I have a 2003 Honda Civic LX Coupe with 70,500 miles. It has been shifting weird since the summer (hard shift), but with the cold weather it has started to go South really fast. I have done 3 auto-trans fluid changes on the vehicle all at a dealership, along with all of the proper scheduled maintenance there as well. The fluid changes were at the following intervals:

15K miles 31K miles 58K miles

Anyways, my auto-transmission problems are as follows:

- unless i let the car heat up for 5-10 mins, when accelerating the car sounds like it is going in reverse and whines very loud - shifting gears 1-2 is a jolt - shifting gears 2-3 is a long shift - shifting gears 3-4 is a long shift

I took it to several shops, including the dealership where I purchased the vehicle. All of them said that the transmission is dying and will need to be rebuilt, however the dealership said that Honda does not allow dealerships to rebuild transmission, rather they have to get a factory rebuilt transmission from Honda directly for the repair.

The rebuild shop quoted me between $800-$1500 depending on the parts that need to be replaced, and the dealership quoted me $2,900 for the factory rebuilt transmission. The rebuild comes with a 12-month/12,000-mile warranty and the Honda factory rebuild transmission comes with a 3yr/36,000-mile warranty.

I told the dealership that I want them to call Honda Corporate and ask them to pay for some of this repair, because an auto-transmission should not fail at 70K miles especially since the fluid was changed 3X with Honda fluid at a dealership, as well as having all proper maintenance done at a dealership. The dealership got back to me and said that Honda Corporate is willing to chip in $1,000 for replacement transmission, so now my bill will be down to $1,900. That's satisfactory to me and while I feel that my transmission was built with the same defect that the 2001's were built with (my 2003 Civic had a 2002 build date and could possibly have a 2001 auto-transmission), Honda is not required by any means to replace my transmission for a vehicle that is nearing 7 years old and 70K+ miles.

I am getting the replacement transmission on Wednesday, and it will run me $1,900 which is all inclusive (taxes, fees, labor, etc). The factory rebuilt transmission from Honda will come with a 3yr/36K-mile warranty so for the next 3 years I am guaranteed from having any kind of transmission issues. I am satisfied because Honda has at least recognized there is a problem with their early 2000's transmissions in both their Accords and Civics. While I will never purchase a Honda Civic again, I will still consider Honda in a future purchase, and would probably not go with anything except for an Accord or CR-V. I feel that Honda tried to squeeze more profit margin out on their 7th generation Civics at the expense of quality, and what is to stop them from doing it again on their 8th generation? I can already tell they went cheap on the quality of the interior plastics on the 8th generation, so that's one of many reasons why I will never go with a Civic again.

Background on my Civic ownership history:

I used to own a 1997 Honda Civic LX Sedan. It was a hand-me-down vehicle from one of my parents. I took the vehicle up to 92K miles and it never had any issues. I only had to change the brakes twice on that vehicle, and the rotors only once. Everything done on it was routine like what I mentioned above, along with oil changes, spark plugs, tires, etc. Everything else on the vehicle was original including the suspension. It was running perfectly fine at 92K miles, and in early 2003 Honda came out with special financing along with big rebate incentives for their 2003 Honda Civics. The financing was 0.9% APR and I got $2,000 instantly off the price of the new Civic. I couldn't give up this offer, expecting to get the same level of quality that I had with my 1997 Civic. With my trade-in, their $2,000 incentive, more haggling, and another $2,000 down-payment, I was able to walk away with a brand new 2003 Honda Civic Coupe in Rallye Red for $151/mo for my monthly payment. It was an offer I couldn't resist so I did it. Biggest mistake of my life because I know my 1997 Civic would still be running today as a 12-yr old vehicle with what would be 160K+ miles. Granted, at that point it would need a timing belt and new shocks/struts, but I bet the transmission would still be running perfectly fine!

Well I learned my lesson on that one...so with my new transmission I will probably just run this 2003 Civic into the ground. If the factory transmission lasted me 7-years/70K miles, if I got another 70K out of my 2003 Civic I would be happy. Is that likely to happen? Who knows...but I'm at least guaranteed for another 3yrs/36K miles. Since it's only a 5 mile drive to base every day, I won't even come close to hitting the mileage warranty limit.

During normal driving the transmission started to make random shifts, made some noises, and at stop the car did not want to go. When shifting into other gears there was hard resistance and noise.

Took to transmission shop which drained the fluid and found all kinds and sizes of metal pieces in the fluid. They tell me I've got transmission problems, but since I'm out of town I told them to drain the fluid and refill it and see if that would get me home.

It is now unpredictable. Sometimes at low speeds it does ok. But at highway speeds it won't perform. Random downshifts, difficulty at maintaining speed, lots of weird stuff.

Now I guess I'll have to deal with Honda and let them screw me out of two or three thousand to rebuild it. That's the way it seems to go based on similar complaints.

Honda has become like just about everything else. A pig in a poke.