2003 Honda Civic: shudder or vibration when accelerating

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 Mar 1, 2011 · Transmission · MN

Every time I accelerate from a complete stop, my vehicle makes a juddering/vibrating noise. A service bulletin was issued by honda in 2008 for this very concern, which turned out to be the start clutch. Honda burnished my clutch twice and the problem was resolved, until the same problem came up about 15,000 miles later. I am no longer under warranty for it. I had my clutch burnished again today (cost me $150), but that did not resolve the issue. I was told that I will need to replace the start clutch, which will cost about $1500 with labor. If this does not get repaired, my transmission could fail completely, and at any time. Long story short, it is quite obvious that the start clutches in 2003 honda civic hybrids are defective.

Filed Jan 14, 2011 · Transmission · 85,000 miles · VA

Transmission will slip causing the car to shudder / shake, acceleration will not occur when needed. Problem is especially bad starting from 0 MPH up a hill, or when 2 or more passengers are in the car. Dealer will not offer the recall, although the same problem has been addressed in japan, as they have sent out a recall for the same issue overseas.

Filed Jan 3, 2011 · Transmission · 40,440 miles · WA

My 2003 honda civic hybrid has a history of the transmission/car shuddering and slipping during acceleration. This has been occurring regularly since july 26, 2005 at 40,440 miles. On one occasion after having the clutch replaced, transmission fluid sprayed all over the engine and manifold while traveling down the interstate which would have caused the fatality or serious injury of my son driving the car had it ignited. The spokesman at the honda dealer in portland oregon said my son was very lucky not to be engulfed in flames. Since this occurrence, the shuddering issue has continued requiring regular trips to the honda dealer. Each honda service representative I have complained to have said there is nothing they can do because honda of america has not authorized a fix to the defect other then to burnish the start cluth and change the transmission fluid. This has only been a band aid fix which hasn't worked for some time now, but originally used to work for about 2-3 thousand miles at which point the problem re-occurred. This is clearly a defective product and honda is using a band aid approach to mask this serious defect until the warranty has expired, at which point, they quickly say the transmission needs to be replaced with a new one at the owners expense (approx $3,400 to $4,000 dollars). Honda of america claims to have fixed the problem in their new transmissions but they have not been willing to use this fix on existing cars like mine until the warranty expires. I have actually been told this by honda representatives. All this is despite a safety recall for this very same problem in japan, india, and indonesia. Please investigate why honda of america has not been held accountable for this serious defect in their honda civic hybrid 2003 CVT transmissions.

Filed Oct 1, 2010 · Transmission · VA

2003 civic hybrid with CVT has transmission issues. Upon accelerating from a stop (even slight acceleration), the whole car will shudder and harsh slipping feel will start until the car gets moving a bit. Far worse when starting on an incline from a stop. Honda replaced my transmission while under warranty at about 40k miles, but it quickly began having the same issue at around 70k miles and has been having the issue ever since. Getting a transmission fluid change helped a bit, but it is costly to continue changing that fluid at earlier than the manual recommended 30k mile intervals.

Filed Sep 3, 2010 · Transmission · 150,000 miles · NY

The transmission for my honda civic hybrid is failing. It's now at about 170,000 but the problems I've been experiencing have been occurring since I bought the car. The problems have to do with bucking on acceleration, juddering on acceleration, and the car moving in reverse when the gear is in drive and now a noise is coming from inside the transmission. I purchased this care new in 2003 and have been taking it in for service every 10k mi. This is my first car so I thought the "bucking", juddering and "reversing while in drive" was by design, but it wasn't until years later that I googled my car and noticed other people had similar problems. Just google "civic hybrid transmission". I'm now faced with paying almost 4000 to replace my transmission. Interestingly, there have been transmission complaints for other honda products of the same year (acura tl, honda accord). I really think there's a flaw in transmission components of at least some honda models from the 2002-2006 production year.

Filed Jul 18, 2010 · Transmission · 122,899 miles · MS

2003 honda civic hybrid purchased at 66,000 miles at 90,359 miles slight shutter/judder when moving from a complete stop. Honda diagnosed (04/08)CVT for judder. Added one start clutch burnishing procedure/add two start clutch burnishing as a recall service. Now same problem again. Now at 120,000 miles experiencing same problem vehicle slips, shudders on take off from full stop. Repair will be $1200 to replace start clutch. When starting from a dead stop I hope the vehicle will move. I have to really press down on the gas petal to get the vehicle going and I do think this is a safety hazard with my vehicle. Had the egr valve changed at $400 repair(0708).

Filed Apr 8, 2010 · Transmission · 75,000 miles · MA

I have a honda civic hybrid 2003. I bought it used at 63,000 miles. For the first 10,000 miles, I had no problems. Then a slight shudder started to happen each time I moved the car from a stop, especially when on an inclined hill. I took it to the dealership, where they flushed the transmission, which they said was completely black. A few months later, the problem returned. This time they did a transmission flush and a "burnishing' process. The problem returned again in a few months, and I had the process repeated. Finally I read online that many others were having similar problems. I got honda to partially pay for a replacement starter clutch. The problem went away for a few months, then returned. Now I am paying for a second starter clutch because the shudder is worse than ever.

Filed Feb 13, 2010 · Transmission · 56,000 miles · RI

I purchased the car used in 2006 with 21,000 miles. The transmission failed at 56,000 miles (1/27/08). Told needed transmission overhaul. The transmission also failed again at 89,000 (2/4/09) miles, requiring another transmission overhaul. 6 months later experiencing similar symptoms (shuddering/shake/vibration between 30-50 MPH) as before took it to aamco to get an outside opinion and I am told the torque converter is failing and if not replaced will cause transmission failure once again. The car currently has 124,000 miles on it. So much for honda reliability.

Filed Feb 4, 2010 · Transmission · 80,000 miles · FL

Honda civic hybrids with the CVT transmission develop what honda refers to as a judder. What is actually happening is the "start clutch" in the transmission slips during take off from a stop and causes the car to judder or shake. When this happens in any condition other than perfectly dry roads you can temporarily lose control of the vehicle because the vehicle is front wheel drive and the front wheels can lose traction and spin. I have even had this happen when the front tires are sitting on the painted white line found at most intersections. Honda is very aware of the problem. There are thousands of complaints documented online, yet honda has been very reluctant to properly address the situation. Honda claims this is not a safety issue, but I have temporarily lost control of my car on wet roads several times. I can't imagine trying to drive one in the snow. Here are a couple of links that will take you to discussion groups about this problem. Http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/ view/.f0b3259/262 http://www.cngchat.com/forum/showthread.php? 266-2001-2005-CVT-transmission-warranty-extension-for-slip-judder honda has extended the warranty period for this problem. In my specific case they kept ignoring my request to rebuild the transmission until I was beyond the extended warranty. In my case I filed a complaint with honda american and negotiated to split the cost with them. There are a lot of people out there who have not been so lucky and have had to pay in full for the repairs.

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 Dec 7, 2009 · Transmission · 109,000 miles · OH

Vehicle has had a constant "juddering" (vibration) issue when accelerating from a stop. The car was taken to be serviced several times with no defects found by the dealer. The "juddering" has finally resulted in a complete transmission failure with a required replacement. I have read of several problems of the same nature with this particular year, make , and model.