2003 Honda Civic: hesitation when accelerating

Filed Oct 13, 2011 · Electrical, Transmission · 70,000 miles · OR

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 honda civic hybrid. While driving, the contact stated that the vehicle would hesitate when shifting into gear. The dealer replaced the battery and clutch fluid in an attempt to repair the defect, but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 70,000 and the current mileage was 139,000. The VIN was unavailable.

Filed May 27, 2011 · Transmission · 85,800 miles · NJ

Honda civic hybrid 2003 with CVT transmission, it shudders and vibrates entire car when accelerating slowly. Also in neutral it hesitates going in reverse. I am requesting a recall as I see many having this problem on the web. Honda claims the car has no problems and that is the engine lurking forward.

Filed Jan 8, 2010 · Fuel system, Transmission · 155,000 miles · TX

We purchased a 2003 honda chc in 2006 with approximately 34,000 miles. As of january 2010, the car has 155,010 miles. From the date of purchase, there has been a shudder when decelerating from 40+ MPH. We have only taken the car to our local honda dealership for repair and maintenance and have been repeatedly told that there is nothing wrong with the car and that shudder is from an "overload". Taking the service department at their word, we have never had any repair work done to remove the shudder or taken the car to another dealer. Over time the shudder has gotten worse. We have also experienced a hesitation when accelerating and then the car will suddenly lurch forward when it hits gear. Again, we were told that there wasn't anything wrong with the car and that we should expect hesitation when the car is switching from battery power to engine power. About 4 months ago, the check engine light came on and we were told that the catalytic converter was in need of replacement. We were given two options-immediate repair or drive until the catalytic converter completely fails. Recently the ima light came on and we took the car for diagnosis. The response was that the battery pack needed to be replaced. In addition, we were told that the transmission is beginning to fail. To replace the CVT transmission, battery pack and catalytic converter will cost approximately $7,500. As I have read the other complaints not only from this site, but also other sites on the internet, I now suspect that we have been experiencing transmission problems all along. We have had several other honda vehicles. We purchased this vehicle because of the reliability we have come to expect from honda. $7,500 or more in repairs is unreasonable for any car under 8 years old, especially a honda.

Filed Jun 26, 2009 · Transmission · 91,000 miles · NJ

Hesitation of CVT transmission in honda civic hybrid 2003 model . The transmission hesitates as you apply gas on the pedal. This hesitation is dangerous when you need to move quickly in certain traffic situations.

Filed Jun 13, 2008 · Acceleration, Lights · 65,000 miles · IL

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.

Filed May 20, 2008 · Engine, Transmission · 80,000 miles · WA

Transmission hesitates. Manufacturer changes the transmission fluid, but does not repair. Manufacturer will not solve the problem only bandaids this recurring problem. Vehicle hesitates and shutters during acceleration which can be dangerous in intersections and in general traffic. This is occurring on several years of this vehicle according to websites I have read. The vehicle has also gone through two replacement of the catalytic converter.

Filed Sep 9, 2007 · Transmission · 52,000 miles · VA

My 2003 honda civic hybrid (hch) with its CVT transmission (52,500 miles) exhibits severe bucking, hesitation and lurching. During low speed maneuvering in a parking lot or turning a corner, less than 20 MPH, the car will lurch and buck. It will become so pronounced and violent that the car will lurch forward and your head will hit the headrest. I took the car to honda of tyson?s corner in virginia in early august 2007 and their solution was to replace the CVT fluid. This did not solve the problem. Now in september 2007 the issue is becoming worse and a lurching or slippage is noticed at speed up to 50 MPH. I took the car to an independent garage and they confirmed a major transmission issue but due to lack of technical information they were not equipped to repair the CVT. They also reported that no engine trouble codes were detected. Searching the internet it appears other hch owners are experiencing the same problem. The only fix seems to be replacing the CVT fluid progressing to rebuilding or replacing the CVT without correcting the core problem. You just end up with a transmission with the same technology doomed to failure again. I am afraid that honda is not helping the dealers fix the defect and instead just taking a band aid approach.

Filed Aug 26, 2007 · Transmission · 55,319 miles · VA

This was also filed under the general header powertrain, but since I saw more complaints here I thought I should file it here instead as there seems to be more strengths in numbers and this problem is dangerous and needs to be addressed. My car has been shuddering/bucking/slipping. It started before the car was out of warranty. With all of the stories I have read it has become clear to me that honda was aware of the problem and that the transmission fluid change was a way of stalling the consumer until the warranty had run out. I took my car in, had the fluid flushed and it temporarily fixed the problem. This was done a second time and after the warranty had run out a third time. Each time there was only a temporary fix. Now the problem has become dangerous. The car hesitates, races and bucks. I am afraid to drive it as I don't know if it will quit on me while making a left turn and I am afraid that the car will stall in front of oncoming traffic. This is especially dangerous in congested city driving where quick turns are frequently necessary. I am not a risk taker and I am still hesitant to make turns even when there is plenty of room for a highly conservative person such as myself.

Filed Dec 8, 2006 · Transmission · 85,950 miles · VA

Dt*: the contact stated while accelerating from a stop, the vehicle bucked slightly. There was also a hesitation in the transmission, which caused the engine to sound like it was revving too high, however the tachometer needle did not move higher than normal. The vehicle was taken to a service dealer where the dealer was unable to determine the specific problem, but stated that it was most likely an internal transmission issue.

Filed Jun 27, 2005 · Electrical · 29,000 miles · CA

Dt: 2003 honda civic is stalling on the highway or on public streets. The vehicle is hesitating/stalling when the clutch is engaged or between shifting gears. The speeds are 0-70 when the vehicle is hesitating. There is no warning before the car dies. The vehicle has shown the code once and the code shown cylinder #1 misfired. The vehicle has been taken to the dealership 4 times for this problem. The vehicle is also having problems starting. The vehicle has not started twice, and both times it had to be rolled and started by the owner. The vehicle is having electrical problems; the owner thinks that the wiring harness is bad. The dealership told the consumer that the wiring harness is different. The vehicle has power surges. The owner is in the process of having the vehicle turned back in to honda, using the reference to the lemon law. The owner has parked the vehicle. The owner feels like the vehicle is unsafe to drive. The vehicle is 11 months old and was purchased used.

Filed Dec 1, 2004 · Transmission · MA

After a few months of driving my brand new 2003 honda civic si. I started to experience a very "notchy" and rough feeling in my manual transmission. Occasionally it will also grind gears, and I am more than definite that I am shifting properly. It gets worse in the winter because the car will hesitate a lot when trying to go in any gear. I brought my vehicle into honda north of danvers, ma for them to inspect the problem, yet they found nothing to be wrong. Therefore, no attempts to were made to repair the problem. This isn't a problem in which they can try to simulate after 5 minutes of driving. I feel that if this problem remains, it will be increasingly difficult to drive and is decreasing the chances of driving safely. The car's second winter is coming and I do not feel safe driving my car with this particular problem. I am a member of www.ephatch.com, a online forum community of 2002-2005 honda civic si owners, and many of the members have had similar problems, yet the dealer they went to could never help them. Only a rare few have had there transmission problem fixed, but only through a lot of arguing and persuading.

Filed Sep 11, 2003 · Engine · AZ

After a coming to a complete stop vehicle stalls and hesitates when accelerating. Dealer cannot duplicate the problem or determine the cause.