Hi, i have a 2004 honda civic ex manual transmission. i bought it used in the spring time 3 years ago, and it seems that each winter since then, when it gets cold out, my car shakes when shifting gears. if i don't give it gas inbetween shifting, it won't shake, but then the transfer between gears isn't as smooth, which i don't think should be done anyway.

any ideas why this might be happening? or is it just a civic thing? not sure why it would only happen in colder weather. pretty much anything 50 degrees or below. unless it's just a weird coincidence.

 

welcome to the forum. Have you checked to see if your plugs, wires, distributor, are in good conditon. If it does this only when cold, the engine mounts should be good. how many miles might you have. check the throttle body sensor, check your egr for carbon build up.

 

wow, thanks for the quick response! =] i will have someone look into what you recommended above. unfortunately i'm not that savvy w/automobiles. i have approximately 81k miles on my car right now. but it's been doing the shaking since the first winter, i'm guessing at about 35k - 40k miles. i do a LOT of highway driving commuting to my job.

also, unrelated, i am now hearing an intermittent sound like spinning metal on metal while driving and turning the wheel, coming from my front passenger side tire. I thought it might be the brakes, but it happens when i'm driving, not braking. sometimes it will go away if i brake though, so i'm thinking maybe it is. any ideas?? =]

 

when was the last time you changed the your front brake pads, also there might be a possibility that the metal backing plate slid off the the pads and chafting metal to rotor.
This does not take braking to make noise, just a off and on metal to metal scraping sound. take the wheel off and check front and back of the caliper. make sure you have jack stands to keep the car from falling off the jack and hurting you. mirror will help look.

 

it sounds exactly like the brake pad issue you described. will be looking into it soon. thanks again!

 

rather than polluting the forums with another thread, i thought i'd post here again. i have a new issue, and you've been on point with solving my other two issues, so thank you. here goes...

approx 6-8 months ago my engine started making a slight knocking noise. 2 or 3 knocks every now and then, not consistently. when i got home i checked my oil and the engine was bone dry. i put oil in it and then soon after took it in to a mechanic who flushed/cleaned the engine out and said he wasn't sure why it would be completely empty like that. there didn't appear to be any leaks or problems, and it had only been about 5k miles since my last oil change. he told me to try using a synthetic blend from now on and so i have been. since then i haven't had any problems and hadn't heard the knocking noise again...until today...

so i'm driving and i hear that same knocking noise and i think "oh great". i pull over and sure enough the engine is bone dry again. i've had one oil change since the last episode and they never said anything about the engine being empty of oil and i am just about due for my next oil change. it's only been about 5k miles from my last oil change. i had a synthetic blend in there and the guy said i'd be good for 7,500 miles. i do a lot of highway commuting with this car. any ideas why i'm losing or burning all that oil and what i should do?

thanks.

p.s. - my engine has never overheated

 

the synthetic blend good for 7,500 miles means no need to change oil for that long, not it will last in the engine without burning or using oil. Your engine is like my mom's uses 2 qt per 5k miles. some honda engines use oil, I was surprised that it passed ca smog with no problems, after changing oil, fill up to full line, 2k miles later, I'm down 1 qt easy. I don't see smoke out the tail pipe, engine runs smooth and no foul plugs. put 75k to 140k and still not change spark plugs but uses oil and each smog check passed with no problems. I would be guessing that the rings did not seal proper or mild oil leaking through the valve seals. If it is running good, and not smoking, add the oil and drive. monitor your oil level once a week and add as needed. or you can run a diognostic and see if it can find where the oil is going to . I beleive it is burning it up throught the valve seals or piston rings. ( depending on milage also )

 

yes, the engine still runs smooth and isn't smoking and seems to be running just fine. I'll definitely check the oil weekly and add as needed from now on. hopefully that will do the trick. thanks for everything.

 

in the future, when it comes time to change the front brake pads, and rotor, try the brenbo performance rotor, has holes and slots, with thermo-quiet pads. I installed these on my 02 civic, got 60k with lots of pad left, and no warp or the rotor. My original rotor started to warp at 7k and at 30k I had to change out and cut the rotor. another 7k and the same. Went with Brenbo ( sp? ) due to cost of total was less than Honda Factory. Just a suggestion I got my rotor from ebay.

 

thanks for the tip. i will keep that in mind when the time comes again. thanks