621Honda

HI, I have a 1998 Honda Civic LX with automatic transmission. I have about 115K mileage so far. I am experience slippage in gears when accelerating. The check engine light translates to P0730 "Incorrect Gear Ratio". I have done extensive research on the web and cannot find a solution or find out where the root cause of the problems is. The only thing I found was that, Sonnax has developed a replacement spring 88894 that has a wire diameter larger than the oem design. This supposedly reduces the stress on the spring, preventing future breakage. I don't know if this works or not. Transmission fluid is fine. Honda says to replace linear solenoid, but from all the reviews that does not work. So currently, it looks like the only solution is to get a retrofitted transmission from Honda and pay someone to install it. This is estimated to be about $2,500 with labor ($500). Another caveat to this problem is that when the engine is cold, the transmission works fine. So this is in the morning when you start up the car. You can't even tell there is a problem shifting gears. After about 10-15 minutes when the car warms up, the harsh shifting occurs, and the transmission looses almost all the grip. You have to manually shift the gears to get the vehicle to move. Example, when you're at a stop sign on a hill in D4, the car will roll back. So this tells me this part or parts malfunctioning are highly sensitive to temperature. So as a temporary solution, you have to manually shift the gears from D2 to D3 to D4 when accelerating. I've been doing this for over 4 months now, and it is working for now. I'm now starting to notice that once in a while when I am driving, I smell oil burning and sometimes the smell of a skunk (probably grease and oil), which is a sign that the clutches may be burning or some other part sizzling.

Any suggestions on this?

x1mpr0x

Ughh my problem exactly, I've emailed my local honda dealer and I'm hoping they'll do something out of good faith. Maybe you should try that.

621Honda

i tried but was denied because i never got my civic serviced at a honda dealership, thats balony, but what can I do?

ATownPit

have you ever tried Lucas oil stabilizer for auto trans? It seems that once the car warms up the oil gets thinner thus not letting the gears grab. Drain some of the oil I believe about a quart and replace it with the lucas. This is a temporary fix and helped me with older cars that I've had.

I know of some places in my area that rebuilds trans for around $500 in PA, look around.

Denken

Hey all,

Had much the same issue. Bought the car almost new when I was 17. Complained from day one about the transmission shifting hard. Everytime I complained I got the there is nothing wrong with the transmission, or we could not find anything wrong. I get one person from the dealership to experience the issue and I am then told its ok "Honda Transmissions due that".

I then explain I do not want to get 100k down the road and lose my transmission. They said its documented so no worries.... Jump to today.

On a long drive the other night I lost my transmission. It now grinds when down shifting where it use to slip when up shifting. Calling Honda was a waste of time (I even have documentation about the issues, and a service report from honda noting the issues with there transmissions)

They would do nothing for me, not even a cent. Said the car was too old, and I should have complained more. This was my first car and was taken to honda for almost every service. It died with 147k on it.

This is the worst I have ever been treated by a manufacture on any device. A know defect, noted in there documents, reported by me for the first year of ownership, loss of transmission and Honda is not even willing to split costs with me. Well I am 25 and I will never buy a HONDA EVER! I hope anyone who sees this post reconsiders the company, bad bad customer relations.

(will say this there ads are correct there motors last forever HAHAHA, to bad the rest of the drive train started to fail/failed)

-Denken

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah unfortunately honda quality isnt what it used to be. did you call corporate honda? usually they are willing to work with you and pay some of the repair bill either 1/2 off or they pay parts and you pay labor. even out of warranty.

Abisr_85

Hey guys i have a 98 honda civic DX with a 1.6. When im driving it seems to ge stuck on 3rd gear. What could be causing this?

danwat12345

@threadstarter,
An easy fix might be to keep the transmission cool the whole time while driving, since it works fine that way. Get a huge transmission cooler radiator and run the transmission fluid through that (instead of the stock radiator). Install some high CFM fans to it.

burmanr

I fixed my transmission shifting problem that occurrred only when the engine was warm, by cleaning out my throttle body. You might try it. Contact me if you want the details on the fix, or if you want an explanation of how the problem is occurring.

generalkickass

Hey I have the same problem...what'd you do and what causes it?

IwantHX

I still dont understand why everyone hates on these Honda auto's. Of course they wont be as quick in the quarter as the manual trans version of your car, it was never meant to. Anyways, my first car was a 5th gen civic ex coupe with z6 and auto trans. I have beaten the $#!+ out of my car and never had a problem with my auto trans. I did add a large atf cooler and change my atf regularly, but I still beat my car all the time and never had a trans problem. In fact, I blew up the stock z6, swapped in a new z6 and still have no problems with my auto trans that now has atleast 3xx,xxx miles.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

with the older autos you can get away with that, not the new ones with crappy parts. if you did that on a 2001 you would have a paperweight after 50k miles.

donperry

I'm having a problem where my tranny pretends to be in neutral while shifting through some gears (auto). I got the filter replaced and the problem went away for a day, then the problem is back. It's an 03 civic.

Gearbox, i see you mentioned that these trannys dont do too well with hard driving?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah, defective clutch discs that wear out too fast. if you are having the feeling like the car is in neutral and revving up just before switching gears, it means the gears are not grabbing and you are getting slip. the amount of rpms it revs is a good sign of how bad it is. slips of less than 500 rpms are usually not an immediate concern, but more than that means the trans is on its way out and eventually will not grab the gear at all. 01-05 autos are the absolute worst about this and its a combination of a weak secondary clutch pack, inferior fluid (honda atf Z1, now discontinued), no fluid filter, and no fluid cooler (depending on climate). changing the fluid more often like every year at least and using a higher quality fluid like valvoline maxlife dex/merc will help, but eventually the damage will be done due to the defective parts. no amount of maintenance will matter. but you may prolong the problem.

rainbow

Would like more details on the throttle body etc fix for the slipping Honda trans
Thanks

Ironside86

I have 1998 Honda Civic LX and was experiencing the same issues. The biggest issue it appears was from overheating. I installed a transmission cooler and linked it in-series with the existing radiator. I then replaced the shift position solenoid. I have also put an in-line Wix magnetic transmission filter. I have driven the car seventy miles a day for a week and have experienced no issues, everything is running cool and shifting smoothly. Everything I have done has been relatively simple cost effective. I hope this helps. I recommend draining and filling the transmission as well. I used valvoline high mileage ATF fluid.