shrewz92

Purchased a 2001 Civic EX, 1.7L, Automatic Transmission. I have owned '91 Accord Automatic Transmission vehicle. There is a marked difference in the shifting of these two vehicles, and I'm concerned about how my 01 is shifting.
From a dead stop, with about 1/4 throttle, the transmission will shift from 1st to 2nd with no real 'snap,' as I'd experienced with the '91 Accord. Shifting from 2nd to 3rd is more like a 'slide' into gear. Shifting from 3rd to 4th, the car has an increase in rpms, feels like it's returning to 2nd, back to 3rd, then on into 4th, where the transmission will reduce its rpms again, by approx 500 rpms, once it's been in 4th for a few seconds.

My concerns are:
1. Is the 'smooth' shifting between gears a good thing? A '96 Buick I had shifted so smoothly that the transmission had to be rebuilt because of slippage and a blown Trans pump.
2. Is the shifting pattern, 3 to 2 to 3 to 4 a normal thing, or is this the beginning of a slipping transmission?

Purchased from a local Honda Dealership, they recommended an after-market warranty purchase, which I did for an additional Grand. The car has 38,000 miles on the odo. I have 6 yrs / 72,000 miles for the warranty period. If it's a slipping trans, I should be able to have it replaced with minimal charge. thanks for the assists!

lowlife9

wow thats low mileage for the tranny to start acting up but unfortunately the 2001-2003 had transmission problems they would usually last 60,000 miles if its got a warranty use it.

01VicEx

The exact same thing happens on my car with 69,000 miles.

Awjvail

The automatic transmissions in the 7th gens are terrible, especially the early models (01s). Your transmission is going.

You will get some more time out of it, but it will eventually start slipping and then poop the bed.

Should've gone manual

01VicEx

Is there any sort of time frame when it will die from now, a few hundred miles, a few thousand miles. Or is it totally random and one day rpms will go up, but the car goes no where.

ExistEvolution

if its warrnaty and the tranny has to be gone completly to be replaced just neutral bomb the hell out of it jk don't do that

shrewz92

Okey-dokey, guys. It seems the consensus that my transmission should NOT slide-n-shift through the gears. I'll take it to Honda and work that warranty.
Lowlife9: It was a granny-car trade-in 3 days before I bought it. And the trade-in could possibly have been because of the shifting! It's in near-perfect condition, Gold Edition package: anything that was 'chrome' on base-model, has a gold finish on it. Otherwise, it's not bad. This my 3rd Civic ('85 DX, 4-door sedan, '91 EX 4-door sedan and the '85 was the best of the 3, IMHO).

lowlife9

yah i also got a good deal on my car low mileage great condition it was a fleet car for a invisible dog fence company it was all highway miles and it had service records but unfortunately all they had was automatics.

CAvic

i had gotten my car at a private car auction for a good price, it was a es1 03 auto but oh well
shortly after it threw a gear ratio malfunction code, even though it runs fine, trippy. i mean it seems a little slippy and what but it got me saving for my auto to manual swap, or might just even drop a k in there depending how long it last from now

shrewz92 what was the outcome with the issue?

jgg204

join the club. 2003 civic LX Coupe with a dead auto-trans at 70K miles. called up Honda and reamed them out and they agreed to pay $1,000 towards the $2,900 factory rebuilt replacement and they increased the warranty from 12K/1yr to 36K/3yrs. guess what i will be driving for the next 3 yrs...