Sorry this is long! I have a 2003 Honda Hybrid, love the car. have never had any problems with it until 2 years ago when the engine light came on. We brought it to the dealer and another mechanic and they both agreed, we need to replace both catalytic converters (p1420, p0420). est cost: $1800 EACH. I did not do anything about it because I could not afford it and my car still drove. A year later the IMA light came on (T1447) and we were told by the dealer that the cost of battery replacement and labor was $4800. The mechanic told me that the car was totalled. !!! (The car value is $4910 in with no mechanical defects. )
So I have been nursing along, not changing anything but now the emissions inspection is due and engine light is on which has to be off to get it inspected. My thoughts were to get the dealer or if someone could tell me how to, turn the check engine light off, get it inspected and hopefully pass. If not, I buy aftermarket catalytic converters (about $90 each on internet) and go to Meineke where they quoted me $305 for labor. The battery absolutely has to be replaced, I found a place in Staten Island that will get me a new battery for $2000. http://www.hybrid-battery-repair.com/hch/index.html
But this is a lot of ifs. Given the miles, something else will need to be replaced soon!
The other thought was to just donate the car, and rather than shelling out at least another $3000, put it into a Honda Insight or Prius. But the thought of taking out a loan when in the past I have had Honda's for a mimium of 10 years and 200K plus really upsets me. Makes me not want to buy another! argh. thoughts anyone?

 

I also have a 2003 Civic hybrid with the same issues with the exception being the IMA code I have is a P1449 not a P1447. I have the 5 speed transmission so I don't know if the steps I take to get through the NYS inspection would apply to a CVT equipped Civic. I don't want to spend a lot of money just to pass inspection when the car is fine otherwise and I am the type of person that will just "try different things" to solve problems.

In New York state a 2000 model year car and later will pass inspection as long as the check engine light isn't on and not more than one monitor within the OBDII system isn't ready. (Earlir than 2000 models can have two monitors not ready). It also should go without saying that the car must be mechanically sound (good brakes, lights all work, good tires, etc..). I recomend finding a small, off the beaten track inspection station as compared to one of the big store shops. You will also want to borrow or purchase an OBDII code reader so you can tell when the on board diagnotic monitors are ready. I also recommend tying to get the car inspected at the beginning of the month the sticker expires and not waiting until the last minute. I got lucky this year and it only took me a day to get the car ready but sometimes it takes many attempts. In NY, by law, the inspection station only has to scrape an expired inspection sticker off. So if you do this at the beginning of the month you have thirty or so days of breathing space. Make sure you tell the inspecter to leave the sticker intact if it isn't expired. If they refuse find another shop.

Like I said, I try different things to solve problems. To get through the NYS inspection I need to solve a couple problems:

1) The IMA system will set the check engine light (CEL) when it faults. The codes that are set with my car are P1600 and P1449. I can get around his problem by simply not taxing the IMA battery. To do this I reset the computer using my code reader or disconnecting the negative battery cable (have radio code handy if you do this) and find a route without hills where I can drive the car long enough to bring the monitors ready. I can usually do this with little trouble simply by staying out of 5th gear for a while.

2) The catalytic converter codes (P0420 and P1420) are a bigger problem as a catalyst system pending error will usually show up wihin a mile after resetting the computer and the next time the monitor is scanned it sets the CEL. To get around it this year, I noticed that it seemed to take longer (more miles) for the CEL to come on when I ran the car at higher than normal RPM's, so I drove the car for a while in 3rd and 4th gear trying to keep the rpm's over 4,000 all the while reading the ODBII scanner to check the monitors.

Long story short, what I did this year to get through the NYS inspection was to:

1) Have the inspection station I use picked out, made sure the car was mechanically sound and ready to pass with the exception of the CEL, reset the computer.

2) Drove around in 3rd and 4th gear at 4-5 thousand rpm's while continuously checking my code reader and resetting the codes as necessary until I got to the point where the CEL was off and all but one ODBII monitor wasn't ready (Evap in my case)

3) Immediately drove to the inspection station and got the car inspected.

Hopefully this will work for you and you won't have to spend thousands of dollars just to keep driving an otherwise perfectly fine car. Personally I don't think the IMA system should even be part of the inspection process (Honda's bad for letting the IMA system set the CEL) and as for the emmisions from the below threshold catalyst system I figure I already spew a fraction of the pollutants 99.9 % of most of the other vehicles on the road and I'm not going to lose any sleep if I spew a couple more micrograms.

Best of luck...

 

Hello, new to the board, and thinking about buying a new-to-me 2003 Civic. Car is from family member, well maintained, all records from day 1. Has codes for Cat and batteries, same as everyone else. 179,000 miles.

My question: Can you ignore the batteries problem, they just get worse and worse and the car is more gas engine than it was when new - and no issues otherwise? Drive it till it totally dies?

thanks.

 

I have a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid (HCH) and have been driving for almost a year with the IMA light on indicating a battery failure. You can drive with a battery failure. The gas mileage is less than before, but the car will still function. I am waiting for a new battery product by a company called Re-Involt (www.re-involt.com). They have remanufactured batteries for $1875.00 today, but I am waiting for the Lithium Ion replacement battery which will perform better. I plan to drive with a battery failure for another 4 to 6 months. My local independent garage will charge about $200.00 in labor to install the battery. So I am looking at a little over $2,000.00 to replace battery with a reman battery if I did it today. I plan to wait for the Lithium Ion, which I assume will cost more than $1875.00.

As for the converters, try Discount Exhaust Systems (www.discountexhaustsystems.com). The front converter for my HCH is by Davico, PN 18214, $332.59 and the rear converter is Davico, PN 18114, $151.35. I had them installed at separate times for less than $200.00 each at a local independent garage. So that was approximately $900.00 for both converters, parts and labor.

 

I forgot to mention my 2003 HCH has 132,000 miles on it.

 

I have a civic hybrid with similar problems 201,000 miles cat is bad and the 2nd hybrid battery just went so it won't pass emissions.beside donating it I was wondering about converting it to an all electric vehicle.does anyone have any info about doing this

 

I saw this video on You Tube and for a $5 'fix' for bad cats. It's a novel approach to getting a few more months out of a car that needs to pass an emission inspection. Not really ethical or green, but the theory behind it is solid. Basically the guy installs a filter between the O2 sensor and the catalytic converter, and increases the distance between the sensor the cat so the air is more diluted when the sensor reads it.

 

I have a 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid with 3 O2 sensors. One before the cat (upstream), one after the cat, and one on the muffler. Which O2 sensor do I install the non-fouler?

 

It's hard to say for sure. The issue with the O2 errors is you don't know if the sensors are bad or if you really have an emissions problem. I think most of the time it is the O2 sensor.


Have you pulled the OBDC code to see if it can provide some clarity on which sensor is out of balance? That is where I would start. If you don't have your own code reader, most auto parts stores will do it for free.


Absent the OBDC information, and assuming it is not a bad sensor, I would focus on the last sensor past the cat (near the muffler). If that doesn't solve it, move to the middle one.

 

Almost certainly the 1st downstream sensor (after the upper cat). The upstream sensor will throw a code when it goes out of range.

The issue with a P0420 on an HCH1 is almost always either the ECU patch that relaxes the tolerance on performance, or a bad cat.