Driver had just stopped vehicle in parking spot when it unexpectedly accelerated over the curb and hit another vehicle,also hit shrubs in common area of parking lot. Driver applied brakes and was able to stop vehicle.
2003 Honda Civic acceleration complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 34 of 34, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Whenever we are going up a the hill the car loss speed and a lot of potency.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 honda civic lx. The contact was driving 55 MPH when the vehicle accelerated abnormally. The contact was trying to slow the vehicle down when the rpms increased to 2000. The contact applied the brakes and repeatedly shifting between d3 to d1 gears until the vehicle began to decrease in speed. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnosis or repairs. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 140,000.
I have a 2003 honda civic. I had pulled out of my small road onto a rural highway heading into town to take my 14 year-old son to school. I had accelerated to about 45 MPH and needed to slow for a car in front of me. I took my foot off of the pedal and the car continued to accelerate. It didn't just stay stuck at the speed I was going it took off like I had it floored. I had my son look down and check the mat and he even pulled on the pedal but it made no difference. I controlled the speed somewhat by pushing on the brakes with both feet very hard and was able to keep from overtaking other cars. Luckily, the intersection I crossed did not require me to stop and I was able to push on the brakes hard enough to be able to pull over and turn the car off in the parking lot of a local mechanic. The brakes were smoking badly. The mechanic saw how frightened I was and came out and started the car and it was still revving at full throttle. He shut it off and said they would push it in later. When they did look at it later, it wasn't doing it anymore. They drove it and it didn't do it again. I called the local dealership(ike's honda in marion il) and they brushed me off. I then called the honda company. They called me the next day and offered to do diagnostics for free if I brought it to the dealer. They wouldn't commit to fixing it. I had it towed there(on my insurance because they rep. Never called me back even though I left 2 messages) because I was afraid to drive it. That was fri., february 26,2010 and I have not heard from them yet. What happens if they don't find anything? I am afraid to drive the car again. I was very lucky the first time. What happens if they say the found something? Are they really going to let me drive off in it if I can't afford to fix it?
On ~5/2/2009, saturday morning, I was driving my 2003 honda civic, cross 141th street from north community to south community after yard sale, at ~15mph speed. When I cross the street, I found a SUV pass from west to east, then I try to stop my car, however I can not stop it. Then I have to turn left (east), then my car right front crashed with the SUV left side. I remembered I push the brake gear, however it can not stop, I also used my right hand to move the gear to the n, and push my the brake so hard, then my car stopped about 300 feet away from where the car crashed. I just don't understand why at that time it takes me so long time and so far away distance to stop a car at a speed ~15mph (happened only this time). Another thing about this car: when I set up cruise control for this car, it will automatically accelerate higher than what I set up. Suppose I try to set up 65mph on highway, the car will automatically accelerate to more than 70mph. Now I can not use the cruise control system in this car.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 honda civic hybrid. While parking the RPM's began to increase rapidly and the vehicle lunged forward. The contact was forced to shift gears into park to avoid crashing into another vehicle. The contact confirmed that the pedal was not stuck when the vehicle accelerated. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The dealer diagnosed the vehicle and stated that there were no failures. The dealer concluded that the floor mat pushed the accelerator pedal down causing the RPM's to increase; however they trimmed the floor mats around the pedal. The failure mileage was 47,531. The consumer stated she put the vehicle in reverse while attempting to parallel park, the vehicle lurched backwards on a flat steer after her foot was off the accelerator. She quickly braked to avoid hitting the parked car that was behind her. The vehicle did stop, but simultaneously the engine accelerated greatly to an RPM far greater than flooring the accelerator. She quickly out the gear shift in park and turned the ignition off, which stopped everything. The consumer stated the sudden acceleration, occurred three separate times. All three incidents happened, at very low speeds. The consumer has since sold the vehicle. Updated 12/02/14
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 honda civic hybrid. While driving 75 MPH on the interstate when the accelerator pedal extended to the floor without the contact applying pressure to it, then the rpms increased. He then firmly pressed on the brake pedal and the vehicle started to slow down. The contact was able to continue driving. The failure has occurred approximately 7 to 8 times. Honda was contacted and stated that they were not going to repair the vehicle since the failure was related to the cruise control. They also advised the contact to have the vehicle diagnosed by the dealer. No repairs were made to the vehicle. The failure mileage was 130,000. The current mileage was 207,496. The consumer also stated the brakes did not work well on a rough road when going down a hill. Updated 05/13/10.
2003 honda civic ex with 5 speed standard transmission and with cruise control. When using cruise control, if I shift gears, after I disengage the transmission and before I re-engage the desired gear (I.e., switching gears from 4th to 5th or 4th to third or a similar operation) , cruise control does not disengage, engine revs up to redline, and I must manually kill cruise control by tapping brakes, or I can leave cruise control on, and shift into desired gear. The point is, the car is either suppose to kill the cruise control operation automatically, or at the least, not rev the engine up in an uncontrolled method. This has been happening since I purchased the car brand new (with 0 miles on it, right off the delivery truck). I thought nothing of it until I read that the toyota computer system may be the source of unintentional acceleration.
2003 honda civic hybrid. Original owner car has 52 k. Recently I experienced a near death accident because the engine rapidly accelerated by itself as I exited a slight uphill driveway. As I approached the end of the driveway I stopped before turning onto the road, I heard a thud or clunk and then the car lurched and sped rapidly into the road which was wet from rain. The car skidded and fishtailed l tried to apply the brakes but they were unresponsive. I tried the emergency brake which did not respond either. The car did a 360 turn and had gone almost 200 yards from where it exited the driveway. The engine sounded like it was going to blow up. I could smell smoke. All of this happened in under 30 seconds. By some merciful force, the car hit the mud embankment on the side of the road and thankfully no other cars were on the road. I jumped out of the car because the engine was still racing and I could not turn it off, I ran across the road because I wasn't sure if the car would blow up or keep going. After a few seconds I ran over again and could turn it off but the emergency lights did not work . The car was towed to the oakland, ca honda dealer where I purchased it. They performed a basic diagnostic test and told me the car is ok to drive and nothing is visibly wrong with it except for the dent on the front bumper. They have closed the case. In the past this car has been serviced several times for a recall due to a problem with the CVT (continuously variable transmission) because it judders after coming to a stop. I do not believe that honda has adequately researched my case. A car should not accelerate as mine did and I believe that the fact this model has already had a recall on the transmission warrants a more than cursory evaluation. Honda is risking the safety of hundreds and thousands of peoples safety by not trying to determine why my vehicle sped out of control by itself. I plan to investigate further in thanks that I am alive.
2003 civic hybrid- 80k miles. Bought in 2006 with 60k miles. The vehicle hesitates when accelerating from a stop. There is about a 5-8 second delay in pressing the gas and the car going, which has caused me to almost be rear ended a few times. The vehicle also slows down extremely rapidly when the foot is removed from the gas pedal. Even with no pressure applied to the break pedal. To ordinary (not hybrid) cars, it seems like I am pressing my brake, they just see me slowing down, but there are no lights to warn them, I have almost been in two really bad car accidents that were avoided by mere inches when: on the highway I have taken my foot off the accelerator to slow my vehicle, but I did not need the breaks since the car slowed down so fast on it's own. I threw on my emergency lights and tapped the brake to signal to cars behind me who were moving much faster still. I think that honda should put in smaller lights or a different safety light when you remove your foot from the accelerator on the civic hybrids, to avoid rear-ending accidents due to rapid decrease in speed with no usage of the braking system. History of problem: during test drive vehicle made slight shudder noise and hesitation before starting to accelerate. The dealer told me that it was a normal noise for hybrids. I foolishly believed him. A few months later the shuddering was worse and I knew that it wasn't a normal noise for any transmission to be making at 60,000 miles! Over the last 2 years I have taken the car to the dealership many times to "fix" this problem, which is only patched up and the shuddering comes back a few thousand miles later. Honda knows about this problem and has a service bulletin for it, yet their dealerships try to put off fixing the problem until someone's warranty is almost over, or over. Honda needs to be held responsible for this faulty vehicle. A recall should be done at the very least, to fix the cars driving around with bad transmissions.
While driving my 2003 civic hybrid using cruise control, the accel/decel feature on the steering wheel malfunctions. I am driving on the highway, engage the cruise control, using the steering wheel buttons, and then press the accel button and the cars begins to decelerate. I have paid extra careful attention to be sure that I am not pressing the incorrect button in error, and I am in fact pressing the accel button, yet the car continues to decelerate. At three different times, I have tested this failure and it is an intermittent problem. This could be a serious safety hazard as the first time I discovered this malfunction, I was getting onto the highway attempting to accelerate to merge into traffic and the car began decelerating. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Dt*: the contact stated while parking the vehicle, with the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle accelerated uncontrollably. The vehicle was initially traveling less than 3 MPH. The vehicle went over the concrete barrier and hit a wall. There was a police report taken at the scene. Although the seat belt was worn, the contact sustained minor injuries. The vehicle was towed to the dealership, but has not yet been inspected.
When disengaging the cruise control it disengaged on the panel but kept going. Repeated attempts to disengage met with failure. The speed accelerated up to 70+ MPH. Shifted into neutral, it red lined out to 7,000 RPM, shut it down. Restarted, cruise control locked in. Shut down, restarted and it finally disengaged. Have not used since that date.
While driving, 2003 honda civic began to accelerate on its own. Consumer pulled over and vehicle rev to 6k RPM. *** nar received 10-18-05*** *ts when the consumer placed the gear into neutral that was when the vehicle revved.
While driving at approximately 10 MPH throttle cable broke. Owner was able to coast into a parking lot and call a tow truck to have the vehicle transported to a local dealer. The dealer replaced the throttle cable. Vehicle was under warranty. *ak *bf
While backing out vehicle accelerated uncontrollably and crashed into a tree. The consumer was able to driver vehicle home. Consumer will take the vehicle to a dealer for inspection in the near future. *ak the vehicle made a roaring noise and when the consumer shifted into drive, the vehicle sped off uncontrollably.
I was struck on my front bumper by a driver directly in front of me. He was making a 3-point turn and didn't know that I was behind him. He accelerated into me and even though my car sustained minimal damage, my neck received all of the crash energy. I have hard-copy evidence of my neck from mris and cat scans taken 1 year before the accident; I had a healthy neck. I now have 3 disintergrating discs and constant pain. The treatments will be open-ended, I am told. Through my research, I found that honda changed their head-restraint design on the civic hybrid 2003 (my car). Before that year, the regular civic had excellent ratings. This model had a 'minimal passing' rating. I feel that the lack of neck support was the reason that my body sustained such injuries.
Within the 8 days we owned this car, it had accelerated twice while my teenaged daughter was driving. These incidents happened when she was accelerating after having stopped at a stop sign. Being an inexperienced driver she did not realize the problem, only commented the car felt like it was driving funny. When the incident on 08/08/03 happened, I was driving with my younger daughter in the car. We were pulling into a parking space in front of a restaurant at a very slow rate of speed, when the car suddenly accelerated, causing us to jump up onto the sidewalk and run into a cement picnic table, denting the front bumper. I had to slam on the brakes to stop the car from driving through the front window of the restaurant and possibily injuring or killing the people inside. We took the car back to the dealership, where their diagnostic technicians were unable to duplicate the problem. We were told there is nothing wrong with the car and to come and pick it up as there was nothing further they could do for us. We found on this the federal safety agency website that there were six other similar incidents of this model of car having sudden acceleration during slow speed or stopping situations. We provided this information to the dealership, but they are still unwilling to help us.
Frequently, braking will actually cause an acceleration. If I'm going down a hill and am pressing slowly on the brake to slow down, and then hit a bump in the road, the car accelerates and there's a bump, bump, bump until finally the brakes engage. I have taken it in for service and was told this is just the way ABS works. However, I have driven other cars with ABS (including hondas) and have never had this problem. This has happened over 30 times since I bought the car several months ago. One time I nearly collided with the car in front of me.
Consumer states that while driving fuel supply was "full on" as if depressing gas pedal to the floor. The vehicle suddenly accelerated, causing consumer to utilize parking brake in order to stop.
When coming to a stop pressure was applied to the brake pedal and vehicle accelerated. Driver did not touch the accelerator pedal at all. Driver was able to avoid a collision. Vehicle has been taken to the dealer several times but the problem could not be resolved.
After being stopped for a few minutes at a stop lightthe car suddenly lurched forward. Whereas, I might believe my foot lifted off the brake a little that should have caused the vehicle to roll forward and not suddenly accelerate. As a result, I did rear end the car in front of me.
The vehicle experienced sudden acceleration, when the brakes were applied. *jb the was no way to engage the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal at the same time, and was traveling at a low speed when the brake was engaged. The engine had gone up to over 3k RPM's. The dealer couldn't duplicate. Scc
Consumer stated upon entering the driveway of her home, the vehicle suddenly accelerated and could not be stopped by applying the brakes, the vehicle hit the rear wall of the garage causing damage to both the automobile and her home.
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