Rolls on very slight incline when in gear 6MT

1) 1.5T is a msall engine with smaller bore, long stroke, modern piston ring shave fairly low drag.
2) Compression ratio isn't all that high on a turbo engine.
3) 6th gear is very tall in these cars compared to transmissions in the past, top gear has the most leverage for the wheels to spin the engine. Engines moves only a very small amount for a large wheel movement, so there's less compression preventing engine rotation. This is why you jump start a car in a higher gear, not in 1st gear.

4) You should always use your parking brake on an incline, even with an automatic, no need to keep gears, cranks, bearings and con rods under load all the time. When I drove a manual, except when parked on a steep hill, I always parked my cars and motorcycles in neutral.


ICYC, I did test drive a Mazda 6 with a manual, and found that I'd gotten too used to the smoothness of an automatic and just found shifting unsatisfying, expecially wiht mostly a 90 miles 90% highway commute every day. The automatics are just so good now and have a much wider spread of ratio than you can get in a manual. Cruising at 70mph @ 1900RPM in a compact car is something only a 3L+ 6 cylinder could manage only 10 years ago.

I have a 2016 2L manual, it also rolls on me when parked. Inch by inch every 30 seconds or so on an incline. I've had three Civics and they all do that.. It's a tad unnerving.

I get that you should use the e/parking brake when parked, BUT, when temperatures fluctuate in winter and it goes from above freezing to below freezing I could understand that some people would prefer to leave their car in gear rather than engage the parking break. They can freeze if there is moisture on the cable. That's not an issue with the 2016+ as it's an electronic parking break however.

The e-break froze on me on my old 2008 civic and took about 30 minutes of the car running to get it unfrozen.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get all this "woe is the car" for leaving the drivetrain under "load" if not using the PB when parked. Seriously, the engine in the 1.5T puts out 162 ft-lbs of torque. The whole drivetrain is designed to deal with that. Parked and rolled against a gear? That's nothing.

FWIW, we have MTs exclusively until our 2000 CR-V and still had several long after that (8 MT cars from 1978 to 2009 including Ford Fiesta, Isuzu Trooper, 2x Integra, Accord, Vigor, Civic, Mercedes-Benz SLK230). On *relatively* flat ground, I only used 1st or R (opposite of any incline), not the PB. Nothing ever resulted. I got in this habit, maybe bad, after I had the Fiesta--which had a cable operated parking brake that would readily freeze after being driven in icy/slushy conditions.

BTW, the 1.5T has a 10.6:1 compression ratio. If that's not pretty high, what, short of a diesel, is much higher?

Bottom line (imo), any car should NEVER move more than an inch and only once... at most, when in gear. I agree, use e-break, but should not move otherwise.

timbjimmy said:

Anybody experiencing a rolling issue regardless of the gear it is in (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, Reverse)?

Day time parking lot: tried 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th
Night time photo: tried 1st and Reverse

Now, I know emergency brake is a must, but forgot to..but I thought compression should be high enough to endure a very minor incline and prevent from rolling in case emergency brake fails.

CAR jerks about an inch as it rolls and then stops until it rolls again..

Am I the wierd one to experience this? Any MT drivers input will be appreiciated.

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I have many years of experience driving MT cars. I always apply the parking brake when the car is parked, and therefore cannot comment on what you observed. I do not want to rely on the engine to prevent the parked vehicle from moving, because of what you have observed.

Thanks for the comments. I agree this is somewhat a vague topic that people have different opinions of.
I took it to the service at the tail end of office hour, and showed a video.
The service advisor's initial reaction was 'this does not look right.', and asked me to share the video (see the original post for the link).
Hopefully Honda gets back to me after they have multiple service guys looked at.
I will keep you all posted.

timbjimmy said:

Thanks for the comments. I agree this is somewhat a vague topic that people have different opinions of.
I took it to the service at the tail end of office hour, and showed a video.
The service advisor's initial reaction was 'this does not look right.', and asked me to share the video (see the original post for the link).
Hopefully Honda gets back to me after they have multiple service guys looked at.
I will keep you all posted.

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any update? A similar issue just happened to me. the vehicle was turned off and "secured" in first gear on a moderate incline (25-30°). I do not believe the mechanic had the parking brake on. When I arrived at the shop the vehicle was lurching forward and caught itself. It did this twice before I ran in, obtained the key, ran out to the car to put the parking break on.

This thread says two things:
1. the 1.5L engine compression is not enough to rely on securing/parking in 1st gear
2. It is odd that the lurching is happening

which is it?

That the cylinders of the tenth gen civics leak. That if left under any load, that the compression will "bleed off", the crank shaft will roll until the weight of the car is supported by the next cylinders compression, which will then itself bleed off continuing the process. Until your car rolls into something solid.

timbjimmy said:

UPDATE: I just did a compression test; all 4 cylinders peak flat at 180psi.
I guess 1.5T is easy to roll as everybody pointed out.
I appreciate all the comments! Please keep sharing if you experience similar case, so I know I am not alone lol
For newbies on civic MT, you know what to do now!

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If you're not setting the park brake, the cause of the issue is yofault.

Vishkin said:

any update? A similar issue just happened to me. the vehicle was turned off and "secured" in first gear on a moderate incline (25-30°). I do not believe the mechanic had the parking brake on. When I arrived at the shop the vehicle was lurching forward and caught itself. It did this twice before I ran in, obtained the key, ran out to the car to put the parking break on.

This thread says two things:
1. the 1.5L engine compression is not enough to rely on securing/parking in 1st gear
2. It is odd that the lurching is happening

which is it?

Click to expand...

It's not an issue that can be fixed, they all do it. Just use the parking brake every time you park, and wait to hear it or see the brake light, cause the button isn't reliable, at least on my 2017.

It's very unsafe. Don't most automatics not let you take the key if it's not in Park? They should remedy this somehow.

I read they added a button light on the 2020s, obviously to address this issue. I wonder if they did anything else?

FC3L15B7 said:

If you're not setting the park brake, the cause of the issue is yofault.

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Yup, it's not bad engineering and safety design, it's the customer's fault.

just use that brake hold function when you start the car, with that turned on parking brake will engage automatic when you turn car of, so it is really hard to forget

VarmintCong said:

It's not an issue that can be fixed, they all do it. Just use the parking brake every time you park, and wait to hear it or see the brake light, cause the button isn't reliable, at least on my 2017.

It's very unsafe. Don't most automatics not let you take the key if it's not in Park? They should remedy this somehow.

I read they added a button light on the 2020s, obviously to address this issue. I wonder if they did anything else?

Click to expand...

I never have any issues on my '18. What problem does the new light on the button address?

I just tested this and my driveway is pretty steep and boy did the car move while parked in 1st gear. Never tried it before today and definitely never parked my car in or out of gear without first setting the parking brake. I park the car in 1st gear AND set the parking brake because the parking brake is for parking.

REBELXSi said:

I never have any issues on my '18. What problem does the new light on the button address?

I just tested this and my driveway is pretty steep and boy did the car move while parked in 1st gear. Never tried it before today and definitely never parked my car in or out of gear without first setting the parking brake. I park the car in 1st gear AND set the parking brake because the parking brake is for parking.

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I also set park brake and leave it in 1st, unless I'm parked forwards on a hill; in which case, I put it in reverse. If it's parked downhill in reverse, it shouldn't move even if compression bleeds because it's in reverse gear? I guess I should have led with that instead of making fun of it, but oh well. Lol.

Thanks for all the responses! Wow. You all are awesome. I will spread the word to anyone driving my car or another manual.