Engine And Engine Cooling Problems of Honda Civic Hybrid - part 2

Have a 08 Civic Hybrid with 89k miles. Got the recent battery software upgrade several weeks ago. Have had a sudden drop in battery charge down to one or two bars, both before and after the upgrade. Recovery usually fairly quick, driving on the interstate, 72 mph, all of a sudden dash went dark and engine stopped. No warnings or lights beforehand. Coasted to the side of the road. Able to restart immediately. Happened twice more over the next 30 minutes. These times put the car in neutral and restarted as I coasted. Tank about 1/3 full with shell gas. Filled the tank with off brand gas and drove the rest of the way ok. Took it to Honda dealer. They checked engine (no codes) and electrical system. Nothing found. Have to drive this car every weekend for 400 mile round trip. Concerned about upcoming weekend.

See all problems of the 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid 🔎.

I took my 2007 Civic Hybrid for a service at buena park Honda on 9/16/10 and they told me that there is a recall to my car about the ima battery. They said they will fix the problem. After 2 days of driving, I noticed that I was not getting the battery assist that I used to get. There were still 4 bars on my battery meter and I was not getting the power that I needed to pass a car or during merging lanes on the freeway. I also noticed the drop of my mpg. I have the same everyday driving since I bought my car. It went from an average of 40 mpg to 31 mpg!!! that takes away the point of me buying a hybrid. I am very unhappy about this situation so I started searching if anyone else have these problems and it turned out that I am not the only unhappy Civic Hybrid owner. I really feel unsafe about this. I also noticed that when I have 7 bars left and driving on the freeway, I know its charging when I use the cruise control, all of a sudden it will go to full bars without even filling up the 8, 9. Bars. That makes it very suspicious if it is really charged up. All I can say is hopefully Honda will fix this problem because this is our 4th Honda vehicle and we love it because of the reliability and efficiency that it had given us. Please Honda, fix this problem.

See all problems of the 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid 🔎.

Since I have gotten the ima battery upgrade the car battery completely discharges randomly several times a day. When the battery discharges the car looses a significant amount of its acceleration. I have had three incidents since this upgrade where I have nearly had accidents due to this problem. Once while turning onto a busy street on a hill the battery discharged and I lost the acceleration and the oncoming car almost hit me. I had a similar experience on the highway when I pulled into the fast lane to pass a car and I lost pick up and the car far behind quickly caught up and had to slam on their breaks. The third episode is when I came to a complete stop on a very steep hill. When I went to drive forward again the battery discharged and despite being in the drive gear and despite pushing the gas pedal to the floor I kept rolling backwards. I ended up rolling backwards downhill and turned into someone's driveway and turned around. I drove around until the battery recharged and then was eventually able to drive up the hill. When I brought these concerns up with my local Honda dealership they agreed this did not sound normal. After they test drove it and ran tests they did not find a problem so they called Honda central. They were told that it is normal for the battery to discharge randomly through out the day since the upgrade. When I asked how do I drive safely they said I should be careful about the battery discharging and subsequent loss of acceleration.

See all problems of the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid 🔎.

The car became unsafe to drive following Honda's software update 10-034. All owners were asked to have the update performed to prevent hybrid pack deterioration. The letter listed multiple situations in which hybrid assist and braking will be reduced. As a result of the update the car has markedly reduced assist, and at unpredictable times no assist whatsoever. At least once a day, at a random time, battery soc drops to 2 bars, all assist is disabled and then the so-called recalibration is performed where the car fully charges the battery to 5 bars, then jumps to full 8 . On average that last about 8-10 minutes as documented in multiple youtube videos on the subject. During all that time no assist is available, and additional gas engine power is being used to charge the pack. The gas mileage suffers as well as I am driving at 3-4k rpm instead of the usual 1-2k. . I've experienced multiple situations where such a drop happens when trying to merge on an uphill highway with vehicles behind me almost rear-ending me while I am flooring the gas pedal. I've had that happen before left turn when after a quick glance on the gauge and seeing it full, I'd start turning only to see the pack drop and the car slow down significantly. A related problem is reduced/unpredictable braking. When the battery is cold and the car idles higher than usually, all regenerative braking is disabled and it takes a significant effort from the driver to stop the car. Multiple complaints to the dealer were met with "operating as designed" and "the update does reduce the power". Lately, I've been simply referred to become a party of class action suit against Honda, as the dealership is unable to help with anything listed in that suit. As a summary, the car has unpredictable losses of braking and acceleration and a markedly reduced mileage which undoubtedly violates epa rules.

Ever since Honda "upgraded" my battery system I have lost both power as well as miles per gallon. I must merge onto interstate 680 on my commute to work. There are many large trucks who travel on this interstate and it is scary when I am merging onto the freeway, especially since cal trans just added a meteoring light so I must begin my approach from a stopped position. I thought it was my imagination that I have lost power until I heard about the lawsuit against Honda motor corporation. I went into the local Honda dealer and asked the service manager if the loss of power is true (as well as the loss of mpgs and he told me yes it is true. ) I also asked what Honda is going to do about it and he said "nothing". I find this unacceptable.

2007 Civic Hybrid - now with deteriorating battery, it occasionally has very poor acceleration and has leaded to near miss accidents twice. Car was fine until the last few months with deteriorating battery. Honda won't replace.

I have on '06 Civic Hybrid and the battery is getting progressively worse. It crashes often where one second it shows more than 1/2 charge, and the next the acceleration and power is significantly reduce and the charge level drops to zero. Not good when you are attempting to accelerate into traffic. Honda has issued a notice to update the software that basically compromise safety, power and fuel economy so Honda can get you through the warranty period without having to replace your battery. I fear that the unexpected loss of acceleration and power is unsafe, and that the software update that claims to fix the problem is simply an attempt by Honda to extend the life of a faulty battery beyond the warranty period.

My 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid is experiencing an issue where the hybrid battery loses charge overnight, causing the car to accelerate unpredictably while driving. In some cases, the display shows that the hybrid battery has enough charge to assist in acceleration, but the car reacts extremely slow when accelerating from a stop. Yesterday when shifting from a lane of stopped traffic to a lane of moving traffic, the car attempted to use battery to assist in acceleration, but was unable to do so because the battery was dead. When I entered the lane, the next car behind me was 30-40 yards back, but I did not have sufficient acceleration to match the speed in a reasonable amount of time. Thankfully the driver behind me was paying attention and able to slow down to avoid a collision. Due to the extreme lack of acceleration from a stop in these situations, and the unpredictability as to when it will occur, this to me is a major safety concern every time I drive my car now. I took the car to a Honda dealer, and they applied the latest software update. After the update, I had them test-drive the car, but they were unwilling or unable to do anything else to fix the issue.

Honda Civic Hybrid--2006. Ima assist abnormalities following most recent Honda repair campaign. My 2006 Civic Hybrid was given a software update by Honda on 8/5/2010 following a campaign initiated by Honda to address loss of power and performance due to ima hybrid battery deterioration and failure. Prior to the update the vehicle would often lose battery charge suddenly, resulting in a significant loss of power and at one point stranding me in an intersection while turning left in front of oncoming traffic in July, 2010. The most recent update (I have had several from Honda in over the 4. 25 yrs of ownership) has not fixed the issue of sudden loss of power from transient battery failures that occur without warning, often when accelerating up steep inclines or attempting to merge into traffic. In addition to the ongoing issues, the hybrid battery now fails to provide adequate assistance when accelerating, merging into high-speed traffic, etc. And experiences wide fluctuations in charge, jumping from 1/3 charge to completely full with sudden drops of a similar fashion. These fluctuations continue to occur regardless of driving conditions, ambient temperature, accessory or a/c use or other extenuating factors and occur multiple times per week, and multiple times per day on occasion (6 battery failures in the last week alone since the update). I have experienced at least 1 near-miss accident in the last 30 days due to sudden loss of power and Honda's multiple attempts to address the failures from a software perspective have been unsuccessful.

Honda software update on my 2008 civic has made my car lethargic to drive. It is now dangerous to drive in normal traffic. Gas mileage has dropped from ~40mpg to ~35 forcing me to stop more often to fill up and costing me lots more money to drive.

In August 2010 I took my 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid to the dealer for routine maintenance. The dealer performed a purported software update on the battery system without notifying me until afterwards. Immediately upon leaving the dealer, I noticed a profound reduction in power and acceleration. On the freeway portion of the drive home, I was almost rear-ended twice as I drove in the slow lane up a minor grade where the vehicle could not accelerate over 40 miles per hour (with the pedal fully depressed in the passing gear)-- prior to this date I had driven my vehicle for its prior 20 months of ownership up that same grade at 70mph. Additionally, prior to this date I had never even utilized the "s" gear on my transmission. Ever since Honda's software update my car has become a severely underpowered accident waiting to happen. I am reduced to driving in the slow lane on the freeway with vehicles flashing me as they approach a 40-45 mph vehicle at 60-70 mph from behind. I have called the Honda service departments at several local dealers regarding this problem, and get a universal response- "wait for your system to adjust to the software update" or "you need to adjust your driving". What the heck does this mean? I drove the vehicle fine for 20 months prior to the software update and now it drives like a 20 year old 4 cylinder engine with 2 bad pistons. The decreased power and acceleration are a dangerous accident in the making. I am fearful of being rear ended. This is an every day problem that was caused by this "software update" and I suspect that it is happening to every 2006-2008 Honda Civic Hybrid that goes to the dealer for this software update. An additional consequence of this alleged "software update" is a profound drop in gas mileage from approximately 37 combined mpg prior to "update" to 29-30 post "update". I have never lodged a complaint with any organization before, but like I've previously stated, this "update" is a danger to the public.

Tl- the contact owns a 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid. The contact stated a software update done by the manufacturer was supposed to increase the gas, but had the opposite affect. The vehicle was getting 42 miles per gallon and now get 36. The contact also stated the update decreased acceleration and shortened the battery life of the vehicle. The contact feels this is a manufacturers defect. The current mileage was 99,500. Rl.

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid with 58,000 miles and the electric assist motor is not working as designed. I have taken the car to the dealer 3 times and they have told me it is a software problem. The car is difficult to drive without the assist motor. I think a recall is in order.

I am the original owner, a conservative driver, rarely exceeding 60 mph to increase mileage, and drive for work in an area east of dallas, texas. I had great mileage and no problems to speak of until this past June. I first had noticed a deterioration in the gas mileage. Then I experienced for the first time a drastic drop in responsiveness. I was entering a hwy from a country road and found myself with no power. This has remained so despite the software update. The number of bars showing on the gauge was significantly fewer, and there would be wild fluctuations of bars. There has been no warning light. I've had several conversations with the dealer. Mailed american Honda a complaint, resulting in a call from Honda that seemed to me simply a way to mollify. Honda apparently does not consider this problem a "safety" issue. I beg to differ. Now I must always be aware that I don't have power (the cooler weather has generally seen a higher number of bars), and mileage has definitely suffered. One clear example is that since the software update, the gas engine does not shut off as much as it used to, especially during hot weather. I bought the car to be a 10 year, 300,000 mile product, with no concern for resale value at the end. Now I'm paralyzed with the prospect of poor resale value, perhaps unable to sell privately - restricted to only the dealership. This was the first time to buy a honed - based on a reputation for durability.

The failure is a software defect, which causes the engine to stop running at random, unpredictable times, under unpredictable conditions. It has occurred four times with my vehicle, and luckily, not in dangerous circumstances. The only way to restart the engine is to bring the vehicle to a complete stop, put it in park, turn off the key completely, wait a minute, then turn the ignition to start. If it were to occur in traffic, as on the interstate, this would be a very dangerous situation. I have taken the car to the dealer for this problem, who says he cannot address it because he cannot observe it occurring, he also says that the problem is the responsibility of Honda corp, since it is a design issue.

See all problems of the 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid 🔎.

Honda did a recall on the software, supposedly to save the hybrid batteries for early failure. After the change the car experienced les miles per gallon gas efficiency, and worse, the car's acceleration was drastically reduced. Now when I try to enter a freeway I feel I am taking my life in my own hand. It is difficult to get up to speed quickly enough to match traffic. Also when I try to cross traffic lanes from a stop sign or light I am fearful the car will accelerate quickly enough to get across. I'd like to go back to the original software, I felt it was safer!.

This vehicle received a software update to extend the life of the batteries. This update increased the danger of this vehicle more than it had when it was new. The greatest hazard is that this vehicle has unpredictable amounts of power. I had an incident while trying to cross a busy street on an incline with a limited view of oncoming traffic. Normally, the vehicle supplies sufficient power to cross traffic but this time the engine revved high and the car seemed to crawl while traffic was bearing down upon me. Thankfully, the alert oncoming driver avoided hitting me. As for gas mileage, the vehicle never came close to the epa mileage of 51 mpg, the update dropped the mileage down to around 35 mpg.

The contact owns a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. While driving approximated 60 mph he heard a noise and smelled an unusual odor in the vehicle. The vehicle also began to move slowly and lost power before it exploded. Honda of north America opened and closed a case regarding the failure. The driver stated that his vehicle was at a local Honda dealer and they were unable to diagnose the failure. The failure mileage was 78,000.

My 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid engine blew up a week ago - Feb. 11 2008. Without indication, the engine stopped running. It is passed factory warranty which is 60k miles of 5 years. The car has 78k miles on it and it was well maintained. The original owner was a rental CO and they maintained it well. It was bought by a broker who performed normal maintenance on it - oil change, air filter, brakes, transmission fluid and new battery before selling it to me. I performed regular maintenance as well. I took it to the nearest Honda dealer after it broke and they said they could not conclude what caused it, but the result was 4 broken spark plugs and a cracked no. 2 piston. Honda of America opened a case and closed it because 1. It was used, 2. Expired warranty and 3. It was not maintained at a Honda dealership.

While driving my 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid, I was stopped in traffic on a busy street. I was waiting to make a left turn into a business. When I went to turn, the car was very sluggish and had what appeared to be significantly less acceleration than normal. This was caused by the car's computer recalibrating the battery. This recalibrating started happening after a software update. It happens every few days and there is no warning. When it happens the computer artificially lower the charge state forcing the car to go into regeneration state to fully charge the batters. Even though the batter is not really empty, since the computer set the battery level to be empty, the electric motor is no longer used. There should be a warning tone or something to indicate that there will be a significant loss of power. I believe that Honda did this software update to make the batteries seem to last longer, but it's really less safe! it's also caused my mileage to go down by about 10% but I realize that is not a safety issue.

Honda applied a software patch to extend the ima battery, driving home from the appointment where they updated the software I noticed that at times when I go to accelerate the car will bog down and have no speed. It happens randomly, no set pattern, its a dangerous situation when you are on a 2 lane highway and you pulled out to pass someone and you have no power. Or you are making a left hand turn and all of a sudden you lose power. Then living in minnesota having these issues when you on ice is down right scary! when you car does decide to go you all sudden lose control because its on ice. Honda has updated the software patch again and there is some improvement but still I can't trust it to drive in rush hour situations or have younger drivers drive my car. Now when I complain to Honda they tell me it drives the way its designed, well if thats the case all Honda's need to be taken off the road before someone is seriously hurt. Please help us Honda drivers who are stuck with this car. . . .

2007 Honda Civic Hybrid engine/hybrid system operation has become erratic and unpredictable. Adequate power to accelerate, merge and safely operate vehicle can suddenly cut out, leaving vehicle with unacceptable performance and creating safety hazard in normal driving conditions.

At only 4 years of age, my Honda Civic Hybrid needs a new catalytic converter and in searching the internet, coming across hundreds and hundreds of posts on various web sites, it seems that a lot of people are replacing their Honda civic catalytic converters before the car turns 5 years old. This is a very expensive part, over $1200 to replace, so why isn't there a recall on this part. If it is not replaced in cars, I am told that the car emits bad gases in the air. I live in a county where emissions is not part of the inspection, so I want it replaced, but can't afford it and don't have to replace it. With that many going bad, can't there be a recall so these cars do not emit bad gases in the air???.

See all problems of the 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid 🔎.

I'm a Honda Civic Hybrid owner (2006). I have not reported the lack of acceleration to my dealer, assuming that was the low power of the car due to the hybrid nature. The lack of acceleration at times when it's needed has put me in unsafe situations. Additionally, my hybrid does not consistently auto stop as designed.

This vehicle is not safe for highway or city driving. It decelerates when you need power, making it very dangerous to merge in high speed or heavy traffic conditions. In the summer when the a/c is running, acceleration is extremely unreliable. The driver's side has severe blind spots. I have also experienced long delays in the engine restarting after pulling out into traffic from a dead stop at lights or stop signs. I have nearly been hit by oncoming traffic -- planning for adequate gaps in traffic is a challenge and very different from the other vehicles I drive. I am an experienced driver with over 37 years behind the wheel and an excellent driving record. I have owned 4 Hondas and this so-called hybrid has been an engineering disaster.

I tracked my Honda Civic Hybrid gas mileage. From 12/09 to 1/10 my average gas mileage was 40. 2mpg. Took my car into Honda dealership for recall work in spring of 2010. They told me that there was a software update on the engine/battery. I asked if there would be any affect on the car's performance. The dealership response was that without the update I would risk voiding the warranty on my car battery/engine. So I had to get the update. From that date I continued to track my gas mileage. From that point onward my gas mileage has averaged 30. 9mpg. I called the dealership to ask if they could set the software back to the way it was previously. They said no. They insisted that it was my driving habits that had changed. . . . When nothing in my life changed so this could not be the case.

Catalytic converter and O2 sensors continually need replacement.

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid during hot weather the air conditioning was operated on the coldest setting, this caused the high voltage battery to loose charge . When I went to accelerate into traffic the car lost power and had trouble getting up to speed (I was almost hit by another car coming up in the lane) the car was taken into the dealer on 7/17, 8/14, 8/18, 8/27, 9/9 through 9/30/08 during which time no problems were found with the car. On 9/30/08 I took a test drive with the technician and within 5 minutes he was able to duplicate the failure. Upon returning to the dealer his manager told him not to document his findings because Honda, although aware of the problem, did not know how to fix it. Because they would not fix the problem and because I could not sell the car with this problem to someone else I traded the car in. I later found the car on the used car lot for sale.

Transmission hesitates. Manufacturer changes the transmission fluid, but does not repair. Manufacturer will not solve the problem only bandaids this recurring problem. Vehicle hesitates and shutters during acceleration which can be dangerous in intersections and in general traffic. This is occurring on several years of this vehicle according to websites I have read. The vehicle has also gone through two replacement of the catalytic converter.

Battery loses charge suddenly and power is significantly lost to the point where acceleration is not possible. This has created several unsafe driving condition in highway and expressway entrances, as I can not get in safely or maintain safe speed during driving. This incident has repeated many times in the past three years. Battery indicator drops to zero bar or one bar and power is lost significantly.

My car has a manual transmission. The auto-stop feature cuts in sometimes when I shift into neutral preparatory to downshifting to accelerate. If this happens when I am trying to make a left turn through a break in oncoming traffic or pull into a gap in traffic on the expressway, it can be quite frightening. Fortunately, I haven't been hit yet, but my wife is reluctant to ride in my car. There was a recall several years ago which the Honda serviceman told me would fix the problem, but it didn't.

I would very much like to share my concerns over the safety of the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid that we purchased new from a dealer. The car performed well for a few years, until Honda decided to tell me to go to the dealer and "upgrade" the software controlling the hybrid motor-battery system. Immediately following the software update, the car was utterly devoid of power, and dangerous to drive when merging on the freeway, even when driving alone without other weight in the car. If I drive my two young children with me, it's very scary as the car must be absolutely floored the entire time while merging. No doubt this is strongly affecting the fuel economy of the car as well, as it gets only in the mid 30s, when originally advertised much higher. Also, I can't imagine anyone ever buying this car with the pathetic level of power it exhibits, therefore the resale value is now next to nothing. I would be happy to have a software downgrade and get back to original performance, but Honda tells me this is not possible for whatever reason. I urge you to begin or continue an investigation concerning the detrimental safety impacts of the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid software update. */01/2012 updated bf updated 03/16/12.

The Honda Civic Hybrid ima system has been inconsistent and a worry since I bought the car. The charge level varies wildly within minutes, releasing the braking charge mode unexpectedly while traveling downhill, resulting in rapid acceleration. While going uphill the ima system suddenly shows no charge and the engine is unable to keep the car's speed constant, resulting in rapid deceleration. The software update that was said to fix these problems resulting in no change to the problems but a considerable reduction in mpg. The engine refuses to stop at red lights and instead remains at idle - wasting gas. I have service records covering the entire history of this car which documents my concerns and complaints. The Honda service department was never able to find any problems with the ima. I continue to drive this car but am concerned for my safety and the car's reliability. Anything you can do to help identify and remedy the ima problem will be greatly appreciated.

While driving at highway speeds, my cars instrument panel went blank, all gauges went out. This is an electronic panel. In addition, the cars engine lost all power. I had to coast to the side of the road. There was no indication that the car was running. It is a hybrid and it felt like it was in the auto stop mode when you are at a light, the engine was not running (at least you could not tell it was running). I turned the cars ignition off and then restarted the car. It started up again and the gauges were working and I was able to continue driving. I brought the car to the dealer and explained the symptoms. They checked the computer for error codes and found none. They were not able to find anything wrong. This is a safety hazard since the car is not drivable when this occurs. I expressed my concerned to the service manager and he stated that there were to many computers and wires for then to check them all and we would have to wait until it happened again. This occurred one other time while the car was in the drive way during the winter idling. When we got in the car after a few minutes, we noticed that all gauges were out. Again, turning the ignition off and restarting the car cleared the problem.

In the past you did a recall for the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid regarding a battery connector which you state may cause the motor to fail and cause a crash. At the moment I am uploading a video to you tube under user 10p6 regarding a problem which causes not only the ima motor to fail, but the regenerative braking, brakes, abs steering, and even the airbags. Even then it can cause the lights to fail and vehicle to roll when in park. I have provided Honda (corporate and south tacoma Honda) with videos in the past but they refuse to do anything stating the vehicle is fine. It is not! it is deadly! please investigate urgently. I am posting this on the net so people can see the dangers which Honda hides; soon I will tell them the one simple problem which may kill them.