One problem related to vehicle shudder has been reported for the 1998 Honda Civic. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
My 1998 Honda Civic ex (80,000 miles) is having tranmission troubles. It will rev up but the car will not speed up very well, when it shifts into 2nd gear the car shakes and abruptly shifts into 2nd gear. I had the fluid changed at the end of December and it seemed to fix the problem but a week later it was back and getting worst fast. The dealer told me I needed a whole new transmission and it would cost $3600 plus labor. I took the car back without the service down and searched the internet and have come across hundreds of people posting complaints of the exact same problems, some of them have 2002 with 10,000 miles and have these problems. I find it hard to believe that this is not a factory defect.