Hi everyone!

So I have acquired my mom's Honda Civic last year that we've had since 1998.

One problem keeps resurfacing and that my car wont always go into park, it will do anything from get almost into the park position (P doesn't light up) or not even move out of R. Usually driving it around the block, sometimes re-positioning the car, or throwing it through the automatic gears will cause it to finally jump into park. The first time this happened I used a bit too much force and it got stuck almost in park, after some time it came out and since then I can tell when it wont go into park and wont give up my keys if i turn off the engine so I avoid that.

This problem has been happening for a year now, my mom mentions it happening to her 2 times in the 15 years she's had it.

Some other info, Honda Civic LX 1998, 100k miles. Spent 15 years in Chicago, is now in California.

What's really frustrating is I've been to two honda dealerships and when I tell them they tell me they dont know what it could be, or they cant diagnose something unless the problem comes up, which is approx once every 20 times i drive the car.

I had one mechanic tell me that it could be a transmission linkage slippage, which i googled and seemed accurate, when I did some googling I also found someone with an accord from 97 that had the problem and he said he opened up the gear box (i believe) and just found a bunch of gunk that he spent 2 hours cleaning out and then it worked fine.

Today I had my friend who worked as a mechanic tell me that I probably need new transmission fluid, and to do a flush.

Googling transmission flush also started worrying me because it seems like a potentially damaging procedure, but then again idk if that's the way to flush a Honda Civic (pushing the fluids out the other way and potentially clogging the system and having the tranny go out afterwards). Though there is just draining the fluid into a pan, and i read you have to do it a few times to get all the fluid out.

So I am asking for advice on what could be the problem, is doing the ATF a good idea?

I'm also in Los Angeles, if anyone has a good Honda Mechanic to recommend me to.


In the next few weeks I'll be changing my spark plugs and fuel filter as well since Honda said those are going to need to be changed, and the car does seem to be misfiring lately (I have no idea if this is maybe related to the transmission problem), but when I accelerate sometimes it kind of jerks (no mechanical sounds or anything) just sounds like its not firing correctly. I did read something that might relate the transmission fluid to this but also read the same to spark plugs, so Im not sure.

I'll be looking over my Honda Certification papers (we did a full honda certification last year, to see if they did any transmission fluid flushes or so), and I'll be contacting my parents to see if they know anything about the fluid.

Also my exhaust system is needs a change (thanks to chicago) idk if this has any relation to my misfiring problem or not. Just putting it out there.

Thank you to anyone who answers! I've been learning a lot recently about my car so I'm trying to grasp all these components and problems, and I want my car to last for the next couple of years.




I will gladly take any other tips or bits of knowledge with how I should treat my car now that its 16 and is 100k miles.