honda civic hx rough ride

[vlad]

My Mom drives a 97 Honda Civic HX. I noticed that in cold weather (November through March here in Vermont) it behaves a bit strange until the motor warms up. What happens is, you can feel that it moves with short periods of acceleration (1 Sec), followed by a short period deceleration. It's very noticiable at 35 MPH. By the way, the instument shows that the RPM moves up adn down between 1800 and 2000 or so. 10% variation seems to be a lot.

Any idea what can be wrong? The car has about 107000 miles on it.

Thank you,

Vlad

[ric]

when was the last tuneup?

[Rice-Rocketeer]

That's alot of miles for a 97. It could many thing, vaccum seals, temp readings off, o2 sensor bad, you need a tune up.

[CivicOwnage]

if your tranny is cvt then your tranny might be dieng out, cause thats what my car did but at all speeds when not flooring it and then 4 months later my tranny started slipping and had to get rid of it. I dont know but thats just what happend to me, so dont freak out or anything

[bugmenot]

I have an 01 HX and I noticed the same behavior, when its cold, so i consulted the users manual... It turns out that the HX, knows the optimum opperating temp, anad adgusts the gear ratio to heat up the engine quicker. This causes the car to feel slugish or touchy, until the engine warms up, about halfway through my trip it warms up and starts running like I'm used too.

[pinakbert]

My 98 HX w/ CVT had a prob, since I bought it, when cold but @ a stop. It would surge like it wanted to go forward. Had to really push down on the brake. Even had to just put it in neutral @ stops, till it warmed up. Dealer replaced the themostat 3 times. Dealer then replaced tranny @ 30K. Then 2nd tranny died @ 115k (just finishing paying it off too). Dealer wants $6000 (six thousand) to replace. thats more than the car is worth.