Vehicle Shudder problems of the 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid

When starting from at stop the car hesitates and shudders when you press the gas pedal unless you let the car idle and roll forward first. It also has problems when you have the cruise control on for more than 10 min. After approx 10min it acts like I have turned off and back on the cruise control several times before it does turn off and then you can turn the main cruise control switch off and back on and then reset the cruise but it only stays working for 1-2 min before shutting itself back off.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For several years now my car has been vibrating and jolting when I accelerate from a stop. Especially when going uphill. I took it in to a Honda dealer for repairs and was told the only solution was to "burnish" it and it should help, although only temporarily. The burnishing helped only slightly, and before long my car was back to vibrating and jolting just as badly as before. I was told this was not a hazardous condition, so I have just lived with it for awhile now, but it would be nice to fix! it seems this is something that Honda should address if it is in fact such a common condition and has been addressed overseas. Please help convince Honda to address this problem!.

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. . Read more...

2003 Honda Civic Hybrid with numerous problems with car shuddering when slowing down and then taking off again. This has been occurring regularly since July 2, 2007 at 74,000 miles. It has been in the dealer 6 times for this cvt slippage. The very first documented problem however was April 20, 2003 at 9783 miles with the transmission slipping when placed into reverse and then suddenly catching. The slippage is worst in hot weather. Been brought in and misdiagnosed or delaying tactics to circumvent the extended warranty by the Honda dealer each time. This is despite a safety recall for this very same problem in japan, india, and indonesia, Honda notified nhsta in a letter to associate administrator mr. Kenneth weinstein of the office of safety assurance of this recall in those countries. . Since than american Honda extended the warranty on the cvt to 100,000 miles but according to all the complaint sites I have been able to monitor Honda instead uses delaying tactics until the extended warranty runs out. This is a safety issue, as can be seen by the numerous near miss testimonials on your NHTSA filed complaint narratives. I am a ems battalion captain for a major metropolitan fire/rescue department and respond to deaths and serious injuries on a daily basis. I am also a respected public safety advocate and the initiator of senate bill 486. I believe this issue warrants serious investigation. I believe deaths and serious injuries have probably already occurred from this safety hazard but were never reported nor recognized as to the cause. Please investigate.

2003 Civic Hybrid- 80k miles. Bought in 2006 with 60k miles. The vehicle hesitates when accelerating from a stop. There is about a 5-8 second delay in pressing the gas and the car going, which has caused me to almost be rear ended a few times. The vehicle also slows down extremely rapidly when the foot is removed from the gas pedal. Even with no pressure applied to the break pedal. To ordinary (not hybrid) cars, it seems like I am pressing my brake, they just see me slowing down, but there are no lights to warn them, I have almost been in two really bad car accidents that were avoided by mere inches when: on the highway I have taken my foot off the accelerator to slow my vehicle, but I did not need the breaks since the car slowed down so fast on it's own. I threw on my emergency lights and tapped the brake to signal to cars behind me who were moving much faster still. I think that Honda should put in smaller lights or a different safety light when you remove your foot from the accelerator on the Civic Hybrids, to avoid rear-ending accidents due to rapid decrease in speed with no usage of the braking system. History of problem: during test drive vehicle made slight shudder noise and hesitation before starting to accelerate. The dealer told me that it was a normal noise for hybrids. I foolishly believed him. A few months later the shuddering was worse and I knew that it wasn't a normal noise for any transmission to be making at 60,000 miles! over the last 2 years I have taken the car to the dealership many times to "fix" this problem, which is only patched up and the shuddering comes back a few thousand miles later. Honda knows about this problem and has a service bulletin for it, yet their dealerships try to put off fixing the problem until someone's warranty is almost over, or over. Honda needs to be held responsible for this faulty vehicle. A recall should be done at the very least, to fix the cars driving around with bad transmissions.

This was also filed under the general header powertrain, but since I saw more complaints here I thought I should file it here instead as there seems to be more strengths in numbers and this problem is dangerous and needs to be addressed. My car has been shuddering/bucking/slipping. It started before the car was out of warranty. With all of the stories I have read it has become clear to me that Honda was aware of the problem and that the transmission fluid change was a way of stalling the consumer until the warranty had run out. I took my car in, had the fluid flushed and it temporarily fixed the problem. This was done a second time and after the warranty had run out a third time. Each time there was only a temporary fix. Now the problem has become dangerous. The car hesitates, races and bucks. I am afraid to drive it as I don't know if it will quit on me while making a left turn and I am afraid that the car will stall in front of oncoming traffic. This is especially dangerous in congested city driving where quick turns are frequently necessary. I am not a risk taker and I am still hesitant to make turns even when there is plenty of room for a highly conservative person such as myself.

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid. While attempting to accelerate from idle at a stop light the vehicle began to vibrate and then shut off. The check engine light illuminated intermittently prior to this failure. The dealer replaced the catalytic converter. Presently, the vehicle will start,but was not drivable. The vehicle was towed to a Honda dealer, and diagnosed as needing a new transmission. The dealer found a salvaged transmission. The current and failure mileage were 158,000.

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.

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid. While accelerating from a stop light or stop sign, the vehicle vibrates and makes noises. The vehicle slows and then surges forward intermittently. The current mileage was 61,000 and failure mileage was 36,000.