Hi all,
My friend (original owner) brought her 140,000 mile automatic into a Honda dealership for a "squeak". They replaced the power steering belt but that didn't fix it. So she brought it to a local mechanic who identified the squeak as coming from another belt so they replaced that one. They also recommended other service: replacing the right-front wheel bearing, resurface the rotors & replace the exhaust manifold (she brought the problems to their attention, so it does not appear that they just made things up.) She agreed to the service (her first major work performed on the car since she's owned it.)

She picked up the car and immediately got on the freeway and found that the squeak was still present. She exited the freeway (2.5 miles), stopped at a light and then found that she could no longer get the car out of 2nd gear. Pressing the gas would cause the engine to rev but it would take a moment for the gear to engage. Same thing when shifting from 1st to 2nd. Once in 2nd the engine would just rev but never engage to 3rd.

She drove it back to the mechanic and now their assessment is that the squeak must be coming from the transmission and it's going to cost $2,000+ to replace it.

I believe that an automatic Civic transmission should last well beyond 140,000 miles. I've had a couple other mechanics assert the same thing. While it is possible for one to fail, it isn't highly likely. The mechanic told her after she returned the car that the fluid level was fine, but it smelled burnt. I suspect that her mechanic made a mistake and possibly drained the transmission fluid and didn't replace it and is now trying to cover his butt. Would doing that cause her problem or would it manifest in a different way?

Why wouldn't the Honda dealership or this mechanic recognize a transmission problem upon initial inspection for the squeak? Does a transmission just fail like that or is it normally a gradual decline?

She says that she has an excellent service history, but I have not seen when the last time someone checked her transmission fluid level/condition.

Thanks everyone.

 

i bought a 2000 civic and it had 135000 miles, i thought the same thing. i test drove the car and ran fine, next day i got on freeway and the same problems occured, i finally said im not putting another auto back in for it to happen to me again