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Honda: car jerks into gear when parked on an incline, release brakes, 2006 honda civic


Question
Hi!
I have a 2006 Honda civic 4-door and am the first and only owner.  Car has approx 36,000 miles.  When I park the car on an incline, whether I am facing into or away from the hill, I always engage my parking brake.  The problem is that when I go to drive and I disengage the parking brake, the car always jerks hard into gear.  It feels as the though it's an issue with the transmission and I had a very similar problem with my 1993 Honda accord.  

I've tried disengaging the parking brake before I put it in gear and also have tried putting it into gear before disengaging the parking brake.  Neither of those seems to be the solution -- the car still jerks into gear.  At this point, this occurs only when the car is parked on an incline.

Please offer your advice and suggestions!  Thanks much for your help.

Answer
Hi Kim,

This is actually a normal , nothing really to be concerned about.

Try this instead - After you get the car started, the parking brake still on, your foot on the brakes, shift into neutral, release parking brake, then shift into drive, then slowly release brakes. I don't guarantee it'll work all the time, but it relieves the gears prior to placing it into drive.

I've had several other cars, an old Prelude, Accord, Acura Legend, Subaru, Mercedes....its just because of the fact that the gears in the transmission are "tensioned" or "loaded" due to the weight of the vehicle pushing/pulling(depending on parking, uphill or downhill)on the gears.

Hondas are great cars, but like any manufacturer, Hondas weakness is its transmissions (area that can be improved), they are not the smoothest transmissions around. The 02 Civics are known for transmission that go bad due to an internal filter/design flaw.

I slight jerk is ok, but a significant jarr may be a concern...if its only with parking, not a big deal, but if it occurs while your driving, then it could be something else.

Hope this helps.