Civic transmission failures? 2001.

[OVERKILL]

The mother of a good friend of my wife is getting rid of her Civic. It is a car I've driven a few times years ago, and other than a gutless wonder that had some interesting front-end noise, it was what I considered a decent economy car.

The car is a 2001, don't know the mileage off-hand. She just GAVE it to her brother because the transmission went out of it. Now, I know Honda transmissions don't have a reputation for being very durable, but I thought that was really only the V6 cars?

Anyway, one transmission, it's an '01, I'm curious as to why she GAVE it away.... Discover this is transmission #3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They were done at the local Honda dealer; that is where she has always got ALL her service done.

She's currently out shopping for a Focus. Her daughter has an '01 (identical to my wife's, but blue, and with fewer power options) that has been a rock. She's had it almost the same amount of time as her mom has had the Civic (she bought it new), and so that was her logical choice to pursue for a replacement apparently. From what I've been told.

I assume this is NOT a common occurrence? This is right up there with Dodge Caravan transmission failures! lol

 

[cryption]

My roommate had an 02 civic that went through 3 transmissions.

My Acura CL (V6 car) had the transmission go out at 66,xxx miles and the dealer told me it was a known problem and they were surprised the car went that long. Sold it to get a Jetta that has driven 45,xxx miles in less then a year without problems.

I'll never buy another Honda.

 

[brianl703]

A friend of mine has an 01 Civic and the transmission [censored] the bed at around 120k.

 

[rclint]

I was aware of some Honda transmission failures, however I had a 97 Accord I4 with 267k on it with never having the transmission fluid changed, with ZERO problems ever with the transmission.

 

[sciphi]

Honda's AT's are not very good. It's a fairly common thing to replace the transmission on certain Honda models. Lots of people drink the Honda kool-aid about Z-1 ATF not needing changing until 60k miles, or when the warranty expires. I've posted several times about the Fit's AT roasting its ATF in 18k miles. I drained and refilled with more Z-1 to keep warranty, and added a Magnefine for filtration. Now at 26k miles it's still red. I'm planning on changing the ATF again at the next oil change in 4-5k miles.

Honda's recent auto transmissions are not the best, and their ATF isn't the greatest at dealing with their issues.

 

[Cutehumor]

overkill, I believe patman has a civic of the same year. I don't think he's reported any problems with his civic's transmission.

 

[barlowc]

My mother-in-law has a 2001 Civic EX sedan with about 75K miles on it. I just recently did a 4x drain/fill of the transmission using Z1 and it was the first time since she bought the car new that it had been done. The fluid that came out during the initial drain didn't look too bad and the magnetic drain plug wasn't too bad either. The shift-quality is a bit improved now, as would be expected after the 4x drain/fill. Overall the transmission seems to be doing fine.

 

[SLCraig]

That generation is known to have a bad automatic trans.
I've seen it posted on all kinds of other forums for 01/02 civic automatics having problems.

 

[cwing6]

My mother has an '01 Civic (bought new) and the transmission went out at 50K. Honda replaced under warranty, but she has had nothing but trouble with it - alternator, motor mounts, headliner falling, power windows quit working, etc., etc. She had all maintenance done according to the owners manual at the dealership. The Honda service manager commented last week when replacing the motor mounts that she has had about everything replaced on the car that could be replaced. Only has 90K miles on it. This is her third Honda (the first 2 were great) and she will not have another one. She is now looking for a Focus also.

 

[JHZR2]

coworker had an 01 that had a flaring AT at 40k. Got rid of it shortly after.

 

[pbm]

The 2001 Honda Civic is the second worst vehicle according to carcomplaints.com
with a whopping 580 transmission complaints.

http://www.carcomplaints.com/worst_vehicles.shtml

I notice that 3 of the top 11 worst vehicles are Hondas.....

 

[sciphi]

Honda has some great designers. The Fit's interior is easily the most functional of any small/midsize car out there. Lots of nooks and clever design things, like the rear seat that flips up to the seatbacks, and flips down to make a totally flat cargo floor.

Unfortunately the bean-counters then ran through it through the $$$ wringer, so it's a mass of nicely textured black plastic. The parts you touch are okay, though.

 

[exranger06]

My friend used to have an 02 Civic that he beat the ever living c**p out of almost every day, including shifting it manually and WOT runs. Never had any trouble with the trans, and I don't think he ever changed the fluid either. I don't remember how many miles it had, but it must've been around 100k. He'd still be driving it if he didn't total it.

 

[Ausfahrt]

Get one with a stick. Ours gets used and abused as our hauling vehicle, 166000 miles without any problems and still on the original clutch.

Pickup truck free since 2004.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: cwing6
My mother has an '01 Civic (bought new) and the transmission went out at 50K. Honda replaced under warranty, but she has had nothing but trouble with it - alternator, motor mounts, headliner falling, power windows quit working, etc., etc. She had all maintenance done according to the owners manual at the dealership. The Honda service manager commented last week when replacing the motor mounts that she has had about everything replaced on the car that could be replaced. Only has 90K miles on it. This is her third Honda (the first 2 were great) and she will not have another one. She is now looking for a Focus also.


Funny you mention the headliner! It fell out of this car as well.

 

[Dave Hess]

My mom also has a 2001 Civic LX with auto trans and I've drained/refilled the Z-1 ATF four times. The car only has 45K miles and so far the only thing that went bad was a Cam shaft position sensor ($40).