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Shuddering/Shaking when going slow in my car
Gonmun
He keeps kickin' me inthe dickRegistered User regular
He keeps kickin' me inthe dickRegistered User regular
Hi folks,
Just bought a 2008 Honda Civic LX automatic and I'm noticing something when I'm slowly accelerating with it. When I reach around 18-30 km/h (around 11 to 18 mph I believe) I get a bit of a shuddering or hitching with the car. This can be if I'm slowly accelerating from a stop or just driving slowly (first noticed it when I was stuck behind a truck on the way to work). I know Honda transmissions are a bit finicky and it only seems to do this when I'm slowly accelerating. If I'm doing it quickly I don't really notice. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing or know what might be causing it?
Just bought a 2008 Honda Civic LX automatic and I'm noticing something when I'm slowly accelerating with it. When I reach around 18-30 km/h (around 11 to 18 mph I believe) I get a bit of a shuddering or hitching with the car. This can be if I'm slowly accelerating from a stop or just driving slowly (first noticed it when I was stuck behind a truck on the way to work). I know Honda transmissions are a bit finicky and it only seems to do this when I'm slowly accelerating. If I'm doing it quickly I don't really notice. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing or know what might be causing it?
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Whenever my dad buys a used car. He changes the spark plugs, wiper blades, battery, fuel air and cabin filters. He also gets an oil change so the fuel filter gets changed too. He did mine too when I bought a used car.
It was the serpentine belt. Another time it was wheel bearings.
i don't know cars, but it could be transmission related too i would think. that could get nasty.
However if you have a good relationship with the dealership then they'll be able to tell you what maintanence steps they took and what they didn't.
Just got it last week actually. It has a 3000 km, 30 day powertrain warranty with the dealer and a bumper to bumper (well as much as you can get on a used car) with lubrico. I know the dealer has a shop as well so maybe I'll call and see about getting them to take a further look. It was safety inspected back in May as well.
Take it in, make them fix it. Don't waste a minute on it.
It could be a lot of things - anything from fuel filter / misfire to a motor mount to transmission problems, so make sure you get it in well ahead of your warranty period. I seem to recall hearing something about issues with the AT in those civics - requiring ATF fluid / filter changes well before their scheduled maintenance period.
Be careful, because lots of times transmission issues like this will go away with a filter / fluid change, but there is an underlying problem that isn't solved. Do some research as well on the issue, there might me a year / model specific issue that's relatively common, and there's likely to be a write-up / sticky on a Civic forum somewhere on what it is, cost / how to fix it, etc.
http://www.civicforums.com/forums/197-mechanical-problems-vehicle-issues-fix-forum/355569-first-civic-ever-2008-vibrations-2nd-gear-auto.html#post4641202
http://www.civicforums.com/forums/197-mechanical-problems-vehicle-issues-fix-forum/355569-first-civic-ever-2008-vibrations-2nd-gear-auto.html#post4641245
I called the dealer as well and he was going to see about when I can bring it in to have a tech look at it. I'll be sure to ask about the transmission fluid.
Wring every cent you can out of that warranty.
Dates, times, who you spoke to, what was said. Prepare for the worst. You don't want them to schedule you at 31 days and say you are out of warranty and owe $TEXAS.
Don't take chances, because that's several grand if you drop your transmission. Hopefully all will go well, just prepare for otherwise.
I checked the maintenance schedule for OP, and it looks like 60k is the 'recommended' point to drain and change transmission fluid. Which is relatively typical, depending on the car transmission fluid / filter comes up between 50k and 100k miles, usually closer to 50k.
However, it looks like those Honda automatics are pretty delicate and have an internal filter that can't be changed, and there are some driver recommendations (take w/ grain of salt) to change the fluid anywhere from every year to every 30k miles. Since miles can be so different (all San Fransisco city driving is going to be hell on an AT vs. long distance highway driving in Nebraska) it could go either way.
Again, that's why you have a warranty and take it in / get everything documented. I'd bet that changing out the fluid will solve the issue.
Either case can result in the oil 'cracking', where it kind of splits into two fluids that don't mix properly. One will be darker, with all the pollutants (metal filings etc.) except water in it, and the other will be a lighter colour with the absorbed water in it.
In this case, the fluid loses its ability to both act as a low pressure film between the plain bearings in the gearbox, and as a high pressure film between the roller bearings and the meshing surfaces between the teeth of the gears in the gearbox.
If this is what's happened, not only will there be accelerated wear on the working surfaces in your gearbox, but there will also be corrosion making its presence felt.
Hopefully that's not what has occurred. Hopefully, your oil was just aged and overloaded with regular old contaminants. In which case wear rates will have been slowly accelerating, but a batch of fresh oil will help slow that back down.
The place I've taken it to is a shop owned by the dealership and they've said they are going to be taking it to Honda and are going to give me another car to drive in the meantime which is nice and it's all been approved by the general manager of the dealership so while I'm hoping it's something minor I'm really happy thus far with how they are being with regards to it. While it's a smaller dealership it's my second time getting a car from them and they are being really good about everything.
Took the car in yesterday and went with a salesman to drop it off at the Honda dealership here in Moncton. Explained what had been done so far and what it was doing. In the interim they gave me a loaner car to drive as my car is under warranty with the guys I bought it from (so I don't even have to pay any deductable). Got a call last night stating that Honda is advising that the transmission should be replaced. They didn't have all the details but I'm going to be going to see the salesman and the manager of the place I bought the car from as the loaner they gave me is too small (2011 Ford Fiesta). As it stands, it looks like it will be at least a week before I get my car back but it will either have a new or rebuilt transmission and in the interim I will have a car to use at no expense (save for paying my own gas of course).
was this a pre-certified car or whatever they do their inspection thing on? seems shady that you already need a new transmission and you should either get a different car or a substantial knock off the price