About a year ago I bought a 96 Civic DX Hatch and a 95 Camry, both automatics. The Camry is my wifes car and this is the first automatic I have ever driven. I noticed while driving the Civic that there was a lot of resistance when I took my foot off the gas and started coasting. It was a lot like a manually coasting at high rpm. Sort of like it isn't downshifting or something to that sort. If I pop it in neutral, I coast just fine. Just to make sure, I checked every wheel independently with the car in neutral and they turn with ease. If while coasting in neutral I put the car back into gear, you feel the friction instantly. In fact, on even slow down while coasting as I go downhill. It has to be a fairly steep hill for my car to be accelerating if it is in gear. This is completely unlike my wife's Camry. That thing can coast a mile and always accelerates downhill while in gear. In fact, I don't notice any real difference between coasting in neutral or in drive. Same goes for a friend's Sentra. If I keep coasting in the civic, eventually I will feel the tranny possibly downshift as the resistance will lessen dramatically. Any suggestions or ideas?

 

Maybe someone could just tell me if this is the slightest bit normal in a Honda Civic?

 

are you using D4 or D3?

D4 will react like your wife's camry

D3 will react like a manual transmission car in 3rd gear... D4 is the cruise gear

 

I am using D4 for certain.

 

A manual stays in gear, so the engine holds the weight of the car down a hill if you just coast. An auto disengages the gear, and it just rolls. As long as your engine revs higher as you speed up, then it sounds like thats what it is. It should be this way with any stick-shift car. To demonstrate this more vividly, put your civic into 2nd, rev a little bit and that quickly release gas. The car will lurch forward because the engine catches the car.

Make sense?

 

 

have you flushed your automatic trans try that, might help out.

 

I just confirmed it today when I hooked up the scangauge. I was driving 60mph in D4 (automatic) and let off the gas to coast. The rpms were at around 2500 or so. My wifes car would instantly drop down to 1100 rpms, but not mine. The rpm's slowly decrease as the car slows as if I were using the transmission to stop the car. At 37 mph, I felt the tranny give way and the rpm's went down to 900. At that point I was cruising without much resistance. I think something is definitely wrong here.

 

does your car have a Jake Break?? lol just kidding

Did you try to flush the tranny have you checked to see if the fluid id low??

 

That's funny! The fluid is at a perfect height. I will try changing it out this weekend.