recently my civic started to make a whistling noise, and a day later my car started to get stuck in a gear until it the rpm was at 5000-6000, it did that for every gear. the next day i got stuck in first gear and rpm was @ 7000. i added some tranny fluid, it helped, but the gears still slip. could this be the fly-wheel (the whistling noise) or a type of electrical problem. it's a 2001 automatic with 54000 miles on it. do i need to replace the entire tranny?[/align]

 

No flywheel in an automatic, call a flex plate. Flex plate is bolted to the torque convertor
Sure soumds like tranny problems

 

Yea...I have an '01 Ex with 80k mi, and had to fully replace the tranny (AT) a few months back. It started out with a low whining noise esp when accelerating. During the winter, it would have difficulty shifting into 2nd after it had been sitting for awhile (at typical shift pt it would 'over-rev' just before transitioning). The whole tranny decided to go on me just as it started to *pour* down rain (and I mean pour as in rivers running across the road)! At first, I thought I was just losing traction on the wet pavement as the engine would rev and I would temporarily not have power to the wheels. But then it would engage, and be fine for a few sec. However, it just so happened, that when I finally totally lost her, I was on an incline sitting in about a 2 mi long line of traffic! Didn't make for a good situation...esp since an essentially new E46 M3 was in line directly behind me!! When I was finally able to navigate to flat ground, and take a look at my tranny fluid, it was almost black and really watery. Conclusion: I really don't know what happened. I first assumed water somehow got into the tranny, but the other issues I was having before that point indicated a deeper issue was involved...
(Btw...almost ever since the car was new, when slowing down to almost a crawl and then accelerating again (a.k.a "California stop"), it would jerk fairly hard into gear. When I asked about it, I was told it was just "natural" for Honda's ATs. Yea...right!)
So my suggestion would be to start saving $$ for a new tranny. Hopefully though, you won't be as unlucky as I!