Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | |||
| 11/21/2012 | 130000 | ||
| Tl* the contact owns a 2003 honda civic. while driving approximately 40 mph, the vehicle suddenly accelerated independently without depressing the accelerator pedal. the contact depressed the brake pedal but the vehicle would not decelerate. when the contact removed her foot from the brake pedal the speed increased. the contact merged onto a grassy area and shut the engine off. the vehicle was towed to the dealer for diagnostic testing. the vehicle was not repaired. the approximate failure mileage 130,000. | |||
| 11/21/2012 | 130000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2003 honda civic. while driving approximately 40 mph, the vehicle suddenly accelerated independently without depressing the accelerator pedal. the contact depressed the brake pedal but the vehicle would not decelerate. when the contact removed her foot from the brake pedal the speed increased. the contact merged onto a grassy area and shut the engine off. the vehicle was towed to the dealer for diagnostic testing. the vehicle was not repaired. the approximate failure mileage 130,000. kmj | |||
| 11/21/2012 | 130000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2003 honda civic. while driving approximately 40 mph the vehicle suddenly accelerated on its own without depressing the accelerator pedal. the contact depressed the brake pedal but the vehicle would not decelerate. when the contact removed her foot from the brake pedal the speed increased. the contact merged onto a grassy area and shut the engine off. the vehicle was towed to the dealer for diagnostic testing. the vehicle was not repaired. the approximate failure mileage 130,000. da | |||
| 10/31/2012 | 123000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2003 honda civic. while driving approximately 35 mph, the vehicle suddenly accelerated independently without the contact applying pressure to the accelerator pedal. the contact applied pressure to the brake pedal but the vehicle would not respond and accelerated farther. after shifting into neutral, the vehicle came to a stop. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing. the vehicle was not repaired. the approximate mileage was 123,000. kmj | |||
| 10/31/2012 | 123000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2003 honda civic. while driving approximately 35 mph the vehicle suddenly accelerated on its own without the contact applying pressure to the accelerator pedal. the contact applied pressure to the brake pedal but the vehicle would not respond and accelerated more. after placing the gear in neutral the vehicle came to a stop. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing. the vehicle was not repaired. the approximate mileage was 123,000. da | |||
| 11/25/2011 | 153928 | 1 | |
| As i was leaving the parking lot of a shopping center, and about to get on the roadway, i came to a complete stop. when the opportunity came to proceed, i stepped on the gas pedal (throttle) and it got stuck to the floor for approximately 10 seconds. i immediately stepped on the brake pedal as hard as i could, to prevent the car from moving forward at a high rate of speed, however the car kept creeping forward. i managed to engage the emergency brake, which seemed to have helped. as an attempt to loosen the throttle, i shifted the shift lever from drive to park, back and forth a couple of times, to no avail. as i was about to attempt to turn the ignition key to the off position, the throttle became unstuck. during the incident, the engine was running at high rpms. i took the car to the dealership and explained to them what i had experienced. the master mechanic took the car for a test-drive and confirmed that the throttle was getting stuck. during the actual inspection, the mechanic(s) found out that the throttle body and cable needed to be replaced. the repair was done and i had not had another such incident since then. *tr | |||
| 04/11/2012 | 90000 | ||
| Driver had just stopped vehicle in parking spot when it unexpectedly accelerated over the curb and hit another vehicle,also hit shrubs in common areaof parking lot. driver applied brakes and was able to stop vehicle. | |||
| 02/03/2011 | 140000 | ||
| Tl-the contact owns a 2003 honda civic lx. while driving 55 mph the vehicle suddendly acclerated. while trying to slow the vehicle down the vehicle rpm increased to 2000 rpms. the brake was being depressed and he started shifting the gears from d3 to d1 until the vehicle slowed down. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer or the manufacturer was not contacted. the failure mileage was 140,000...mw | |||
| 02/23/2010 | 141000 | 1 | |
| I have a 2003 honda civic. i had pulled out of my small road onto a rural highway heading into town to take my 14 year-old son to school. i had accelerated to about 45 mph and needed to slow for a car in front of me. i took my foot off of the pedal and the car continued to accelerate. it didn't just stay stuck at the speed i was going it took off like i had it floored. i had my son look down and check the mat and he even pulled on the pedal but it made no difference. i controlled the speed somewhat by pushing on the brakes with both feet very hard and was able to keep from overtaking other cars. luckily, the intersection i crossed did not require me to stop and i was able to push on the brakes hard enough to be able to pull over and turn the car off in the parking lot of a local mechanic. the brakes were smoking badly. the mechanic saw how frightened i was and came out and started the car and it was still revving at full throttle. he shut it off and said they would push it in later. when they did look at it later, it wasn't doing it anymore. they drove it and it didn't do it again. i called the local dealership(ike's honda in marion il) and they brushed me off. i then called the honda company. they called me the next day and offered to do diagnostics for free if i brought it to the dealer. they wouldn't commit to fixing it. i had it towed there(on my insurance because they rep. never called me back even though i left 2 messages) because i was afraid to drive it. that was fri., february 26,2010 and i have not heard from them yet. what happens if they don't find anything? i am afraid to drive the car again. i was very lucky the first time. what happens if they say the found something? are they really going to let me drive off in it if i can't afford to fix it? *tr | |||
| 05/02/2009 | 86000 | 1 | |
| On ~5/2/2009, saturday morning, i was driving my 2003 honda civic, cross 141th street from north community to south community after yard sale, at ~15mph speed. when i cross the street, i found a suv pass from west to east, then i try to stop my car, however i can not stop it. then i have to turn left (east), then my car right front crashed with the suv left side. i remembered i push the brake gear, however it can not stop, i also used my right hand to move the gear to the n, and push my the brake so hard, then my car stopped about 300 feet away from where the car crashed. i just don't understand why at that time it takes me so long time and so far away distance to stop a car at a speed ~15mph (happened only this time). another thing about this car: when i set up cruise control for this car, it will automatically accelerate higher than what i set up. suppose i try to set up 65mph on highway, the car will automatically accelerate to more than 70mph. now i can not use the cruise control system in this car. *tr | |||
| 10/20/2009 | 47531 | ||
| Tl* the contact owns a 2003 honda civic hybrid. while parking the rpm's began to increase rapidly and the vehicle lunged forward. the contact was forced to shift gears into park to avoid crashing into another vehicle. the contact confirmed that the pedal was not stuck when the vehicle accelerated. the vehicle was towed to the dealer. the dealer diagnosed the vehicle and stated that there were no failures. the dealer concluded that the floor mat pushed the accelerator pedal down causing the rpm's to increase; however they trimmed the floor mats around the pedal. the failure mileage was 47,531. | |||
| 05/30/2003 | 1000 | 1 | |
| 2003 honda civic ex with 5 speed standard transmission and with cruise control. when using cruise control, if i shift gears, after i disengage the transmission and before i re-engage the desired gear (i.e., switching gears from 4th to 5th or 4th to third or a similar operation) , cruise control does not disengage, engine revs up to redline, and i must manually kill cruise control by tapping brakes, or i can leave cruise control on, and shift into desired gear. the point is, the car is either suppose to kill the cruise control operation automatically, or at the least, not rev the engine up in an uncontrolled method. this has been happening since i purchased the car brand new (with 0 miles on it, right off the delivery truck). i thought nothing of it until i read that the toyota computer system may be the source of unintentional acceleration. *tr | |||
| 05/12/2006 | 48000 | 1 | 08/01/2003 |
| Dt*: the contact stated while parking the vehicle, with the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle accelerated uncontrollably. the vehicle was initially traveling less than 3 mph. the vehicle went over the concrete barrier and hit a wall. there was a police report taken at the scene. although the seat belt was worn, the contact sustained minor injuries. the vehicle was towed to the dealership, but has not yet been inspected. | |||
| 08/15/2005 | 4 | ||
| While driving, 2003 honda civic began to accelerate on its own. consumer pulled over and vehicle rev to 6k rpm. *** nar received 10-18-05*** *ts when the consumer placed the gear into neutral that was when the vehicle revved. *jb | |||
| 09/09/2002 | 3 | 1 | 07/05/2002 |
| I was struck on my front bumper by a driver directly in front of me. he was making a 3-point turn and didn't know that i was behind him. he accelerated into me and even though my car sustained minimal damage, my neck received all of the crash energy. i have hard-copy evidence of my neck from mris and cat scans taken 1 year before the accident; i had a healthy neck. i now have 3 disintergrating discs and constant pain. the treatments will be open-ended, i am told. through my research, i found that honda changed their head-restraint design on the civic hybrid 2003 (my car). before that year, the regular civic had excellent ratings. this model had a 'minimal passing' rating. i feel that the lack of neck support was the reason that my body sustained such injuries.*ak | |||
| 08/08/2003 | 850 | 3 | 07/31/2003 |
| Within the 8 days we owned this car, it had accelerated twice while my teenaged daughter was driving. these incidents happened when she was accelerating after having stopped at a stop sign. being an inexperienced driver she did not realize the problem, only commented the car felt like it was driving funny. when the incident on 08/08/03 happened, i was driving with my younger daughter in the car. we were pulling into a parking space in front of a restaurant at a very slow rate of speed, when the car suddenly accelerated, causing us to jump up onto the sidewalk and run into a cement picnic table, denting the front bumper. i had to slam on the brakes to stop the car from driving through the front window of the restaurant and possibily injuring or killing the people inside. we took the car back to the dealership, where their diagnostic technicians were unable to duplicate the problem. we were told there is nothing wrong with the car and to come and pick it up as there was nothing further they could do for us. we found on this nhtsa website that there were six other similar incidents of this model of car having sudden acceleration during slow speed or stopping situations. we provided this information to the dealership, but they are still unwilling to help us.*ak | |||
| 07/24/2003 | 1000 | 30 | |
| Frequently, braking will actually cause an acceleration. if i'm going down a hill and am pressing slowly on the brake to slow down, and then hit a bump in the road, the car accelerates and there's a bump, bump, bump until finally the brakes engage. i have taken it in for service and was told this is just the way abs works. however, i have driven other cars with abs (including hondas) and have never had this problem. this has happened over 30 times since i bought the car several months ago. one time i nearly collided with the car in front of me. *ak | |||
| 07/02/2003 | 1 | ||
| When coming to a stop pressure was applied to the brake pedal and vehicle accelerated. driver did not touch the accelerator pedal at all. driver was able to avoid a collision. vehicle has been taken to the dealer several times but the problem could not be resolved.*ak | |||
| 05/29/2003 | 12000 | 1 | 07/10/2003 |
| After being stopped for a few minutes at a stop lightthe car suddenly lurched forward. whereas, i might believe my foot lifted off the brake a little that should have caused the vehicle to roll forward and not suddenly accelerate. as a result, i did rear end the car in front of me. *ak | |||
| 03/27/2003 | 700 | 2 | 02/07/2003 |
| The vehicle experienced sudden acceleration, when the brakes were applied. *jb the was no way to engage the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal at the same time, and was traveling at a low speed when the brake was engaged. the engine had gone up to over 3k rpm's. the dealer couldn't duplicate. scc | |||
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL - ACCELERATOR PEDAL | |||
| 08/11/2004 | 25000 | 1 | 09/01/2003 |
| While backing out vehicle accelerated uncontrollably and crashed into a tree. the consumer was able to driver vehicle home. consumer will take the vehicle to a dealer for inspection in the near future. *ak the vehicle made a roaring noise and when the consumer shifted into drive, the vehicle sped off uncontrollably. *sc | |||
| 07/09/2003 | 5580 | 1 | |
| Consumer states that while driving fuel supply was full on as if depressing gas pedal to the floor. the vehicle suddenly accelerated, causing consumer to utilize parking brake in order to stop.*ak | |||
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL - CABLES | |||
| 02/24/2005 | 35000 | 1 | |
| While driving at approximately 10 mph throttle cable broke. owner was able to coast into a parking lot and call a tow truck to have the vehicle transported to a local dealer. the dealer replaced the throttle cable. vehicle was under warranty. *ak *bf *nm | |||
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL - LINKAGES | |||
| 10/29/2002 | 1 | 05/01/2002 | |
| Consumer stated upon entering the driveway of her home, the vehicle suddenly accelerated and could not be stopped by applying the brakes, the vehicle hit the rear wall of the garage causing damage to both the automobile and her home.*jb | |||