Transmission Rocking horse Civic

[wabbit]

Yesterday, whilst stuck in the car park that was the M4 around Reading, and inching forward to around 9 mph then back to zero, my Nov 07 1.8 petrol Civic in Auto mode behaved like a rocking horse - jerking back and then forward and then back again! I was using the accelerator very very carefully as you do when in this sort of traffic, but it didn't help - after an hour of doing this, I felt very sick, as if I'd been to Alton Towers!! As I'm a useless woman and don't understand the refinements of the i-Shift set up, can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[robbo51]

ON A STEEL HORSE YOU RIDE
You need to take it in I think

[electric]

Ask your dealer to check you have the latest upgrades to both the i-Shift and VTEC software. I now have both and the car is very smooth when crawling in traffic. The dealer also did an additional clutch adjustment which really helped the low speed crawling.

In heavy traffic it used to pull away from a standstill with a lurch and then clonk back to a standstill. Previously if I stamped on the accelerator it hesitated for a second which was very dangerous when turning right into oncoming traffic. Now it goes instantly with no delay.

[wabbit]

Many thanks to both responses to my problem. Having read the stories [only yesterday] re. the upgrades, I sort of figured it might be at least some of the problem. Will hot-foot it to dealer and start stamping feet.
Again, thanks

[wabbit]

You have absolutely described what I have been experiencing with my car - the juddering starts from standstill, the inexplicable lurches [terrifying when you start to overtake!!], etc., so fingers crossed your solution will be my solution. I guess I've been slow in thinking anything was wrong because my last car was a 2.5 litre automatic [and a Ford!] which never gave me any sort of problems like this, and I thought perhaps having a smaller less powerful engine and the way it behaves at the moment was the price I had to pay for greater fuel economy etc. Again, thanks

[FWH]

Originally Posted by wabbit

Ybecause my last car was a 2.5 litre automatic [and a Ford!] which never gave me any sort of problems like this, and I thought perhaps having a smaller less powerful engine

It is more to do with the fact that i-shift is not an automatic gearbox, but an automised manual.

[wabbit]

Thanks for the info - have booked it into dealers this week, and we'll see. I guess I should have asked more questions when I bought it, but I was assured that it would behave exactly like an automatic which it patently doesn't seem to!

[electric]

Originally Posted by wabbit

I guess I've been slow in thinking anything was wrong because my last car was a 2.5 litre automatic [and a Ford!] which never gave me any sort of problems like this, and I thought perhaps having a smaller less powerful engine and the way it behaves at the moment was the price I had to pay for greater fuel economy etc. Again, thanks

My experience was similar. I came from a Ford 2.0 Mondeo Automatic - as smooth as anything in this world! I thought Honda would be the same. We all learn the hard way.

[Kremmen]

For the next gen of Civic let's hope they ditch the i-shift and revert to normal auto boxes.

I also learnt the hard way.

The software upgrade makes a slight improvement to 07 models but still not as pleasant to drive as a normal auto (IMHO).

The biggest gripe for me now is trying to reverse slowly into the garage. I need to press the brake occasionally to slow down as the reversing speed is slightly too fast, even with no throttle, which immediately disengages the clutch and brings me to a halt. Then I need to apply a small amount of throttle to get going again which again is too fast and the saga continues.

With a full auto I could reverse slowly into the garage purely on the torque converter and brake pedal, no throttle required.

Or has anyone got a ploy ?

[electric]

The disturbing fact is that the Ford 2.0 Auto also had better petrol consumption than my 1.8 Honda.

One reason I changed was because of the goverment's hate compaign to cars with high emissions which torque converters cause. At least my car tax is less even if I now use more petrol.