new to the forum, drive a 1994 Civic EX, every stock, just bought it, put new oil gaskets in oilpan and vtech, rotors resurfaced, new plugs, general maintenaince, had a oil leak, hope that solved the problem.

anyways, the car seems to shake between 30-40mph, and goes away when I give more gas, possibly a problem with the axel? tranny? shifts fine, please let me know how expensive it is to fix, and how big a problem this might be.

thanks,

Gizzano

 

Does it still shake if you go faster? If it does the tires might need an alignment.

 

nope, it goes away if I accelerate, its a automatic, but i think it would be the equivalent of 3 or 4th gear, thanks for the help

 

i hope it is not the tranny. i hope it is something minor later.

 

i think i might know what you're talking about, my car does the same thing, its a 95 DX automatic, but the way i've figured mine out is when it reaches about 35 mph, when its still in 2nd gear, it tends to start shaking, but like if u accelerate a bit more, let it slip into third, it goes away. thats the way i do it, try and get it to go into third, thats how i solve it. try it and let me know how it goes i dunno if its a problem or anything, my car runs great, its got 152k miles on it, but its been taken care of properly, and the alignment was just done last week

 

did you guys check tires balancing and positioning? or else it would be tranny pro then

 

If this "shake" is like you're going over speed bumps, then its your tires. If the tires are fine, check to see if the wheels have any bends in them as this causes a bumpy ride at certain speeds.

If this is a shake like your car is not shifting gears, then its your tranny. If this is the case, the solution is REALLY easy and much cheaper than the one above. I would buy three qt of HONDA ATF and turn your wheels to the right. After this look under the car towards the front of the front right tire. You'll see a screw with a ratchet input. Plug in a 5/8 ratchet into it, turn it left to open, and drain it. After this, use a new washer and tighten this back up. When this is complete, open the hood and look towards the left side (towards the front passenger) and you'll see a yellow dipstick. In some cars, it is somewhat hidden. You use a funnel with a pipe attached to it and fill the ATF fluid through this hole. I know that the 96-00 civics take 2.9qt. So i presume your model is the same but double check. When this is complete, shift through all of your gears and go on a drive for 10-15 minutes.


If the problem doesn't resolve after the tranny fluid change, i would repeat the step once more since not all of the tranny fluid is drained the first time for automatics. If the problem still continues, then you are in need for a new tranny. I say do a drain and refill two times because the max it should cost you is $30 for both times and you can do it yourself. THe tranny on the other hand will cost you around $600-800 and add to that the installation. So it is better to spend $30 to resolvfe the issue rather than close to a $1000 or over.

 

big mistake....the size for the rachet is 3/8 not 5/8 as said above.

 

If the steering wheel shakes, then you need to have your tires balanced. Its pretty cheap so thats not something to worry about much but make sure to have it done. However, if your whole car shakes then it could be a tranny problem.