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Alright so lately I'm having a bit of bad luck with both of my vehicles. My wife's Cadillac cts just went through a complete transmission rebuild and were hoping to get it back tomorrow. But didn't worry to much because we had m trusty always dependable civic that has been problem free until I took it to get the timing belt/water pump/all driving belts/ and a broken motor mount fixed 2 months ago at a very well repped mechanic shop where I live.

But yesterday I took my wife to her mothers for the day while I went to work and the car drove perfectly fine. Got everything unloaded jumped back in the car and when I tried starting it it did a more then usual crank up and the check engine light was on and the rpm Gage didn't move at all. And when I tried putting it into gear(auto) it clunked into every gear down to drive and I put it back and it clunked even harder back to park. I turned the car off immediately and checked the fluids and everything was fine but noticed a bolt had fallen out of the upper timing belt and was just sitting their loosely on the engine. I get back in the car and turn it on and everything starts up normal no light rpms are at normal range and it ran fine on my 30 min drive to work and back.


Now since i have taken my car to that shop I have had my TDC sensor go out which I don't blame them for since it happens quiet often on our cars. Also a belt squeal that keeps getting louder and louder on start ups. And it makes a very loud noise coming from the engine bay at Idle but goes away when revved or when you start driving. I took it to them to check it the noise but they said they didn't hear anything unusual about the car.

I have an appointment with them at 5 1/2 hrs at 730am. And I'm just trying to get some feed back hopefully before I go in this morning.


Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 512

Which bolt specifically was loose? If it was a timing belt cover bolt, then there's not much to worry about, other than it falling out and getting caught in something it's not supposed to.

Also, with a CEL, it's kinda hard to diagnose without the actual code.. It may just be a faulty sensor, and the ECU taking precautions to not mess anything up.

I know when my CKP (crank sensor) went out, my car took a long time to start, and my revs were limited to 3000 RPMs. However, I have a MT, so I don't know what to tell you about the clunking when changing the gear selector.

 
Rep Power: 201

A tps sensor will cause a couple of those symptoms. The transmission won't make it hard to start, the clunk is likely a syptom of something else though. The transmissions are a problem in this generation, especially 2001 EXs. So your concern isn't unfounded.... Let us know what they find.

 
Rep Power: 0

Ok so I took it their this morning and they didn't find anything with the transmission wrong no slipping of any sort. And they couldn't pull up any codes. But the noise coming from the engine was when they replaced the engine mount. It apparently wasn't on their correctly and was making the stuttering noise at idle. And they said to just wait and see if it happens again and get the CEL checked and we could diagnose it with that.


This car has been great for me with only regular maintenance for the past 2 years. Purchased from a 1 owner old lady who couldn't drive anymore for a great deal for 4000$ with 70k miles on it. And she had records of all maintenance Since she's owned it. And I don't want this car to go sour.

After going through the rebuilding process with my cts and how costy that was. I really do not want to go through with it on this vehicle and spend more on a transmission rebuild then what the car is actually worth. Is their anyway to stop this Ticking time bomb that I hear of from happening?

 
Rep Power: 193

I don't think the transmission is the problem honestly.

A poor running engine can make an auto transmission shift very hard which can cause a clunk noise. Most of the time auto's will start slipping, leaking, or start making bearing noise when they are going bad. They typically won't give you issues one minute and be perfectly fine the next, if they're bad they stay bad.

A bad sensor can act like that though.

If the tranny has felt fine other than the time you had issues I don't think that's the problem.

I would just wait and see if it happens again. If it does hopefully you're close to an auto parts store and they can run the code for ya.

 
Rep Power: 0

Not too much you can do about the ticking time bomb. Just go easy on the tranny and keep up with the maintenance - not much else you can do.

Some have had trouble from day one, others around 40k. My friend has a 04 with an auto transmission and not a single problem. If it's lasted you this long, I don't think you have too much to worry about yet.