Hello all,

I've been lurking for a few years now but it's time to finally sign up and ask a quick question...

I have a 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid that will soon be out of warranty and I am concerned about my CVT. The car drives as expected but about 20% of the time when I put the car in park I hear a fairly loud whining / wheezing sound coming from what I assume is the transaxle. I always put the car in park with my foot on the break and use the e-brake to keep the load off the transmission so I know it is not the typical clicking sound of the load being placed on the transmission lock.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? I would like to take the car in but the issue is difficult to replicate as it doesn't happen all the time. The best I can describe the sound is a higher pitch whining or sighing sound.

Thanks in advance for any help!
Jason

 

MT,
The very first thing I would do is change the fluid with genuine Honda CVT fluid. It breaks down over heat and time, I've heard of others with similar troubles. I think that would be the easiest and cheapest route, not to mention it probably is due anyways, I change mine every 24k miles, some I hear do it every 12k.

If that doesn't solve the problem, I would drive it till it exhibits some other more concrete symptom and then either have it repaired or replaced. Unless it's too annoying to bear right now, in that case there aren't many shops that rebuild CVTs so it may get costly.

 

Thank you for the advice Jamchel!

 

Anytime, hope your problem is a cheap and easy one to fix!

 

Just remembered I never updated this post. It turns out the very loud bizarre sound that was caused by me shifting into park was the passenger side door auto-unlocking! I never unlock the car except when I put it in park so I didn't notice, but it's a door lock issue not transmission related. Felt pretty dumb when I realized it, but I wanted to update this post encase anyone else is having the same issue.