Honda Problems

The 2015 model Jazz was recalled for a CVT transmission problem which could see high internal hydraulic pressure cause an internal shaft to break, at which point the car would lose all drive. However, your 2005 model Jazz was not fitted with a gearbox with the same potential problem.

Even though there was no recall for the 2005 Jazz's transmission, those with the CVT transmission could suffer shuddering problems which were linked to depleted additives in the transmission fluid. The solution was an improved fluid which was added to the gearbox once the old fluid had been drained and the car's ECU reset. While Honda dealers were performing this change, the problem was not deemed to be a safety issue, so no recall was issued.

The Australian Federal Government operates a website that lists all recalls for all makes and models officially sold here. It makes for some interesting reading. You can find it here.

Without knowing what the problem is, we can’t advise driving the vehicle any farther as you risk doing more damage. Clearly there’s something with the driveline and the car needs to be scanned to find out what it is.

On the plus side, often the blinking D indicator light means there’s a problem with the transmission pressure sensor, rather than a major problem inside the transmission itself. But until you can determine that for certain, driving the car at all is risking destroying something large and expensive.

To be honest, those do very much sound like the normal characteristics of a CVT transmission. The CVT saves fuel by allowing the engine to work in its most efficient speed range more of the time. That’s why, when you hit the accelerator, the engine sounds like it’s flaring. Which, of course, it is, to get into that sweet spot where it makes more power from less fuel. Essentially, the engine takes off and the rest of the car catches up with it.

The on-board computer can also interpret a burst of acceleration as the driver wanting to press on. That’s why the car will sometimes hold higher engine revs, because it wants to be ready for the next burst. When you back off, the computer interprets that as the need for speed having passed and it drops back to cruising revs…just as you’ve noted.

The jerkiness is another thing some owners notice, others never do. It’s all to do with the way the torque converter is calibrated. If you have any doubts, you could ask for the transmission to be scanned at the next service to see if it’s all in good condition.

Either way, you should report your concerns to Honda now so that if anything goes wrong down the track, the problem will be listed as a pre-existing condition and will still be considered by the factory warranty.

The smart money says go with a Toyota. The RAV4 is popular but within your budget, you'll be buying a 12- or 14-year-old car with at least 200,000km on its odometer. Which still means it's probably a pretty good thing in terms of reliability, provided it's been serviced correctly up to now, but you'd have to buy carefully. A second-hand Kluger can also be a good deal if you can afford the fuel, but comes with the same caveats.

A Honda CR-V won't be much different to the RAV4 in terms of its price versus model year, but you stand a slightly better chance of finding a CR-V with relatively low kilometres. Don't be afraid to get a bit alternative and look at things like the Kia Sportage. Your ten-grand gets you into a Sportage of around the same vintage as the RAV4, but is likely to have as many as 100,000 fewer kilometres on board. Again, check for a full service history.

And given your usage pattern, don't be temped to stump up more for a hybrid SUV; there's just not the pay-off at the pump for a car that does mainly highway and open-road work.

The recommended Honda Civic engine oil is a fully synthetic 0W20 oil. That’s what oil manufacturers say is best for any of the Civic engines sold here from 2017 onwards. That includes the 1.8-litre and 1.5-litre petrol engines as well as the high-performance Civic Type R model.

Like many Honda engines over the years, the Honda Civic oil passages can be quite small and narrow, so a good supply of clean, fresh oil is critical to these cars. That’s also why the Honda Civic oil type is a very light (thin) oil; so it flows easily and quickly.

If you know how to perform a service on any other modern car, then you already know how to change oil on a Honda Civic. It’s a DIY maintenance job for anybody who is an average mechanic and involves little in the way of tools apart from an oil filter wrench and the correct size socket or spanner to tackle the drain plug. You’ll also need drain pans and the car’s owner’s manual which will tell you things like how often to change oil, any other service interval info and specifications for how tight the drain plug needs to be tightened.

Failing all that, a trip to any service centre will be able to supply the oil and replacement filter, dispose of the waste oil and even reset the service reminder light as part of the process.

The first thing to do is to make sure your phone has Bluetooth switched on and is in Discoverable mode. Then, go to the menu on the car's info-screen and select Settings. Then scroll down and select Setup and then Bluetooth. From there, touch on Add a New Device. The car will then search for nearby devices and display them. When your phone's ID appears, scroll to it and press the Select button. Make sure the code on the screen for Bluetooth Honda Civic matches the code shown on your phone and you're good to go.

There are also online tutorials on how to connect Bluetooth to Honda Civic cars, and these are worth watching provided the unit in question is the same as the system in Australian-delivered Civics. Some markets had different set-ups, so make sure you watch the right video.

If all that fails, the connection instructions are in the car's owner's manual which, hopefully, is in the car's glove-box.

This system of Honda Civic Bluetooth paring was introduced on 2018 and on Civics, but it's worth mentioning that those earlier cars did not have on-board sat-nav. So to get navigation on the RS or VTi-L model, you definitely need your phone connected to make use of your phone's nav system.

There are a few possibilities here. The first is that there’s been a failure of one of the battery cables that connects the battery to the car. If one is loose, broken or badly corroded so that it won’t let current to flow, then it won’t matter how many jump starters you connect, the thing will not fire.

A second possibility is that there’s something gone wrong with the key fob or immobiliser that isn’t allowing the car’s electrical systems to fire up. Even then, however, you’d perhaps expect to get a red light on the dashboard when you hooked up the jump battery.

What about the jump starter pack you’re using. Is it fully charged? Is it still working (some of these units die suddenly when you need them the most)? Don’t forget that some battery terminals have a built-in circuit-breaker that acts as a fuse if the car’s electrical system experiences a power spike. These circuit-breakers can be replaced or sometimes reset to get the volts flowing again.

But possibly more likely that any of those scenarios is a battery that has literally fallen apart internally. A battery is a series of cells and, if one cell collapses or fails, the battery effectively stops being a battery as the missing cell acts as a circuit-breaker. At which point, you can hook up the world’s biggest jump pack or jump battery and nothing will happen. Change the battery for a borrowed one and see if things improve.

The default purchase for somebody looking for a mid-sized hybrid SUV is the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. But if that’s too big, there’s the Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid, C-HR Hybrid and even the Corolla Cross Hybrid which sounds like the marketplace is getting crowded but is really just a reflection of the appetite right now for cars like these. And that’s the catch; the waiting times for a brand-new example of some of these cars is out to many months and even years. So your plan to shop second-hand makes plenty of sense, but don’t expect any bargains in a market currently being dominated by lots of demand and less supply.

Beyond the Toyota brand (which has been doing hybrids longer than just about anybody else) there’s also the Mazda CX-30, Subaru XV Hybrid, Haval Jolion Hybrid, Kia Niro, Subaru Forester Hybrid, Nissan Qashqai e-Power, MG HS, Honda HR-V e and more. For something a bit bigger, try the Kia Sorento or Hyundai Santa Fe hybrids. There are others out there, too, that are probably bigger or more expensive than you need, but it's very much a growing scene in the Australian marketplace.

There are dozens (hundreds, actually) of reasons why a modern automatic car won't accelerate through its gears properly when you take off from a standing start. These can include sensors, wiring, fuses, mechanical issues within the transmission and even an on-board computer that has lost the plot.

While the Jazz uses a CVT transmission rather than a conventional automatic with planetary gears, the Honda still makes use of hydraulic transmission fluid to operate its torque converter and effect the gear ratio changes as you drive. So, keeping the correct grade of fluid at the correct level is critical.

In most cases, the best bet is to take the car to a workshop that knows this make and model and have it scanned electronically for clues about what's gone wrong. This will ultimately be the quickest, cheapest way to find out what's wrong. From there, you can make a more informed decision on how to proceed.

However, if you want to be a little more pro-active, there are a couple of things to try. First, check the level of the transmission fluid. If this is low (due to a leak) then the gearbox may have difficulty shifting gears or taking off at all. The other thing you could try is to disconnect the battery from the car and leave it for at least an hour before reconnecting the battery. This forces an electronic reset and could fix the problem. It's a bit of a long shot, however, and you may have to recode your radio and reset the car's clock.