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Hey gang - 97 Civic EX. All stock. 214,500 mi. Just the other day, I noticed an issue with the gear selector. Shifting from drive / reverse into park is a little more difficult to do (seems to be harder to place it into park). Not forceful hard...just a bit more resistance than I'm used to. I also noticed shifting from park down to reverse (or drive) that I sometimes have to manually move the gear selector ever so slightly after it "clicks" in order for it to physically engage the transmission. When I go from Park to Reverse, for example, after it's clicked into place, I notice the red-boxed "R" light on the dash doesn't illuminate sometimes until I again move the lever ever so slightly a bit lower. Then the light comes on and it shifts into reverse. And like all issues I've had with this car, it's intermittent. Sometimes when leaving the driveway or pulling away from parking spots, it shifts through the gears with no problem at all.

Other than this issue, I haven't noticed any major differences with the transmission. While driving, it does shift kind of hard, but it's been like that for LONG time now. It isn't a forceful 'jerk' of the car, but it's not as smooth as newer cars either. Kind of in between. But again I chalk this up to being normal for a car with this age. The concern I have only happens with I'm in Park (or when I getting ready to Park).

I've always kept up on fluid changes, and always use genuine Honda tranny fluid. I changed the fluid maybe 3 months ago (and yes, the level is spot on).

Anyone have any ideas what this gear selector issue could be?

 
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I've seen occasional problems with the shifter cable.
I might disconnect the linkage under the trans and at the shifter to see if the cable moves freely by itself.

EDIT:
OTOH you may be repositioning the cable if you disconnect it, that may let it move freely and give you a false OK feeling.......
So if the shifter moves freely, and the trans linkage moves freely while the cable is detached from both ends, then it must be a bad cable.