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Raining a lot and I had been delivering food as ubereats etc. I got into some water flooded areas and by night the car was having like a whining noise when I accelerated, next day gear shift skipped. Never had it happen before in 15 years. So I did get into water flood again next day after already having the problem and I got water in my interior carpet and now I'm batting into shampoo and vacuum and removing all interior plastic sides and all. But what's hurting the most is the transmission, so today I did another fluid change and the car have a rattling noise in parking at idle coming from the transmission. The engine is perfect but now that I accelerated in parking the rpms peak at 5000rpm . Could this be a sensor problem again? Could it be the transmission having to do with sensor damage or is it else? I had been using valvoline max life atf since the last 4 fluid change also. Please any of you experienced experts here guide me through this, I need this car to last me 15 years more. It's my second home

Feel depressed with this happening after I replaced so many parts in over a year and now got all shassis parts new and new tires and alignment and the car was running so perfectly smooth like brand new . My God. Also bought today a new transmission dipstick and fit tight in this time, always was worried since the beginning why the OEM one was all loose

 
Rep Power: 224

Any faults? What year and how many miles are on the car? 2001 and some 2002 MY auto transmissions were hot garbage.

This is normal, nothing to worry about. With the automatic transmission engine speed is limited to 5,000 RPM when the vehicle is stationary.

I have no experience with Valvoline ATF but I've heard others have experienced issues when not using the Honda stuff. OEM is always recommended, it may be worthwhile replacing it again.

Also, how deep was the water? You may have water sitting in connectors and causing issues.

 
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2005 lx 172,000 miles. Ty for the recent info.
The transmission is making that grinding noise with the car on parking idle. Took a video to see if I can upload the sound
there rain water flood in south Florida been raining too much and the first day I got into like a foot of water or so and that same day I started getting a transmission sound then next day gears skipping a little or so and then got into deeper water . Hundreds of cars stranded everywhere on the road for water flood. Is not possible to drive under such conditions.

 
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Here the video, please if you don't mind listening to it, just uploaded there had trouble getting it directly on the forum here
https://vimeo.com/423162358

 
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the noise settled now at idle and is normal unless I accelerate reapear the noise

 
Rep Power: 224

I can't really tell in the video. Are you sure it's coming from the transmission and not something on the serpentine belt (A/C compressor, alternator, PS pump)?

 
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yeah, its coming from the transmission side. Serpentine belt I already bought both new and will replace them. I know the difference in sound and right there at the video the belts are fine, only that weird noise from the transmission, I wonder if it has to do with some sensor down there or whatever things the transmission has that can get damage. I read about solenoids, not sure if there's 2 in it? I went for a ride to home depot and its having difficulty shifting sometimes and all else runs fine

 
Rep Power: 224

And there aren't any fault codes? You could try unplugging the solenoid valve connectors and cleaning with contact cleaner, it's possible water got inside the connector and is causing problems. The solenoids are on the front passenger side of the transmission, towards the bottom.

 
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I used valvoline max atf for quite a while (100K miles or more) before switching. I only switched because I couldn't find it anymore at my local store. I had no worries with it!
My transmission dipstick had to be replaced too. Common thing here. No worries either. good luck.

 
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I haven't scanned yet, probably take it to autozone. Yes going to check on that and cleaning to see. 😎
awesome man, that's a relief to know. 🤪.

so glad you people exist, thanks for all that info will see how it goes now I'm more convinced is the water affecting some sensor, solenoid or something. I strip the whole interior carpet yesterday. Still got much to be doing

 
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Before anything my question would be, is the transmission fully functional once you start the engine just being in idle parking mode? If so what would be the parts operating inside if the car is not moving? Because the noise problem is active that way and maybe we could find clues this way. How and where did the water affect

wanted to say, last year I had to take the bottom splash shield off and that might had caused something to get wet in the transmission area. I had the car sitting there doing other cleaning and many things so I can get under tomorrow and unplug and clean each connectors or whatever there is and see what happens. Now I know how important splash shields are, hope I can find solution

 
Rep Power: 224

In park the torque converter as well as the main shaft in the transmission are still moving. I thought you had said the noise went away at idle. If you're sure the noise is coming from the transmission when idling I would assume a bad bearing somewhere. Doesn't really explain why the trans is shifting funny though.

I would still look at and clean the few connectors on the transmission that may have been submerged and then see if shifting improves. It's free and easy to do. If no improvement is seen honestly I would start looking for a replacement transmission or I would just keep driving it until it became undrive-able.

 
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After engine warmup at idle and rpm go low the noise settle down or stops but once I accelerate it's there, the same day I drove through water all day the noise started, everything worked so perfectly smooth until then, so it has to be a water causing type of damage. I never abused this car transmission and always shifted smoothly cause I know some people don't know how to properly drive cars with automatic transmission and they are disastrous

 
Rep Power: 367

Auto? They should be in:
- Park
- Drive
- Reverse
I put on neutral when stopped at lights.
Use the 2/3 only when driving in low traction situations like snow.
That's it.

Now concerning your issue:
are you sure nothing got loose when it hit water?
in the past, I had:
- A clunk sound when acceleration/braking/cornering. Took years to find that previous owner had lost a glass coke bottle under the rear seat...
- in the civic, a flapping sound coming from the engine bay area. Turns out it was a zip tie that got in the way of the radiator fan.
- beeping sound sometimes. Found a wrist watch lost under the seat

maybe @ezone have even funnier stories

 
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damn putting it in neutral everytime I'm at a light, wouldn't that engage and disengage cause wearing too?
now that you mentioned the only symptom I noticed prior the water flood day was that sometimes I had little trouble engaging direct gear after reversing, the light on the board would slightly blink.

besides all that everything shifted perfectly fine and no noise or anything strange, everything happened that raining day after driving all day and part of night when going back home i could hear that whine sound from the transmission.

2nd slightly skip and 3rd gear does like 2 skips. 4th gear smoothly barely noticed when it shift.

I took out in front of transmission torque converter sensor, another one sensor close in front and that bigger solenoid one on front. Carefully Cleaned all even though I didn't notice any dirt on the solenoid one or torque converter one. Also replaced the thermostat on the process. I'm missing now taking off the one of the side and the rest of plugs on the back. But I test it now and still have the problem, so will see after I do the same to the rest of the solenoid and sensors.

I bought a esthestoscope from harbor freight and the noise comes from the transmission on idle when the rpm are above1100 or 1200rpm once it settles below 1000 the noise is gone.

I bought some cheaper brand CV joints shaft last year and I also thought if those are safe compared to OEM or can there enter some water through where the shaft enters the transmission?

3 weeks ago or so I had new Michelin tires at Costco, all chassis parts and struts replaced. Went to professional alignment shop and the guy there told me I had car for another 15 years there, he also recommended me to clean intake valve for carbon residue and the starter motor solenoid which I replaced too.

 
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Last night finally transmission gave up, engine light on and cannot go faster than 30mph . Some mechanic guy at advance auto parts told me the symptoms and said it is very common on these honda civics that best bet is to buy one made in Japan running low mileage than repairing. He gave me estimate $800 to buy one and 350 to mount it and all. Damn what should I do,

 
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showed fluid levels as low, they aren't. The guy at autozone says the knock sensor activated and if I had gotten into water to wait a few days and see what happens but been like 5 days already.