Hi everyone! I'm very pleased to find this excellent website.

We bought an HCH/CVT '04 about a week ago and so far we love it.

Something that we're noticing now that we didn't notice during the test drives is a momentary groaning/grinding noise on the driver side--maybe under the driver. It only seems to occur when the car is moving again after a complete stop--and I think only after the gas engine has shut off but not every time after it has shut off. The sound is loud enough that passengers have commented on it, but it doesn't seem to have any effect on the performance of the car.

Is this a normal sound? Has anyone else experienced it? I finally called the dealer's service center today to ask about it. I was told that the sound is the starter starting up the gas engine. That sounded reasonable at first but after I thought about it a bit I wasn't so sure. This sound occurs after the car is moving. Doesn't the gas engine start as soon as the accelerator pedal is depressed?

Does anyone have another explanation for the noise?

Thanks in advance,

-Dave

Hi, and welcome!

I've never driven in a Honda Civic Hybrid, but your car is not capable of even moving without the engine being on. If this "sound" occurs after you're already moving, I doubt it would be the startup.

Visit my newly-acquired website, Volconvo Debate Forums!

The only thing I can think of is brake pad noise.
Not sure why that would come from under the drive though.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

Thanks. That makes sense to me. I guess I'll talk to the service center again.

I'm still hoping it's something innoccuous. The engine is so quiet and the transmission so smooth, I wouldn't be surprised to find myself noticing noises that I wouldn't normally pay any attention to.

Cloud Monkey,

It is funny you should be asking about this. I've been checking out other Honda Civic sites to see what I can find out about the reliability of the CVT. I've noticed some posting about the CVT in other forums stating in the Civic HX there were some transmissions failing and causing problems (though these were 1st run vehicles) in the US.

You may want to do some searching. I have only started to research it.

Bill

From the Valley of the Sun. -Phoenix, AZ

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.

Sounds like a good idea for me to check some of the other forums out there. I understand there's a Yahoo forum--anyone know of any others?

Dave:

Congrats and welcome to the hybrid club. Hopefully you love yours as much as love mine.

This probably isn't much help, but I developed a pretty load intermittant rattle from the right side and occassionally the left side of the dash at about 15k miles.

It never bothered me enough to rip the dash apart.

Could just be something loose.

MC

Well, the mystery is solved.

I called the dealer service center again and insisted on bringing the HCH in. When I reproduced the noise, the service rep immediately agreed that it wasn't normal. Then they did another test drive with something they called "electronic ears" set up around the engine. Using those, they were able to determine that the noise was coming from the front engine mount. They've ordered a new one and will be installing it next week. I'll let you all know whether that takes care of the problem.

Correction to my last post: the noise was from the LEFT engine mount.

Anyway, the dealer service center replaced the left engine mount today; the noise is completely gone now.