do the right thing and make amends by covering the cost to replace my transmission.

The "electronic" transmission for Honda Accord "03 and "04 models has a MAJOR flaw, in the way it functions. Honda should be able to replace the whole tranny, or give rebates to those of us having to shell out additional monies for a rebuild or used one.

they should stand behind their product 100%. I've been told by many mechanics, that they usually never see any Honda's with tranny problems until well over 200K on the car. Given that Honda supposedly fixed the problem with the recall, and then it goes out after 75K, should be a sign that they really didn't FIX it, they put a band-aid on it. This car was well over $20K new, and it should not be having major transmission problems.

Makes me re-think Honda's integrity.

Sincerely,

Dana Donald

Driving home a couple hours ago the transmission violently downshifted to first gear when I was accelerating on the parkway doing about 65mph. Threw me violently forward thank god I wear my seat belt or else I probably would have went through the windshield. Would not shift up out of first gear after the initial downshift. Pulled over and restarted my car. Continued about ten minutes really slowly in the right lane until I got off at my exit. I steadily began to brake coming to a red light and all of a sudden it downshifted to a halt making the person behind my slam on their brakes and come to a screeching stop. Continued to drive down the 25mph residential road leading to my house at 20mph because any more acceleration shot the rpms up to redline. When I got to my house I also realized that when I put the car in reverse, the reverse gear does not activate and instead the car just revs as if it is in neutral when giving it gas. This is ridiculous and a serious safety issue to say the least. Since purchasing this car I have always babied it and had the scheduled maintenance performed. There are hundreds of issues like mine and it is known by Honda that these transmissions are a problem. They should stand by their reputation and fix or replace the transmissions free of charge.

I owned a 1991 accord until the summer of 2010 when I bought a 2003 Accord EXV6. I never had any real major problem with my 91 in the 11 years I owned it and those were the last 11 years of it's 19 year life. The 2003 I bought from my parents, who were the only owners before me, has been serviced by Honda from day one following the "extreme" maintenance schedule.

I was on the last leg of a 2 hour drive when the problem happened, I was passing a car and while I was passing the car down shifted on it's own forcing me to abort, it was pretty scary and without a doubt dangerous. In the next 10 mins after that it repeated the same thing twice and I pulled over. The car would run fine in D3, so the problem just seems to be with the highest gear. I again tried normal D and the car wouldn't even go into the higher gear anymore and later reverse became hit and miss.

I have been in touch with Honda Canada and I'm not yet sure if they will help out with the problem. The steps should be to have your dealership run a diagnostic and then contact Honda about the problem. So I'm waiting on that and still not sure if I'll get help or not. The person I talked to said I'm out of warranty, have high mileage but I had an excellent record for maintenance in my favor. I hope that pays off.

Yep ... another failed '03 transmission in an otherwise good car.

I bought the car brand new, never really had anything serious ever go wrong other than: the common head unit, backlight issue and replacement, a broken stabilizer link, and had the transmission oil jet recall done. My wife loved this EXV6, it was fast, handled well and has been very smooth all it's life seeing that it has been driven very hard.

We initially changed the transmission fluid around 100K. No issues until early this summer when she'd suddenly loose 3rd gear and end up abruptly revving to redline under load. No rhyme or reason, the next hour, day, week... would be fine...then it would return. Did a flush and fill in June at the quick lube and added some Lucas conditioner. No problems until late Aug when it began again. Had it flushed yesterday (Sept 14th) but now 3rd gear is completely gone.

Went down to Brant Transmission today, the tech was really sympathetic, willing to talk, and said he has done a ton of them. He says the problem stems from an initial wearing of one of the (32) clutch plates which loads the transmission with fine debris, which in turn blocks an internal filter (that cannot be replaced or cleaned without pulling the trans!). This slight blockage then becomes worse, until the fluid flow reduction causes a cascading clutch pack wear (burn up), eventually taking out the 3rd gear.

It would cost $3400 for a rebuild (that he cannot warranty beyond 12 months), and he says it will likely re-occur since the faulty clutch plates cannot be replaced with anything better or aftermarket, only the OEM Honda parts. He says the only possible solution would have been to change the trans fluid every SECOND oil change.

The car is pretty much run it's life anyway, so what's the point of putting this amount of money into it? We'll likely spend the $3400 on a down payment on something else. It's a shame really, however seeing as Honda has appeared to have their transmissions pretty much figured out after 03', I'd still buy another Honda, it really was a good car for us. I see newer Acura TL's seem pretty reliable, so we'll look at them to start.

And as the owner of a 2005 Odyssey, I'll be paying close attention to transmission fluid changes, I'll definitely step up the frequency! Cheers and good luck to 03' owners still running.

My transmission went out while at a stop light. The transmission had slipped a couple of times in the previous two weeks but very little warning. The day it failed, the car kept slipping out of gear and finally died. The tow guy said that it went into reverse for him up onto the truck but a mechanic checked and the transmission is definitely gone. It will cost between $1,800-$2,300 for a rebuilt transmission. I'm not sure at this point to put that much money into this car so for now I will park it. I do not have this kind of money right now and fortunately have another car to use in the meantime.

As Honda is considered one of the more reliable and desirable vehicles to own. I am very disappointed to learn of a transmission problem involving the torque converter and no recall or information about the problem made available to the consumer. As this problem just started, I am in the process of getting quotes to repair the transmission. I feel Honda should share in the cost or make it a recall considering the known issues and repair at no cost to the consumer. I guess the days of an import vehicle going the 200,000 miles + is no longer valid.

Same as everyone else, Transmission Failure at over 50mpg, knocking in rear of vehicle, almost a accident, couldn't reverse. But amazingly Honda isn't responsible for a true recall. As more of these cars get up there in mileage, someone is going to get hurt. Sad that it takes a serious accident for a class action suit or highway board to seriously investigate this. I had to pay the dealer $2500 for a car with a faulty tranny. Extremely dissatisfied with Honda. My next vehicle for sure was gonna be a acura, now I just can't remain loyal to the brand

Took extremely good care of my car. Have owned 3 other Honda's before this car and have never replaced any major parts on them. Right after the car was paid off I have replaced the A/C compressor and the transmission. I decided to check to see if there might be a recall on them and found out that other people have had the same problems I have had with there transmissions failing. I have owned many cars in my lifetime and never replaced a transmission much less one with such little millage on it. I could understand if the car was mistreated but it wasn't. The dealer can attest to that. I would be embarrassed to put out such a poor product and not recall it especially after so many complaints. I wish I had done this sooner because I don't think I have ever been so angry at a car dealer as I was when they called about the transmission. They have lost a loyal customer because I will never buy another Honda again after they sold me an inferior product and didn't stand behind it. They wouldn't even reduce the price the only thing the manager could do for me was loan me a car. I was going to send a nasty letter to the corporate office but someone stole out identification at that time and I was dealing with that and forgot all about it until now. Thanks for giving me a chance to file a complaint against having to replace a transmission that I feel should have been recalled.