Two problems related to power train have been reported for the 1998 Honda Civic. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Bought used June 2011 with about 169,000ish, was assured that everything was checked out. Drove back home with no problems, and then the problems began. Within two months the battery died, had to replace. In Jan of 2012 car began to overheat and I noticed a 2" crack on the top of the radiator, replaced. Now transmission hesitates and rpms go way up when shifting into fourth gear. I drained and changed the fluid with the recommended Honda fluid, and now the high rpms and slipping are occurring in all forward gears. I feel like a voice in a freaking tornado when it come to any reasonable solution to my problem. This has been a major blow to Honda's reputation for me. This seems to be an issue that needs to be addressed and an immediate safety recall needs to be taken out.
This and other Hondas I own consistently misrepresent the speed at which the car is actually travelling. I used to be inadvertently caught in the passing lane going what I thought was the legal speed limit, only to have other drivers ride on my rear bumper. I finally had the speedometer checked on this car when I took it in for an emissions test. I feel this is a safety issue; in addition it smacks of outright fraud since it appears that Hondas get better gasoline mileage than they do, and they run out of warranty several thousand miles sooner than they should. It also causes extra mileage fees to kick in sooner for those who lease.