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2014 Honda Civic EX with 140,000 miles with the CVT transmission. Was pulling into a parking lot and all the sudden the car felt like the wheels where trying to lock up. When I shifted to neutral, it was fine so I kinda knew something was going on with the trans. I was able to get the car home and found that the top fill plug was off. I pulled the drain bolt in the bottom and a bunch of chunks of metal came with it (image attached). I did some research and saw there was a recall for the 14-15 Civics because the CVT pressure got to high and broke the drive pulley belt. Ran my vin and the car did not show up for any recalls. Did a little research on here and it sounds like other people have had similar issues. I want to get more information about the recall and the software fix they put in place. I called Honda America and they told me to call the dealership. I called the dealership and they told me they don't have that type of information and there is nothing they can do for me.

I feel like Honda is really screwing me on this one. They know they have a pressure issue with this CVT transmission but they refuse to fix the car. I am very frustrated and just wanted to see if you guys had any advice on working or going after Honda for the cost of the repairs?

Seems like tracking down a used transmission is going to be the way to go. Spoke with a shop yesterday that said you can get used transmission with about 50k miles for about $500.

 
Rep Power: 0

Can anyone confirm those are chunks of the drive pulley belt?

 
Rep Power: 0

Hello aschattke,

If you haven't had your Civic repaired with that used transmission DON'T. The National Highway Traffic Safety Commission is investigating whether Honda should have cast a wider net when they decided which cars would be involved in the October 2015 recall which provided an update to 2014-2015 Civic's computer software to prevent high stress to the drive pulley shaft due to high hydraulic pressure. If Honda relents and our cars get recalled after all, you might not be reimbursed for the costs you incurred installing a used transmission at a non-Honda dealership shop. But even if you have already done the repair, you should still file a complaint with NHTSA so they can see just how big a problem this is. By my calculation, of the approximately 138,000 Civics manufactured between January and November 2014, approximately 120,000 were recalled. Honda left approximately 18,000 Civics out of the recall because they believe those 18,000 did not have drive pulley shafts that were at the low end of the hardness specification. However, even if our drive pulley shafts were harder, we still have the software shortcoming that, over every mile we've driven, has potentially subjected that shaft to the high stress of high hydraulic pressure. The recall only cost 1/3 hr of labor each to perform. At a $100/hr labor rate, Honda paid their dealers $33.33 for each recall. But now, those of us with ruined transmissions are having to fork over $5000-$6000 on cars not worth much more.

If you've gone ahead with the used transmission, if you can determine the VIN number from the car it came out of, you should verify that it had the recall computer update done. If not, you could be headed for the same failure again at any time. I found documentation online that indicated that 20% of the 120,000 never took their cars in for the update.

Please report your problem to the only organization that can do anything about it - NHTSA. You can call them at 888-327-4236 and depend on a call center person to type it up accurately (I don't recommend this - they sent me the call transcript of my report and it was not accurate). Or go to safercar.org and fill out a complaint. You can attach up to 5 supporting documents this way.

Good luck!