Rep Power: 303

Well i've been reading up on tranny issues and i've had a few questions. First a couple of observations I've made. 1. I've noticed my car will sometimes jump out of first into second (kinda like it's pushing against your hand). 2. Also i've noticed that if i put my hand on the shift **** while it's in second gear i can feel the gears moving slightly. 3. Sometimes when stopped the tranny won't go into 1st all the way but when i go into 2nd then back it will enter 1st fine. On occasion it will do vise versa where it'll only go halfway into 2nd. Once i had it happen to both gears at the same time which wasn't fun as the light turned green. Symptoms 1&3 have only happened on a regular occasion when i first got the car, symptom 2 is still noticable. Are these normal symptoms of a tranny going bad? Or me overreacting? Some background on my car: 2004 EX (SI CDN) coupe with 15000km. Bought as a demo with 9700km which probably means it was the car everyone test drove and beat the shat out of. Any suggestions or insight would be greatly appreciated.

 
Rep Power: 288

My shift **** also shakes in second slightly. Sometimes I have to shift 2nd gear to first because it won't go into first without some force.

I've never had a problem with it going halfway into 2nd gear though. I've never had my tranny jump out of gear either. I've heard of other members who have had their tranny's jump out of gear.

 
Rep Power: 303

well it doesn't really jump out just gives a little xtra force. enough to notice it.

 
Rep Power: 0

ya im having similar problems, also wont go into reverse sometimes

 
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I have had the same issues before too. When my car sits overnight in the cold or all day at work, until it warms up the first couple shifts are rough. I also noticed when the engine is cold the RPMs drop a lot faster when shifting, so you gotta really shift fast to make it a smooth ride. I did change out my manual gearbox fluid. Drained out the factory stuff and refilled with RedLine Synthetic MTL. Whoa what a differance that made alone, shifts are super smooth now and I even picked up a little extra MPG

 
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It's funny how I keep running into people that are having similar problems with their 04 trannys, but Honda claims nothing's wrong with them, it won't work because I can't drive.

 
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I dont know if its a problem or not. I think it may just be that these gearboxes are so tight in these new cars. I can honestly say with my car now having 7,500 miles on it, it does feel better than when it was new. Better tight than sloppy. I am just gonna keep driving it till it breaks, the problems are only intermittant, if it was something mechanically serious it would do it all of the time. Like I said the fluid change to synthetic did help out a lot

 
Rep Power: 303

well that's what i was thinking to. since i put 6000km on it it hasn't happened much lately

 
Rep Power: 813

My 02 tranny is the same. It's an auto and always feels different shifting. I think all the newer 01+ civics all have tranny problems. I always hear how the older honda trannies go almost 200k miles without breaking. Even the cvt can take more abuse.

 
Rep Power: 303

what's the average life of the 7th gen tranny's? is there aftermarket tranny's or other honda tranny's that will fit the civic and actually last?

 
Rep Power: 813

Average life so far is between 5k and 100k miles. Yeah some go out right away. I have a tranny cooler, but it probably won't help much. There are aftermarket race trannies or other replacements, but those are expensive. Level10 or something makes em for turbo cars.

 
Rep Power: 0

I guess it all just depends on how it is driven and taken care of. Watch someone drive in a parking lot someday, people dont come to a complete stop from reverse and then slam it intro drive, they are barely stopped and just throw it into park, drive fast without even letting the car warm up for 10 seconds. Cars really are durable, but some people have no common sense and then blame it on poor quality. I have a buddy with a 01 5 speed never had a problem in 120k miles. Then I know people with automatics that had problem after their first fluid change at 30k. Seems like the manual is the way to go with these cars.

 
Rep Power: 303

i have done the reverse thing on rare occasion and paid for it by grinding.

 
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you know whats funny? rsx owners have similar problems with 2nd and 3rd gear, one theory is... this generation is amoung the first batch of cars to be equipt with a HONDA transmission. Yes thats right, honda didn't make their transmissions prior to 01', some other company made it for them, starts with an "S", can't remember the name, something japanese... anyways, it would make economical sense that honda would break away eventually from relying on another company to make their transmissions for them. So I know for sure that the RSX-S (aka integra to the rest of the world) was the first integra generation to have a honda built transmissions, they are fairly new at building them or in other terms, unexperienced. However, i hear the S2000 still has a transmission supplied and built by that company, thats why it kicks butt, and the newer honda cars don't.

 
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oh wait, i just realized the way i worded it was that it was a "theory", its not a theory that this is honda's first go around on making their own transmissions and it was supplied prior, its a fact... but its a theory that they have problems because its their first time.

 
Rep Power: 303

that would make sense but their engineering is usually pretty damn good.

 
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Hey I have the same problems. Ever since I drove it off the lot with only 2 miles on it. It won't go into reverse some times. I'll be at a light in N and when it changes try to shift into 1st and it wont go. Like there is something blocking it. So I shift into 3rd then back to 1st and it goes in. I took my car in for service the first week i had it and they told me that it was fine and shifting into 3rd then first is normal? Never heard of that crap on a brand new car? Oh yeah and it jumps out 1st too. Last weekend I was taking off at this light and it jumped out and kinda slipped out of my hand and I grinded the hell out of 2nd. I was pissed. Then other times it shifts so smooth. It's like driving another car. I love it when it's like that. I'm scared to take it back to honda because now i have all these mods and they'll prolly blame that instead of admitting it is their problem.
I only have 3k miles maybe it's not broken in yet. I dunno, but I just wish it was smooth all the time.
Later

 
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ya with my car theres days it drives really good, and then theres those times when it drives like ****(wont go into reverse, wont go into gear) but lately the only problem has been with it not going into reverse