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2002 Honda Civic acceleration complaints

Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 25 of 25, newest first, as owners wrote them.

See the summary of 2002 Honda Civic acceleration problems: which part fails, at what mileage and related recalls.

Filed May 18, 2011 · Acceleration · 122,000 miles · CA

I was driving my car on the freeway up a slight incline. My honda was usually sluggish going uphill and would rev to about 3000 rpms before shifting into 4th gear at approx 55mph. However, on this particular occasion, I kept accelerating the car up the incline, but at 60mph the car's rpms were increasing to the red line zone meaning the car was not shifting. Since my car had never done this before, I was confused and also I was concerned the rpms would increase too much so I attempted to apply the brakes to slow the speed of the car. The brakes felt as if they had locked up, would not press down, and barely slowed the car to 55mph. I took my foot off of the brake pedal and without my foot pressing down on the accelerator or the brake pedal, the car quickly accelerated on it's own to 70mph and the rpms were red lining. I quickly applied the brakes again, which were doing little to slow my car. The brakes were competing with the acceleration and myself and my two passengers could smell the brakes burning. I checked that the floor mat was out of the way and it was. I checked that cruise control wasn't turned on and it wasn't. I applied the brakes as hard as I could and was able to decelerate the car to 40mph with the rpms still red lining. Then I shifted the car into neutral, and although the cars rpms were out of control, the shift into neutral decelerated the car to about 10 MPH. I pulled the e-brake and shut off the engine. At this time the brakes were visibly smoking. I contacted the honda dealership who was incredibly reluctant to help. In a meeting with the manager, he even stated, "how do we know your foot wasn't on the accelerator the whole time?" I inspected the air cleaner box cover myself and saw no damage (due to a recall I read about on that make/model). Honda found nothing wrong, said the car was "operating as designed" and sent me home with a bill.

Filed Dec 28, 2010 · Acceleration · 112,000 miles · TX

Tl* the contact owns 2002 honda civic. The contact stated that the vehicle independently accelerated to 80 MPH without the accelerator pedal being depressed. The contact attempted to apply the brakes but to no avail. The vehicle stopped independently and was towed to the dealer for inspection. The dealer advised that the throttle position sensor had failed. The vehicle was repaired. The failure and current mileage was 112,000. The VIN was unavailable.

Filed Nov 20, 2010 · Acceleration · 140,400 miles · FL

I was trying to slow in a school zone when, although my foot was on the brakes, my 2002 honda civic suddenly started accelerating. Even with continued pressure on the brake the acceleration continued. When I was able to stop the car I put it in park and the engine was revving. I turned off the car and when I restarted it was fine. It has not happened since.

Filed Apr 6, 2010 · Acceleration · 146,000 miles · NE · crash

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 honda civic. The contact stated that she pulled into a parking space and when she put the vehicle in reverse it suddenly accelerated forward and hit a brick wall.the contact stated that she had not placed her foot on the accelerator pedal. The front bumper fell off due to the crash. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealership for a diagnostic test but the dealer could not duplicate the failure. The current and failure mileages were approximately 146,000.

Filed Mar 3, 2010 · Acceleration · OR

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 honda civic. She stated that while driving at 3 MPH when parking and having her foot on the brake when the vehicle started to idle fast and accelerated on its own. While driving over a speed bump the vehicle rolled backwards and stopped. The failure has occurred 3 times. The vehicle was towed to a honda dealer. The dealer was unable to duplicate or diagnose the failure. No repairs were made to the vehicle. The failure mileage was unknown and the current mileage was 19100.

Filed May 30, 2005 · Acceleration · AZ

2002 honda civic, automatic transmission. Three times since purchase new in 2002, the engine has suddenely accelerated and continues to rev up to 3000rpm while braking, definitely not with foot on accelerator, twice in reverse and once in drive. Vehicle lurches and only very hard braking prevents vehicle motion until the engine can be turned off. There is no floor mat involved.

Filed Nov 12, 2004 · Acceleration, Transmission · 24,200 miles · NY

I was driving up an incline at about 35 MPH on the parkway, and needed to accelerate up the hill. I pressed on the gas pedal, and it hardly moved and I got no response. All of a sudden, the pedal pulled away from my foot downward towards the floor, and the car accelerated uncontrollably. With the possibility that cruise control was accidentally put on (which I hardly ever use), I immediately stepped on the brake to stop the acceleration, and there was no response. I was still accelerating, so I put the car into neutral, and it was still revving out of control. (the RPM was in the red zone) I finally put the toe of my boot under the gas pedal to try to lift it up off the floor, and it finally gave, and went back to normal. I then proceeded toward home, at a voluntary 20 MPH. I am taking it to the honda service center for evaluation.

Filed Mar 10, 2004 · Acceleration · 10,850 miles · IL

While depressing the brake pedal to decelerate vehicle accelerated to a high rate. Consumer shut off the vehicle, and restarted the engine. Dealership was notified, but did not resolve the problem. *ak dealer replaced throttle body and cable.

Filed Apr 2, 2003 · Acceleration · 15,000 miles · NJ · crash

While leaving parking lot it was very dark as lights were out in front of and behind me and it was difficult to see behind me. I proceeded slowly in reverse and lightly hit the cement base of light behind me. I felt the impact on back right . I immediately placed my right foot on the brake. The car was stopped. I then tried to put the car into drive while doing this I noticed that the engine was loud and revving up speed and actually moving while I had my right foot on the brake and no foot on the gas. My first thought was that from the revving noise the accelerator pedal was stuck. I checked this with my right foot and felt that the gas pedal was up and not down as it sounded. I next put the car into park, we continued to move at an accelerated pace. I then placed both my feet on the brake pedal. I used as much force as I could, I did this by stepping on the brake with both feet and pulling up on the steering wheel to give me more force and pressure. The car did not slow down , did not skid , showed no signs of slowing down. I next pulled the emergency brake as hard as I could with my right hand, still the car did not slow down. There was a dumpster ahead to my left, a large parking lot light with a cement base to the right and a fence between them. I aimed the car between the dumpster and light. The car was still accelerating, no signs of slowing down. I made the decision to go over the curb hit the fence in the hopes that this would slow the car down in order to gain control. While going through the fence both feet were applied to the brake, no foot was on the gas and the emergency brake was up and in place. We went up another curb onto a road going in the wrong direction, for another 100 feet and the car slowed and stopped. My 13 year old son was with me in the passenger seat. (a few days prior while driving in a mall parking lot the car made a loud noise but no identifiable impact to the speed or drivability of the car at that time.)

Filed Jan 6, 2003 · Acceleration · 3,000 miles · CA · crash

The vehicle accelerated when the brakes were applied resulting in the vehicle hitting a parked car. The occupant of the parked car was not injured. *ph

Filed Dec 4, 2002 · Acceleration · NY

Consumer called complaining about having problems with the accelarator. Also stated that the vehicle accelerates and deaccelerates periodicly. Dealer was contacted and that was the way the vehicle was made. Ts

Filed Sep 19, 2002 · Acceleration · FL · crash

Accelerter is not working properly. When trying to pull into a parking space vehicle accelerated up as soon as consumer gently applied accelerater, and vehicle ran into a few other vehicles before coming to a stop. Contacted dealer, and the dealer has checked vehicle, but could not find cause of problem.

Filed Aug 21, 2002 · Acceleration · MI

When on a slight inclin, in drive, the car will roll backwards if you take your foot off the brake. You must drive 2-footed on an incline as though its a manual transmission. I took it to the dealer and was told this is a quirk in the engine, its normal, and just be careful on inclines .

Filed Aug 15, 2002 · Acceleration, Brakes · NM

While braking vehicle will slowly accelerate, and it will be hard to stop. Dealer notified.

Filed Apr 8, 2002 · Acceleration · AK · crash

2002 honda civic 1.6 automatic gear equipped with cark-91 nokia car kit crashed. Possible reason was interference of electromagnetic signals of car kit with electronic throttle control. Car was in parking place. Cellular phone (nokia 5110) installed to car kit. Engine has been started. Rear gear selected. With slow input to throttle caused rapid acceleration to back. My wife tried to stop the car with braking but possibly with panic she pushed the throttle pedal instead of brake pedal. The back of car crashed hitting and damaging a small truck. I investigated for the manufacturing error. Service declined it and also there was no clue about manufacturing error (even in computer record of the car). After the delivery of car (03/28/2002) my wife lived similar incidence. She installed nokia 5110 to car kit, started engine, selected rear gear and engine has started acceleration. My wife has been experienced now and immediately shut the engine down with turning car key to shut down. Now, she drives the car with cellular phone closed. I think that possible reason of this accident is the unattended triggering of throttle to full open by electromagnetic signal created by car kit. So, this shows that insulation of throttle control system is weak in this model. It has to be much better insulated to screen the electromagnetic noise created by any other equipment.

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