Hybrid News

My wife had a flat in the Blue HCHII this morning. I met her and fairly easily changed the tire. Looks like she clipped a curb entering the freeway — there is a lot of construction, we’re not exactly sure what she hit.

Anyway, the sidewall was shredded in the process. The car handled fine and she pulled off the freeway.

The spare is very tiny, but easily mounts. I had the whole job done in less than 15 minutes.

The Bridgestone Insignia was $70 at the Tirerack, but they were on backorder. The local dealership offered one for $86 and m&b for another $23. For the convenience I couldn’t pass it up.

The new tire is on the rear, so I am not too worried about handling with three 2 yr old tires. If it was on the front, I’d prob rotate the tires.

Superior Honda in Omaha was excellent as always. I didn’t even consider the other two dealerhips. They had my wife waiting about 30 minutes including checking all the fluids (I’m sure the tire pressure is back to 41 now…).

Funny side note: I asked my wife to pick me up a key fob battery as mine needs a few extra button clicks lately (my 2 year old likes buttons). The Service Advisor told her I better some in. What? I got the SA on the phone and she repeated I better come on in because a "special tool" was needed to switch the battery. "A tiny screwdriver?", I asked. She conceded yes, I told her to go ahead and send the battery home. I had to smile.

Anyway, not much to report except that things just seem to go a lot smoother since I drank the Honda Kool Aide.

Sorry for the long post.

Cheers, nf

Hi Bought the hybrid used in April 2008, no issues then. Got 51.2 MPG by the way driving the car back from Tampa to Delaware back then. My wife averages about 38 MPG around town, I can get 42 or so easily in town and high 40s on the road. Last week the auto stop just stopped working all together. Took it in for normal service, battery was weak (one under the hood) and was replaced under warranty. auto stop still not functioning and have it scheduled to go in tomorrow. Anyone have any ideas I can pass on to the service tech? I asked the Honda place this morning and they said they really havent seen too many with any auto stop issues.

Thanks!

Hi, neat little forum you guys have here. I tried doing a simple search for my problem, but it seems that the previous problems people have had aren’t quite the same.

My 2004 HCH started having problems upon startup. If I turn my key to the "on II" (I believe… the one that turns the engine) position too fast, the car will not turn on, the engine just turns, and the hybrid battery will discharge (when I am able to turn the car on, this battery shows 0 charge). Now, if I move the key from off, to the first on position, wait a second, then move the key one more place, it turns on fine. What the heck is going on here? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Both my Check Engine and IMA Lights on came on today. I took it to the dealer because I was due for an oil change. That did not help. I was on my lunch break and in a hurry, but I asked the cost to check it out. They wanted $175 just to look at it! He also said it was well over $2000 to replace the battery!!!

The guy who changed my oil told me my IMA battery was probably bad.

A friend who owns a body shop told me to hold the odometer button, turn the key on, and continue holding the button for a minute intil the light goes off. It never did go off. He also told me there is no battery, just a capacitor.

I have heard that AutoZone and AAMCO will read the computer codes for free, but I’ve never used either of them.

I need to know if the car is safe to drive. It runs fine.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello, after repeated war cashes, the sticker edges are peeling off and one of them is already beginning to tear. What’s a good glue to stick them back? thanks

Does anyone have a pdf / link for the new 2009 Honda Civic (Hybrid) brochure? Thank you in advance.

For 2009, when will car come in to dealers?
Is electronic vehicle stability control now standard Or an option?
Any other new things?
Thanks in advance.

Hello,

i’m new to the this forum but let me explain my story so you can understand and hopefully help me out.

I am a young adult with a fiance and a 22 month old son. I currently have a acura integra 2 dr with 147,000 miles on it (has after market hood and bumper from light accident along with some scratches and light dents here and there). i would like a four door car for my family (we only have this one car and i fear it may have problems soon, perhaps cv joints or anything and have a snow ball effect.) and of course safety and in this economy gas efficiency is very important to me.

My mothers husband (i don’t refer to him as my step dad.. but legally that would be the term used.) has his own son from another marriage that is a senior and he would like to get him a car. Coincidentally he wants an Integra, always has and still does Well the conversation was brought up that he is looking for a car for him around 3 g’s give or take, or buy himself a new car and give him his acura cl with 150,000 miles. so i told him i may be willing to part with mine but i won’t guarantee it until i look into the market and see if i can afford it.

long story short from there.. i have been racking my brain like most people looking for hybrids with a decision most come faced with… a honda civic hybrid or a toyota prius. Well i read the reviews and informed myself with everything i thought i needed to make that decision.. and i thought it was evident that i would go for the prius. Before i became biased i wanted to test drive first, after all it looked good on paper but that doesn’t help while commuting. So i tried them both today, and i am in love with the honda civic hybrid.. although it is rated lower in city which is what i mainly do, the style and appearing and honda name which i am familiar with helped me save a place for it in my heart…

so now your wondering, what’s the problem… here’s the kicker… i’m in sales and i know it’s good to be an educated consumer so i did more researched and i liked most of what i saw, but what is holding me back is the fact that i see a lot of reports about people losing the high mpg after tires wear down or a oil change. Its a radical change from people saying they had 40+ miles and then they go down to 22-24 mpg, which is insane! I can’t afford to stick my neck out for a car that fuel efficient and then that happen to me. I only have one car and if that happens and it takes days to fix i wouldn’t be able to survive. I need some insight, i see it’s mainly the 06-07 models but i know its to early for the 08 to tell… I just want what pay for, please help.

-A Yearning Honda Owner Who Would Like To Stay A Honda Owner.

I am looking at a ‘03 civic, hybrid with 114k miles. i want to pay cash for an economic car and i found a good deal. should i worry about the hybrid system for such a car? i had a 2000 civic and i know about the maintenance in general. i just don’t know how much any major work on the hybrid system would be and if it is worth going for this. Thank you!

I have a HCH I (2005) that I average 54 MPG in mostly highway miles. Today gas in my town was getting in short supply due to panicky people (thanks, Ike!) and I was going to fill up here anyway for a long trip north this weekend.
The tank was half full anyway, and for a moment I considered topping it with E85 as it was over $1 cheaper than 87.
Eventually logic won out and I went with good ol’ 87.
So, the question is, would it have hurt to go with the E85 for just this once?
I remembered somewhere here a long-term test was in progress with E85 in an HCH but I can’t find the thread.
Thanks!
Ahab

I was on the way home this evening after dinner and I noticed that the first gas station I came to was closed early (8:45 PM) the next had raised their price to $3.599 and was packed with lined-up cars. I then went to my ‘regular’ gas station, but they were ‘out’ of 87 and 89 octane gas. They only had 93 left. I went across the street to the Hess station and all they had was 89 and 93…So, I went ahead and filled up with 89 octane. There was also a line at the Hess station about 3 cars deep.

Did anyone else experience anything like this tonight? This was in North Charleston, SC.

At work, I heard people talking about a rumor that the gas price was going up sharply because of Hurricane Ike and the talk radio stations were feeding the rumor. I dismissed it as rumor…but maybe everybody didn’t?

On a side note, my iFCD said I got 72.5 MPG on the ride home from the gas station! From the restaurant to the gas station I got 57 on the same type of roads…I’ll see if my commute mileage is any different tomorrow.

Hi all,

I just got my 2008 HCH. It works great but the nav system DVD is from 2006 and it doesn’t have some road updates and new roads in my area. As far as I have been able to tell I have the newest DVD. Does any one know if there are any plans for an update any time soon? What is the best (legal) place to get the latest update?

In Southern California with all the fuel additives my ‘05 HCH averages about 41 mpg, 38 with AC on.

Just recently I saw a 25% drop in mileage overnight (30 mpg). For a hybrid, this kind of mileage in lousy and unacceptable.

I do all my own maintenance and keep the car in top shape. I just ran an OBD II scan and all systems are well within acceptable parameters, no error codes.

I suspected bad or diluted gas. My conspiratorial mind was wondering if this might actually be a conspiracy by the big oil companies to counter everyones revulsion to high gas prices and their decision to drive less, thus consuming fewer gallons overall. It seems as if they’re saying to the mass populace…"So, you don’t want to by gas? Well, we’ll just make it so you have to buy it more often, and we’ll still get your money! (muhahahaha…evil laugh)."

More than likely, it’s just one station. I tested the theory and at about 1/2 tank put in premium from a different station. Ah Ha! There was my old reliable 41 mpg…at least for the first 50 miles…then whamo!, right back to 30 mpg. With more fill ups using premium from the other station, I’m hoping to purge the old gas and replace with new good gas, If this fixes the problem, then great, no worries.

I have also noticed that my IMA batt seems to always be in charge mode. I’ve not documented it, but it seems to always be on. My wife drives the car, about 50 miles/day in town. Here in San Diego, it’s hard to go anywhere without getting on a highway for 10-15 miles, so there’s a mix in driving. We’ve been thinking of taking a long roadtrip to get the IMA batt good and charged to see if all the local driving is the promlem. Seems like it could be tiring out some of the IMA cells, causing a disproportionate amount of recharging and a constant load on the engine causing poor gas mileage. However, if this was actually the case, I think I’d see an IMA error light.

After this long-winded ramble…my question is…Has anyone else seen a drop in mpg that could be attributed to a weakening IMA batt (no error light yet)?

Can this situation occur without the IMA sensors reporting an error light…i.e. Check IMA?

I’d appreciate any thoughts and experience on the issue.

Thanks,

Trebor33