[Blazingd17]

i recently put a new automatic transmission in my 2003 civic. The car cycles through park d3 and d2 but will not stay (click) into drive. It is stuck between neutral and drive.
The car runs great in 2-3 and if I hold it just right it will stay in drive and run through all of the gears properly. The place where it runs just right on the speedometer where the gear selection is (D) is not lit up in green.

any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m new to this forum and have never been a member on any forums in general. If this has already been covered somewhere on this forum please direct me to that place.
Thank you.

 

[drtalon123]

You need to adjust the shifter cable.

 

[Blazingd17]

Thank you for your response and excuse my ignorance I’ve never adjusted one before. Is there any way you could explain how to do it? Or possibly send me to some information or content that would help. I looked on YouTube after you replied but didn’t see anything for my specific car.

 

[drtalon123]

Every chassis likely has a different process/procedure for adjustment, so it would likely be worth purchasing a service manual for your car to reference to know for sure.

But looking at a picture of an auto shifter cable for an 01-05 civic, the end that goes into the cabin and attaches to the shifter in the console has a big square window that attaches to the shifter:

This wide square window is likely the method of adjustment. You disconnect the cable from the shifter (which is likely fastened together with a nut and a bolt clamping the square window on the cable to the shifter itself), then use the cable square window to physically push/shift the trans into park, then place the shifter itself into park, then reattach the two with the nut and the bolt, knowing both are now in park.

With both being physically placed in park position and the nut/bolt locked down, attempting to move the shifter should now shift the transmission through the gear range in the correct way to maintain alignment with the shifter.

The concept can be seen in this diagram for the Honda Fit that I was able to google:

The square window on the cable end gives you a little bit of wiggle room to properly align the shifter position to the position that the cable is in as it relates to transmission selected shift position.

This means you need to take apart your center console to expose the shifter and related mechanism, in order to get to the nut to loosen it for you to do this.

 

[Blazingd17]

Thank you. I really appreciate it.

 

[mattliston]

The idea is you loosen the cable end up, you follow the procedure, whether it wants you in park or nuetral, then re-tighten.

I highly advise you to grab a manual somewhere online for the 01-05 civics.

The link at the bottom of my signature will work if honda decided to match it to the 96-00 cars. Unlikely, due to 7th gens being a bit closer to K and J series electronics and styles of mechanisms

 

[Blazingd17]

Okay so a buddy of mine gave me the directions from all data. Even with the but completely off and trying to put the car in neutral or drive it won’t stay. Any ideas?

Im other words it won’t stay in neutral so that I can put everything back together properly

 

[slo_eg8]

"Try the torque converter solenoids. Replace that/those first, reset your ECU, then drive. " - 08-13-2012

5 Reasons Your Honda Civic Won’t Go Into Gear "Torque Converter: While there has been some recall due to failure of the torque converter in certain models, a mechanic can now easily fix these."

Possible Shift Control Solenoid Fault : Honda Civic Drive Train

https://www.fixya.com/cars/t25626854-put_2003_honda_civic_into_drive_go

 

[Blazingd17]

It was the neutral safety switch. Right behind the passenger rear tire.

when swapping over from the old transmission to the new I just bolted the old one up to the new transmission not knowing it had a specific setting it needed.

had a buddy sit in the driver seat while I played with it and eventually was able to get it to go in drive.

hope this helps if anyone else has the same issue.

thank you everyone for your quick responses and trying to get me back out on the road.

 

[mattliston]

you know, a manual swap is VERY easy on the 01-5 cars (cough)

 

[Blazingd17]

Passenger front tire*
i don’t know why I said rear tire.
Yeah I’d love to have a manual in it but I wasn’t sure what all had to be done to get it to work. It’s just my little grocery getter I didn’t want to put too much money in it.