Automatic Transmission problems of the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid

The contact owns a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. The contact was attempting to accelerate from a traffic stop but the vehicle was unresponsive. There was an abnormal burning odor coming from the vehicle and the vehicle was taken to the dealer. The technician was unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that they were aware of the failure but there was no repair available. The technician burnished the start clutch and replaced the transmission fluid. The contact continued to experience the failure. The vehicle was not further repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 44,000.

Since my 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid received the battery system software upgrade in late 2010, the car has had greatly reduced available power and acceleration. The fuel efficiency has reduced by ~10 mpg, which is infuriating, but there is a larger safety issue because of the limited battery power available for acceleration. Intermittently, but repeatedly, when accelerating, especially from a stop to turn left through a gap in traffic or to merge on a freeway from the entrance ramp, a dangerous situation has occurred because the engine-battery combination does not supply adequate power and acceleration. I was nearly side-swiped the first time after the battery update when I was caught by surprise at the utter lack of power as I tried to turn into traffic. My Honda dealership has been unresponsive my complaints and requests to revert the software to the old version, with which my car worked fine.

We have a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid that we would like to report a defect on. When the vehicle is shifted to either drive or reverse, the vehicle would suddenly lurch even though the foot is on the brake pedal. A few times where my wife was driving the vehicle she didn't exert enough force on the brake pedal and caused for the vehicle to move even though it was not intended. Luckily the only incident have been minor with regards to the bumper hitting the wall or another vehicle. We believe this issue needs to be fix especially in the event that the vehicle is parked in a steep slope that will cause the vehicle to accelerate and potentially cause a major accident.

Going up steep hill behind traffic going 10 to15 mph. The car just lacks power and rolls back. Almost hit car behind. Had to roll down hill. It has happened 3 times and the dealer says nothing is wrong.

Honda Civic Hybrid 2006 problem with random surging: I was driving on hwy 50 eastbound to sacramento, when traffic came to a standstill, then started to move again slowly. Other cars would fill up the space in front of me-I could not keep a car-lengths distance between myself and the car ahead of me. I was stopped and then as traffic started moving forward, I tapped on the accelerator of my Honda Civic Hybrid 2006, and instead of slightly moving forward, my car surged into the car in front of me at a high acceleration-I did not see the exact degree on my dash, but heard the engine revving loudly. I noticed this (to greater or lesser degrees) a handful of times after owning the car for a year and a half, but in those instances, the acceleration may not have been as great and/or I had a much safer distance between cars and I had time to put on the brakes. When this happened I thought, I bought a hybrid-lemon and Honda would have to address this-but I found similar complaints online and other reports that Honda would not address the issue. This may be in part as the events cannot be readily reproduced to have the issue fixed. . Read more...

The contact owns a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid which was purchased in November 2005. She noticed a significant decrease in the gas mileage between 10 to 15 mpg. She also stated that while driving uphill or accelerating the vehicle would lose power. There were no recalls pertaining to the failure. The failure mileage was 50,000 and the current mileage was 100,000. Updated 10/26/09. The consumer stated since the vehicle passed the 50,000 mile mark, it looses power when traveling up hill and/or acceleration. The dealer performed computer upgrades but to no avail. Updated 10/26/09.

: the contact stated the vehicle's automatic transmission shifted too easily while driving various speeds on normal road conditions. The vehicle also rolled backwards before moving forward during acceleration on a level-driving surface.

: the contact stated the vehicle consistently rolled backwards at red lights, in between the time it took to switch pedals from braking to accelerating. The vehicle had an automatic transmission. The vehicle was not taken to a service dealer. The dealer expressed due to the lighter transmission, this was a regular problem with these vehicles. Updated 9/15/2006 -.