OK, I am in the final phase of researching which Hybrid I will get and have some questions on Maintenance.

Do the Honda Civic or Toyota Prius require any "special" maintenance ? By special I mean anything I would not do with a non-hybrid vehicle. ]

Do either require special oil, more frequant oil changes, or special lubrication?

Are the Jiffy Lube type businesses set up to properly service hybrids?

Thx in advance...

Larry
'06 Magnetic Pearl HCH #7264

None that I know of in the five years/89,000 miles I've had my Honda Insight. It's had scheduled maintancence every 30,000 miles and the detail of the work done has been parts common to conventional vehicles.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Nothing out of the normal maintenance you'd do on any other vehicle.

However...
They recommend 0W-20 oil, which Jiffy Lube / Jimmy Joe Bob's Lube Shack probably won't have...especially since Mobil stopped making it and Penzoil hasn't started distributing it yet. It'll be readily available within the year, probably.

Don't let that stop you , though- you can still buy inventoried 0W-20 at NAPA, etc, and bring it to the shop for them to put in your car.

Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. The only item (other than the battery/motor system itself, which is obviously a dealer-only repair) on the not-so-ordinary side I foresee is the transmission. AAMCO probably won't be able to help you with the CVT, but by the time its out of warrantee, AAMCO should be able to deal with those, too. But that's out of the realm of ordinary maintenance, anyway.

Have fun choosing!

Actually, maintence is better.

Spark plugs on the Insight are scheduled to be changed every 100,000 miles. At 30,000 miles the O2 sensor had work on it. I had the driver's side seat belt harness replaced last month at no charge to me.

A couple of people at Bankston Honda in Lewisville, Texas have said the Insight is the most reliable Honda they work on. At this point (89,000 miles) I was on my third CV boot on my 1988 CRX HF and I thought it was resilient.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Does anyone change their own oil ? My most recent vehicles have been so hard to change the oil...reach the filter, etc, that the cost of going to Jiffy Lube is easiy offset by time saved. Is the filter easy to reach on the Prius and HCH ?

Larry
'06 Magnetic Pearl HCH #7264

The Prius takes 5w30 oil. I used Mobil 1 in my Prius throughout it's life with me. The only "extra" maintenance with the Prius is to have the cooling system for the controller changed, which gets the same service interval as the engines cooling system. It just ends up being an extra step at that service interval. The FEH has the same dedicated cooling system for its controller, plus has a filter for the cooling system on the battery. Beyond this, these vehicles are no different from any other vehicle, with the exception of some having a longer service interval - 10K miles for the FEH for example. My '03 Prius was 7500 miles. 04 and up Prius is every 5,000 miles. All of the above are good candidates to put the extra change up for a good synthetic oil, for a bit of extra assurance that the oil will be up to the task of the extended service.

The only oddity I've noticed in 82k miles of driving is that the HCH takes an odd grade of motor oil (0w20) which is more expensive than regular oil.

For unexpected repairs, the only hybrid-related repair was a software glitch that shut down the IMA function(the gasoline engine was still OK.) The repair was free, and I had the car back on the road the same day.

lkewin-

Yes, I change my own.
The HAH is wonderful- you can reach both the filter and drainplug without getting underneath the car! Reach in from in front of the right front tire, and bam. Done. Helps to hang it over a curb, but doable on level ground.

Took me 25-30min, start to finish on my Cavalier, with jacking, etc. 15 for the Accord.

The only thing 'harder' on modern cars is that they are lower to the ground, so it takes a few min to jack it up/put on ramps. That, and we've been conditioned to believe that cars are far too complicated for mere mortals to even do basic maintenance on anymore.

Filters and drains are no more difficult to deal with today than they were 25 years ago. Ford filters still stick out the bottom, GMs are still back against the firewall. And you don't need the special can opener to pour oil from the can anymore!

Time is money, and with today's average life more tightly scheduled than a generation ago, Jiffy Lube absolutely is worth it for many people- like buying bagged salad or precooked chicken breasts- convenience. I just prefer to do this bit myself.

Honda Civic Hybrid has 2 "small" challenges. Getting the car up in the air, since it's so low to the ground, and removing the 9 clips and plastic "shield" underneath.

That said, I raise the drivers side with a sizzors jack up enough to slide a jack stand under it. The 9 clips holding the air foil shield pop off very easily. Now for the best part, the oil filter is staring you in the face!! The easiest filter I've ever changed! Drain plug is easy to reach. Just be sure you don't confuse the motor oil drain plug with the transmission drain plug.

I thought about having Honda do the oil change, but the Scot in me won't have it. I've always changed our oil, and this car is easy.

Kansas, not as flat as you think...

So the Prius controller has a seperate cooling system? I beleive the Honda Civic's controller is air cooled?

Larry
'06 Magnetic Pearl HCH #7264