Hello! I just recently bought my first car, a 94 Honda Civic! (it has 135K on all original parts and runs pretty well) I love this little car, but it has some crazy problems...

When I am at a stop light, and there is a hill up ahead, and I have to stop completely and then go up the hill my car will at first accelerate and then stop, it will get to about 15mph and not go any faster.

It won't go unless I stop completely and re-start the car. It never
stalls, but it does this about once a week...

The car also kinda shutters when I shift, but only once in a while. Normally it runs pretty well, and shifts sorta smooth. My car idles (at a complete stop) at like 500 rpms, is that ok?

Do I need to get my tansmission serviced? Replaced? (I don't have $$ for that!!!) Thanks for anything guys!

;)

When I am at a stop light, and there is a hill up ahead, and I have to stop completely and then go up the hill my car will at first accelerate and then stop, it will get to about 15mph and not go any faster.

You mean climbing up a 45 degree angled hill, your car will accelerate but will not pass 15 mph and just stop? Then it just stops in the middle of the hill?

It won't go unless I stop completely and re-start the car. It never stalls, but it does this about once a week...


You restart the car on the middle of the hill? and then it starts up and runs normal again? You then proceed to climb the hill as if it were normal?

Anyways, sounds more like an engine problem than a tranny problem. If you turn the engine off, and say that the car starts running fine again, there is no way that the transmission will out of the blues just go back to normal if there is something wrong with it.

Also, these are some very strange things you are describing. It really doesnt make sense. If your vehicle cannot climb a hill, you should be more able to tell other things during normal driving conditions also. Power is distributed equally even when climbing on a hill. The only difference is the resistence due to a slope in the road.

Could be due to bad sensor(s) somewhere though. Any CHECK ENGINE LIGHTS? Hows the gas mileage looking? Is there smoke coming from the muffler....................color of smoke?

You will have to clarify more.

You mean climbing up a 45 degree angled hill, your car will accelerate but will not pass 15 mph and just stop? Then it just stops in the middle of the hill?


Could be due to bad sensor(s) somewhere though. Any CHECK ENGINE LIGHTS? Hows the gas mileage looking? Is there smoke coming from the muffler....................color of smoke?

Thanks. I will be stopped at lets say a light and then go to climb the hill, it will go to about 15 mph and then not go any faster. If I hit the brake and then try to climb it will go faster normally, but sometimes I have to completely stop the car, turn it off and then re-start it to get going again.

The check engine light has come on before, in a situation like I'm accelerating and then I coast for a while, before hitting the break, the light will come on, but will go off when I turn the car off and on again.

There is no smoke, I am getting 30+mpg... it runs well once it gets up to speed, like on the highway... :(

Thanks.

The check engine light has come on before, in a situation like I'm accelerating and then I coast for a while, before hitting the break, the light will come on, but will go off when I turn the car off and on again.

If you can pull this code, it will answer many questions.

You're so great!

This might sound stupid but what code? (The sequence of events leading to the check engine light?)

Where can I find that! Thank you again!!

if your check engine light came on, have the dealer, automotive shop, or autozone (they do it for free) check it for you. While they are at it, they will tell you what the code and problem is.