My vehicle has what honda has titled "a slip and judder" that occurs in the transmission and causes failure to accelerate from a stop or slow speeds. Honda issued a recall of 1st generation models of 2003-2005 civic hybrids in japan to resolve this issue. However, they only issued a limited warranty extension for these cars in united states. The resolution honda recommends does not remediate this failure. Honda recommends burnishing the starter clutch and changing the transmission fluid. Independent mechanics recommend replacing the starter clutch and bearings which is substantially more costly. It would seem that honda equipped these vehicles with a substandard transmission unable to accommodate the weight of the vehicle. The transmission fails with additional passengers not only during needed acceleration points, but also when driving on inclines. This failure causes danger when acceleration is needed to avoid collisions and/or when entering a freeway. Countless complaints of this same issue is easily found on many automotive websites with owners reporting between 100,000 and 20,000 odometer miles. It is my opinion that this dangerous condition should be investigated to insure the safety of the drivers and passengers of these vehicles as well as those driving alongside them. I have little doubt that this condition has been a factor in collisions and will increase over time. In simple terms, one could liken this response to a drivers foot slipping off the gas pedal while accelerating.
2005 Honda Civic Hybrid transmission complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 21 of 21, newest first, as owners wrote them.
A friend was driving us back home on the highway at speeds of 55-65 miles per hour, getting on an off ramps. She is an experienced driver and it was the first time she had driven my car. She told me that the steering wheel was very wobbly, the car was shaking and she felt she had no control over the vehicle; she had trouble steering. I had several incidents after that when I had start-up/judder vibration and extreme grinding when accelerating from a stop. It felt like the car was slipping out of gear. Honda determined the CVT transmission was bad; it was classified as slip/judder in honda's service bulletins 07-049 and 07-050 but I never received a recall notice. Honda paid 50% of the cost of replacing the clutch in september 2013 but the severe acceleration/slipping problems continued and within a week of having the clutch replaced I sold the car. I had bought it used with 28k miles on it; I sold it when it had 41k miles (I had driven it only 12k miles in six years and took a big loss on the sale). I was afraid I would have a terrible accident in it as it was absolutely unsafe. When I told honda I was still having these problems after the clutch replacement they told me to take it back to the dealer again; this had been four months of dealing with CVT transmission problems and I had spent enormous amounts of time on trying to fix a known civic hybrid defect so I traded in the car.
Several months ago, I notice my car would shudder/ judder when it starts to drive/go. Then I read online that it is happening to quite a few cars from 2003 to 2005 experiencing this problem. I bought a extend warranty (7 years) but the honda dealership will not honor anything anymore. I recommend there just be a recall on this issue. It's dangerous situation. Http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0b3259/0.
In 2007 a honda dealership conducted upgrades to my 2005 honda civic hybrid computer system without my consent. It was in the dealership for recall notices. Immediately my gas mileage went from 52mpg to 26mpg. The dealership refused to correct the problem. The dealership said the upgrade to the computer system should not have diminished the mpg. 2012 the transmission went out in the car, I got the run around by the dealership on why the transmission went out. I was misdirected by a transmission company that said they could rebuild my transmission. The honda dealership had to step in to track down issues with the new transmission. Honda refused to accept responsibility for bad transmission parts. 2013 the ima and check engine lights are on. I am unable to register my vehicle due to the ima and check engine light disqualify my car from passing a smog test. The 2007 computer system upgrade caused my ima system to malfunction for years by not holding a charge causing low mpg. Now the ima/battery pack is malfunctioning to the point it has to be replaced. Honda refuses to accept the responsibility of their mistakes and fix my ima system.
The transmission started "juddering" (slipping from start) early on at around 30k miles. The fluid was then changed and it would be fine until around 60k when it started doing it again. When the car is cold, the occurrence seem to less than when it's driven after a few miles. The car now has 95k on it, and the slippage and juddering" is now more pronounced and louder specially on inclines, up or down.
My car has what honda calls a slip and judder that occurs from transmission failure upon acceleration from stop. Honda issued a recall for the first generation models of the civic hybrid ('03-'05) in japan to address the issue, but only an extended warranty on the one's in the united states. The fix that honda recommends will not actually remediate the transmission failure. They recommend burnishing the starter clutch and changing the transmission fluid. Independent mechanics have recommended a new starter clutch and new bearings, an obviously more expensive fix. The real problem is that honda chose to use a CVT that cannot handle the load of more than one passenger in a car accelerating on a flat or decline road. The CVT fails when the load on the transmission is exacerbated by more than one passenger and uphill driving. The transmission failure can be dangerous accelerating on an onramp to a highway, as in my case. Complaints of the CVT issue were not hard to come across on automotive related websites. Some of the complainants had issues at 100,000 miles, others at only 20,000. The federal safety agency should examine this issue further for the safety of first generation honda civic hybrid owners.
Tried to accelerate on to the highway, the vehicle judder and slipped. I could not gain enough speed to get ahead of traffic and other car's almost collided with my vehicle. This is a common dangerous occurrence when driving the car. Honda is aware of issue and refuses to repair.
From what I has been told to me by the dealer, the starter clutch in the transmission of the CVT civic hybrid becomes deficient and upon initial acceleration, from a stop, you feel a harsh jutter which gets worse with time until it fails. They put out a service bulletin but this only covers cars within warranty. But since out of warranty, they want people to pay $1500 to $200 for a problem which should never occurred.
Multiple failures of the continous variable transmission dealership just changes transmission fluid until now, since vehicle is out of warranty they now recommend a transmission replacement. American honda motor will not cover the repairs.
2005 honda civic hybrid began juddering when taking off from a stop. The transmission also began slipping. Honda has acknowledged problem with the CVT transmission and extended the warranty to 105,000 miles or 7 years. However, they initially insist on attempting to fix the problem with a procedure called "burnishing". This procedure takes care of the problem temporarily, but juddering and slipping eventually comes back. This is not a permanent fix. The starter clutch needs to be replaced, a more extensive and expensive repair, but the only repair that fixes the problem for good. Honda has a known defect, and they have used a band-aid approach to the repair; forcing customers to burnish the transmission before they will replace the starter clutch. Customers have been forced out of the warranty period by burnishing and then having to wait for the problem to re-occur. Safety is an issue here as the transmission slips and hesitates when trying to pull out in traffic.
Transmission is juddering when accelerating from a stop. I'm only 10,000 miles over the 105,000 extended transmission warranty (they know the transmissions are broken), and I have an extremely extensive service record with the dealer. They refuse to work with me on the issue. A recall should be issued on the CVT transmission and starter clutch, and the warranty should be extended to 200,000 miles.
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