thesupersoap33

It began doing it here and there. Now, I have to hold the shifter in 5th to keep it there. Clutch seems to be acting normally. I changed trans fluid about 5 months ago with Honda trans fluid. Could it be the shifter? Car has 400k on it. Any suggestions?

BrotatoChip

When I first bought my Civic it would occasionally pop out of gear. At the bottom of the shifter there is a plastic ball, mine was split in half and jamming up. I could force it into a gear but then it would sometimes pop back out. I lubed up the ball and it has been good for the last 8 years.

thesupersoap33

Was this ball accessible from the interior of the car or is it under the car near the shifter linkage?

Slumpertcivic

Interior.

You just need to pop up the trim around the shifter, you can leave the shift boot on to inspect it and maybe toss some silicone grease on it.

mac25

It's also a common symptom of bad mounts, engine/transmission.

Especially if the torque mounts are worn out, the engine can rock back while accelerating and pop the transmission out of gear.

thesupersoap33

So I popped off the interior plastic and the white ball at the base of the shifter is in two parts (i.e. its split on both sides of the shifter shaft). Is it supposed to be one solid piece? I'm going to go ahead and lube it up and see what happens. A $1.60 fix would totally rock my world!

That being said, would it be a good time to buy an $80 short shifter assembly off of Ebay as a replacement? I've always wanted a shorty even though this is a hybrid with 400k on it...

Also, I hear you about the trans mounts, and possibly the other mounts going bad on the car. With as many miles as it has, when I feel the shifter while the car is in gear, it does rock a little while I'm accelerating/backing off. That and a clutch were already on my to do list.

Slumpertcivic

I bought the revo short shifter when I first got my 2003 and I feel like I am driving a Bus everytime I get into a “normal” one.

thesupersoap33

Rotfl... a bus.

I opened it up and lubed the ball joint thing on the shifter and got nothing. It's still popping out going down the road.

I tried a mount test by putting it in first and holding the brake down. Its not really jumping too much in the engine bay. It rumbles a lot when the ac is on though.

And do I just buy thr shifter arm or the whole assembly?

Is it the shifter or the mounts or the clutch? The clutch may be showing signs of wear. It is slipping ever so slightly sometimes, if it slipping feels like the motor missing some. It cant be missing. I replaced the spark plugs and coil packs about 5k ago.

thesupersoap33

Update: it was the manual trans fluid. Drained out roughly 6 oz only and it was super black. Probably would have fried the whole tranny if I had kept driving it like that. I dont know where the leak came from, but Honda sent me home with new fill and drain plug washers with the mft, so hopefully that does it.

Thanks people!

blwrdr

Keep an eye on it. The ‘01-02’ had a different 5th gear from the ‘03-‘05 models. There was a TSB at one point about it and the fix was to replace the actual gear. I had to do it on my ‘01 at around 175k.

thesupersoap33

It's an 04. Idk what a tsb is lol.

It's got 410k. Most days, I'm certain I can keep her forever. Ole patricia...

Slumpertcivic

410k without ever changing the transmission fluid?

No wonder it was 90% gone and cooked..

thesupersoap33

What? I changed it when I changed the axles. It looked fine and drained fine.

blwrdr

TSB stands for Tech Service Bulletin. It’s a notice from the motor corp on how to fix known issues.