CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2001 Civic has transmission problems, transmission problems & more transmission problems. Did we mention transmission problems? And a dangerous defect with the front airbag that didn't get recalled for 10 years.
Although eventually the defective 2001 Civic airbag inflators were fixed under recalls in 2011 & 2013, that meant for 10 to 12 years airbags were activating with excessive force where metal fragments went shooting into passengers when the airbag deployed.
As for the 2001 Civic's transmission woes? Honda conducted a major transmission recall in 2004 & settled a class action lawsuit for defective transmissions in 2006. But, neither the recall or the lawsuit included the 2001 Civic.
Last thing to consider - the 2001 Civic is the most-recalled car ever, closely followed by the 2002 Civic & the 2001 Accord. The 2001 Civic is the 4th most-recalled vehicle overall, only a Ford truck & two Ford vans have more.
At first the vehicle would only drive in reverse and then after replacing the dual linear shift solenoid it runs but once the vehicle warms up it stops running. I tried adding more transmission fluid to even the fluid levels and now it doesn't run at all. I'm receiving the code P0730 gear ratio incorrect and the dealership says I need to replace the transmission. This is incredible because I don't have money to spend on a new transmission and a Honda vehicle should last way more than this!!!
Transmission slipping i.e. RPMs go up but MPH does not when you try to accelerate. Very dangerous if pulling out into traffic, especially uphill, as you will start to roll backward. Car is being diagnosed as I write this, with a torque converter being the suspect thus far.
For the past couple of months my transmission has been "flaring" when shifting gears. I came across this website and found that this was an issue that Honda has known about for years but they have done nothing about it. As suggested on the website I contacted American Honda Customer Service for the purpose of inquiring about "goodwill repairs". Apparently American Honda has no idea what the word goodwill means because all I received was a young lady telling me repeatedly that there was nothing that American Honda could, or would, do about my transmission issue. Through the past few years I have owned three Honda vehicles, including this one, and will sincerely question my brand loyalty when I seek to purchase a new vehicle
To realize that the company has known about this issue for all these years and done nothing about it is appalling! In addition, to acknowledge the problem and then tell me there was absolutely nothing that they were willing to do about it totally destroyed my opinion of American Honda Motors.
Vehicle would shutter sometimes on initial acceleration and there hardly is any transfer of power from the engine to the transmission. Transmission would also slip during shifting to higher gears. Engine starts to rev with no increase in power.
2001 HONDA CIVIC EX. The Honda dealership has been charging me for years for "fixes" when I told them that every so often my car will be driving at slow speeds and my engine acts as if the fuel isn't reaching it. I'll be driving up my street and for just about 2 or 3 seconds the car stops moving forward even though I'm on the gas pedal. It only did this first thing in the morning and wasn't very often, so of course it never actually did this while my car was at the dealership. It has been doing this almost since the first day I owned it. I bought it new and have always took it to the over-priced dealership for all of its regular checkups and oil changes. At 18,000 miles in 2006 I had the car in the shop and mentioned the problem again and their "fix" was to flush the cooling system for $85. Now I read on the internet that some owners have had the transmission fail because of a blockage in the cooling system, so this tells me that the dealership suspected this might be the issue. Of course they never mentioned to me that there may be an issue with my transmission! I just thought maybe my fuel line had a small clog or something causing the problem.
Now my car has 39,000 miles (I know, I drive like a grandma) and I brought my car in yet again for this same issue since it is starting to do this "hesitating" thing more often. This time they adjusted the valves for $135, and this did take care of the rough idling that the car had been doing. But, the next day it did the same old thing when I drove up my street....my foot was on the gas pedal and the car just stops moving for a couple of seconds and then it kicked in and drove fine the rest of the day.
Just ten minutes of research on google showed me that hundreds of owners have had the exact same problem and the cause is a faulty torque converter that ruins the transmission. When I called the dealership and told them what the real problem is with my car, they said they never heard of that problem before and basically treated me like an idiot. I'm in the process now of registering my complaint on every applicable site I can find and will be contacting Honda Corp. as well as the BBB and possibly my local news stations to see if one of the trouble-shooter anchors will do a story on it. I certainly hope that no one gets hurt or killed due to this failure on the part of Honda to recall their faulty converter. It's a shame that they care more about money than they do about human life. But when you're driving a car around that could have complete transmission failure in the middle of rush hour traffic, that's exactly what could happen.
Bought this car overseas where I was stationed from a friend who had it in Florida previously and was excited to get it home....it took 4 months on a barge to get here to cali and when it does get here i drove it for a couple months and the transmission quit! Driving in the middle of the intersection in downtown....lets just say I almost got hit by every angry driver in that city. The car was driving okay before that and I had just had it serviced, but went to go at a green light and the car just reved....pushed it out of traffic...and had to have it towed 2.5 hrs home. I dont have money to fix it but still a car payment. Thankyou honda....you suck.
I own a 2000 honda civic and a 1996 honda civic and how is it the 2001 honda civic is the one that has a bad trany? I feel honda should relize all the problems and take action and fix there probems look at all other years the 2001 has the most transmission problems and yet they do nothing and to replace one is nutes cheapest i found is 650 why should i have to pay for a part that is going out in when there is a trend? and hints i love hondas but i just wish they would take acction and fix there problems please......
My Honda Civic transmission failed. I call for a "goodwill compensation" and they said that because of the age and of the mileage they can't do nothing about it. They told me that for my car (Honda Civic LX. 1.7L, 101.500 Mile) no warranty or extended warranty apply, the warranty is 36 000 miles or 3 y.
I can't believe that Honda didn't do something about this issue, I see how many people get in this situation and everybody is saying that is bad design of transmission in this model and 2000 - 2001 years, is their mistake let them fix it for free or 50% of spending to fix it.
We pay a lot of money because is Honda and is good car and now pay a lot of money to fix it. Honda is rip us off. Nobody is not doing something or ask Honda about it....?
Bought this 2001 Honda Civic started slipping into 3rd. and then it strated continually slipping. Tried changing transmission fluid with stop slip transmission but problm persists. Honda wouldnt help fix the problem.
I bought this car for my mom, to use in a state on the other side of the country. Needless to say, I can't do much to help her from where I'm at except online and by phone. We bought her a car that seemed in great operating condition, only to find out one month after she bought it, the transmission is starting to go, and after dropping the money I had available, IN CASH to buy it, I now do not have money to repair it. So she went from having no car in a tiny town that only has one taxi for the entire town, and absolutely no public transportation, to having what seemed like a good car (all my cars except one up to this point have been Hondas) to having an unreliable, unsafe car, in the middle of nowhere Tennessee. To make the matter worse, the reason we bought her the car, was because she has only a few people she knows out there to ask for help if she gets stranded. So soon, my mom, who is poverty stricken may be worse off than not having a car that operates, the transmission could go out, in the middle of the country, and she'd have to walk home in unsafe weather, or be trapped in her car, if the transmission goes while she's out running errands.
I wouldn't mind repairing it, but the transmission even rebuilt is nearly the value of her entire car, and more expensive than an entire engine replacement even! It is obscene! Honda should be ashamed of themselves for not recalling a model that is obviously and clearly DEFECTIVE!
I probably shouldn't complain about my 2001 Civic, what with getting over 201,000 miles out of it, but I will anyway. My old 1983 Accord has over 390,000 miles on it and the trans is still going strong. This 2001 Civic is the 5th Honda I've owned, and all have been extremely reliable (until today). I drive it (drove it, I should probably say) about 64 miles a day, and it ran OK until the last mile before getting home. I limped it home, slipping big time. After stopping in my driveway, it didn't want to go in any gear. I think I found an outfit locally that imports Transmissions from Japan and they want $850 plus tax & $50 core charge for a used one. I understand that 2001 thru 2005 Civics used the same trans, but 2003 thru 2005 have hardly any complaints about problems, so I'm looking for one in that range. If I get anywhere near the same kind of miles out of it, I'll be OK. Maybe the Japanese trans were built better that the Canadian ones.
My 18 year old girl got a job at the age of 15 so she could save up for her first car. a few weeks ago we went looking for a car and found a 01 honda civic DX. we got the car and we drove from the lot about 2 blocks and the trans started to slip untill it stoped moving. I got it home and changed the ATF and it would drive about 2 blocks and start slipping untill it stopped moving. so i changed the ATF one more time and the same thing happened.
now i find out about the trans problem with the 01 civic and we dont have the cash for another trans. I went back to the car lot the same day it happend and told them what happend but they just told me " they are sold AS IS". i asked about no refund, just another car and he sead "sold AS IS"... so i guess my kids first car is just something she can sit in and listen to the radio with. thanks Honda for standing behind a problem you know about...
Took my car into dealer for routine maintenance (fluids changed) $278. They reported that all was well with breaks, transmission, shocks, struts, tires, etc. I made it 45 minutes on the road towards home and after a stop-sign left turn onto a 4 lane high way my car would not accelerate more than 30 mph and transmission shaped light came on the dash. I pulled over. Car was normal in reverse, I had to put the car in gear and not touch the accelerator to get it off the road. Called the dealership. They sent a wrecker. They called the next day and said they started it up and drove it around the lot when it came in and there was no problem. Next morning, the mechanic started it- no problem. He took it out long enough for it to heat up a little and the light came on and it barely made it back to the dealership. The dealership told me it was coincidental that it failed after they had done maintenance on it and want $3000 for new or $2600 rebuilt to fix it. I have since found out about the issues with 2001 Honda Civic transmissions. I got 240,000 miles out of my Chevy transmission! Hoping for a “good will repairâ€. No response from them, yet. (PS- My daughter to her 10 year old car into a transmission place and they said never do a flush on a car that old or it will damage the transmission.)
Honda told me just the transmission without labor will be $3600. That's more than my car is worth now! I have a loan that i took against my car last year, so now it makes it hard to buy another car! They have been so unhelpful.
okay, i have been looking for people to file a class action suit for this,, seems no body will take on Honda corp, but i am willing and i have a large group that is willing to join in if someone is willing to take on Honda let me know i will work with you. my issue;
121,000 my transmission died the week of thanks giving 2007 i bought the car knowing my health was rapidly becoming an issue and needed a reliable car.. i have followed Hondas reputation for years and being mechanically inclined I thought highly of their proven track record.
Now i am sorry i did.. I was given a good will discount and paid 1500,00 to have the transmission replaced. wow thought i would get another 6 years before having more problems ha-ha that was a joke.. 40,000 miles later the gears are slipping horribly. I conditioned it with Lucas oil hoping to borrow some time since our family is suffering from many vehicle issues and we need at least one car running. this car is far from reliable. i understand that there is a problem with an o ring that disintegrates and this is what is causing the transmission to fail. I would get a rebuilt next time I might even do the rebuild myself since i don't trust anyone else knowing that these cars have a known issue. I am Beyond made that i spent my hard earned money on a car i thought the transmission and engine were going to get me over 200,000 without much trouble since their track record proved that if you take care of them that they take care of you.. now i say since 2000 that logic is just plain lies lies lies.. it is all about the money not the people and reputation any longer .. but your cars from someone else people or think long and hard about buying a Honda .. i am looking into Hyundai from here in i like the accent personally. that is my next vehicle..not sure i will fix this car but if i do this time i am selling it while it is still without an issue and pray that this fix is a good fix and not another botched job.. seriously.. good money after bad on this one.. it is terrible that i would even think to sell a car that i know has a problem.. totally against my nature... i wont normally do this and after it is fixed it will work.. but knowing what i know now i would think they should just pull all of these years and models off the road.. they are not safe ..it horrible how they deny they have a bad product i would love to hear if the dealers are still telling people they don't know anything about there being a problem with the transmission on the 01 and 02 civics. it is a well known issue after this many people found this site.. trust me... very well known best to all of you and i tried to get a ca suit but seems lawyers don't like to dance with this corporation.
I bought my 2001 Honda Civic LX after a ton of people told me that Honda was the way to go if I wanted a reliable car that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg as it got older. I owned it for 6 years and so far hadn't had any major problems until about 6 months ago when the transmission started shifting hard. It has 144,000 miles on it and I've always had all the required maintenance done, oil changes every 3000 miles, and drove it sensibly. I've had it to 3 places now, including the dealership that I bought it from, and no one can figure out the problem. The dealership's answer was to replace the tranny even though they couldn't tell me what was wrong with it.
After reading all the posts on here, I'm figuring out that I should have done more research before buying this car. If anyone has knowledge of how to begin a class action lawsuit, I say let's go for it. My plan was to drive this car until it fell apart (I was figuring at about 200,000 plus miles). I guess I was about 54,000 miles off :( I'm single, broke and this sucks!
Ok, so after reading this, obviously these hondas need a recall. My dad is an auto technician and recently took my honda for an oil change. He brought it back saying that the transmission was going to go down the dumps. So he has predicted this before it has happened. I have read that you should replace the fan, but how many people have done that, and is it much cheaper? Even so, it has been a reliable car for me and has never broken down, but this problem is serious, and only being 19 and driving 40 miles to work everyday, I'm not sure if this is the car for me anymore. The car often would make a squealing noise when it was cold, but I thought nothing of it, and when it shifts it sounds like it had a little extra revving to do. If you have found a better cheaper solution, let me know! My parents are not gonna help me with this one!!
And one more thing, do the Acuras have this problem too?
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
At first the vehicle would only drive in reverse and then after replacing the dual linear shift solenoid it runs but once the vehicle warms up it stops running. I tried adding more transmission fluid to even the fluid levels and now it doesn't run at all. I'm receiving the code P0730 gear ratio incorrect and the dealership says I need to replace the transmission. This is incredible because I don't have money to spend on a new transmission and a Honda vehicle should last way more than this!!!
- basilia, East Windsor, NJ, US