I am the owner of a 2005 HCH. I have had 2 major repairs that were covered by Honda as it was an issue with the model. Last year Honda repair belts and another thing (sorry I can't for the life of me recall what it was) when I brought it in because it was shaky going uphill and accelerating from a stop. The last repair was done on 11/20/2010. Now my car is shaking again, so I brought it back into the service center at my local Honda dealer. They are investigating possible causes but it was suggested that I need a new transmission. My car is only 6 years old, I do have over 160,000 miles on it but still its a Honda these cars are supposed to last. Has any one else had similiar experiences with their HCH? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

Extremely common problem - the start clutch in the 2003-2005 CVT is very prone to failure. Honda dealers are expert at delaying repairs until all possible warranties have expired. If yours is still under warranty make them fix it now. Unfortunately, the design is difficult and expensive to repair, and it tends not to stay repaired, with replacement units failing at comparable rates to the original. Many dealers do not actually repair these transmissions, all they do is swap them out for remanufactured ones. You don't have a lot of choice in who can fix it either - other than Honda dealers basically nobody works on these. I looked all over Los Angeles and found only two independents who would do this sort of work. It isn't that the independents are afraid of the technology, but that Honda designed the CVT so that special tools are required to work on them, said tools being, you guessed it, expensive and only available from Honda.

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0b3259/0
http://www.hybridcars.com/forums/200...brid-t943.html

Count your blessings that you got to 160K before the start clutch went. Few of the 2003's made it to 100K.

 

Most likely they only did the "Burnishing" job on the start clutch, there is a TSB for the procedure, I had it handy and for my life I cannot find it.
I did this after I purchased the start clutch, I was going to replace it when I learned of the TSB.
I did the burnishing job on my 2004 HCH and it lasted about 30,000 miles.
Yesterday I drove the car again, after being parked since August 5th (That's the date I got my Nissan Leaf ), and the shaking and rough starting was back, so I burnished the clutch a couple of times and it is all good.
I still have the clutch in the box and I don't think I will be using it. I have now 198,000 miles on my HCH.

If you only have the shaking at take off, have them replace the transmission or the clutch under warranty. Good luck.

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