Rep Power: 0

So I have a friend, and have done work for him on vehicles he has (ford Deisel truck, sissors truck, other cars) and I helped him find a great deal on a really clean Ford van for his wife to drive-he asked me if I wanted his 03 Civic LX )four door), so now it's my 19 year-old daughter's first car. It has 104,000 miles, and the engine is in good condition, but the trans takes a long time for the 2-3 shift when cold-after it warms up. it seems to be alright.

I spent about $400 putting on new tires, registering it, getting mats and car seat covers (car was filthy, the rear bench seat (bottom) needs to be replaced-it's gray if anyone knows where I could find one. Also, the keys for this car are weird-there is a 'master' key that has a silver 'h' on it, starts the car and will unlock the trunk, the fold-down seat lock, and the trunk lock-out-that's all. there is a valet key (gray) that only starts the car, and there is a plain black key that opens the driver's side ONLY-I do not have a key for the passenger side door.
I want to add a remote door opener-what is the best way to do this? I need a bench seat (bottom, gray) and am in the Philadelphia area. And, Ideas on the trans-I have drained and replaced the trans through the drain hole (twice) which only gets about 3 quarts out, have done this twice (when my friend's wife owned it) and it is a little better than it was, but that long shift from 2ed to 3rd is not good. thanks for any suggestions.

 
Rep Power: 812

its just the well known clutch pack defect causing it to slip. if it drives fine once warmed up, i wouldnt worry about it. you should still get alot of life from it. mine started slipping at 50k and im now at 90k and nothing got worse. when the fluid is cold its too thick and that together with the poorly made clutch disc causes slipping. there is nothing you can do short of a full rebuild of the trans which isnt worth doing til it dies completely and wont shift. this could be 100k miles later.

 
Rep Power: 812

for remote entry, easiest way is get aftermarket alarm if you have power locks. if not, you have to add power locks first.

 
Rep Power: 0

thanks for that, I told her not to 'beat' on it when cold for the sake of the trans- for the door opener, I installed a 'designtech' remote door opener on an olds intrigue (2000) and it was pretty easy-the civic does have power door locks, i just wanted to know if it can be done without any issues with security systems, I know nothing about these cars and was surprised to find that the ignition key is chipped (and very pricy!)-I am going to get a remote door kit for it and have at it, is it possible that this car already has the module for a door opener, and just needs a remote? How could I find out?

 
Rep Power: 812

you can easily add an alarm and have it use the factory power locks. but, im pretty sure only the ex models came with keyless entry remote system. and instead of trying to add factory keyless entry, its better to just get aftermarket alarm that will be more functional.

 
Rep Power: 0

[CENTER]thanks again, it's probably going to get the remote opener soon, just a matter of getting one and going through the really inane instructions for installation-still need to find a bench seat (just the 'bottom, gray) for a 2003, and it would be great if I can find a direction to make this thing have a little more *****-it is smooth, and pulls ok fopr what it is, but the tiny exhaust and the cluster f*gh it has for an intake makes me think it needs the recipe for more juice-thanks

 
Rep Power: 0

I installed the door opener today, no issues, worked right out of the box, with two remotes it cost only $40 at PepBoys-I had to drill a hole through the firewall to get fulltime power for the module, and am surprised that there seemed to be no openings in the firewall-this is a nice little car though, and is pretty easy to work on.

the long drawn-out 2-3 shift when cold will probably be worse when the weather is cold, right? Is the trans fluid from honda too thick, is there another trans fluid that would correct this?

 
Rep Power: 0

Talk to the local auto parts guys about using synthetic motor oil.
I have 5w30 full syn. in my 91 Accord manual trans and will be
putting 5w20 in my 03 Civic sooooon. Seems to work very well.

 
Rep Power: 812

for auto trans, oem fluid is best, its just too thick in the winter and theres no way around this. once it gets above freezing, the lag should go away. in winter, it will slip until the trans fluid warms up. just drive it slow at first.

 
Rep Power: 0

Yea, I have done a trans service (twice) so far, with honda Z1 fluid-no difference, I just told her not to be hard on it when cold-I actually have her drive it in '2' for the first couple of miles and manually shift to 'D3' at higher speeds until it warms up, so there is no real issue with the long delay from 2 to 3.

To the previous poster, I only use full synthetic engine oil in all my vehicles, expensive (not in a Honda though-3.2 quarts w/filter!) and I use a good filter (ie NOT a FRAM)-

I just replaced the battery with an Optima yellow top (51R) and did the front brakes with new ceramics after replacing the rotors with R! drilled/slotted disks-it is a fun little car and I found that my wife and I tend to 'borrow' my daughters LX for errands since it is fun to drive and good on gas-even with the AC on, it is getting close to 30 MPG around town and the AC (just put gauges on it and topped it off with 134) blows out the vents at 40 degrees.

The remote door opener worked out of the box first time, and was easy and cheap-$40, came with 2 remotes. It is better for her since she doesn't have to lock the doors with the key anymore. Took less than one hour to install too.

 
Rep Power: 0

been a while since I was on here, and my daughter's honda chugs along-it now has about 111,000 on it, and consistently gets 30+ mpg. The trans does not want to do the 2-3 shift unless 'fooled'-start out in d3, when it shifts to second, DROP it into second, then go up to D3 or D, shifts normally that way(???) I would like to find out why the trans does this-thanks