I recently brought a used 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid. After driving it for about 6 months everything seems normal and fine to me, never owning a hybrid before I'm not sure what to expect. My question is it normal for my hybrid to emit a humming/buzzing noise while it is D. Not even stepping on the gas, just idling in Drive. The noise is consisted even in while driving and in eventually drowned out by road noise. This buzzing/humming noise is not present when the car is in R, while backing up the car. I would say it sounds like a low growling.

Here is a video of it taken with my phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2LIXRDFmRo

Does this sounds normal? Notice the sound when I shift into D, N and R the sound is not present.

 

Interesting.
My car never makes that sound.
Not sure what that is, but it's not a "normal" sound for the car to make.

Is the sound coming from the shift lever area, or elsewhere? I'm wondering if there's just something hanging up or vibrating within the shifter itself. When it makes that sound, can you feel any vibration near the shifter?

 

No virbating coming from the shift leveler. Sounds like it is coming from the transmission but only when I am in D, but not N or R. Wierd, I always thought that was normal for a hybrid.

 

Update. I popped the hood with the car in drive and it sounds like the noise is coming from under the air box / around the transmission area. I heard about burnishing the transmission fluid (drain, fill, warmup, repeat 3-4). Any one think this would help?

 

Burnishing could help. Just make sure you use the proper transmission fluid, Honda CVT trans fluid, not the ATF-Z1. (The car's manual may say ATF-Z1, but that was changed a few years back, and now they use the CVT fluid instead.)

 

Update. Burnishing the transmission didn't help, so I brought into Honda dealer for a look. They said it was a internal transmission problem and will have to replace it. When I brought the car used I also purchased a extended warranty, not a Honda Care but something called warranty solutions from the dealer. I wont know if they will cover it until Monday. I hope so, because the dealer said it would cost $3,100 if warranty doesn't cover it. YIKES!

 

Hopefully you're covered under warranty.

Check out the links in this other thread; they may be useful:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...estions-25004/

 

once my tranny started slipping and that all too well known judder...it started making that sound. i dont have a warranty. im going to try and burnish the belts to try and prolong its life. ill drive it till that tranny takes a dump lol. 1st problem(knock on wood) and it has been making that sound now for about 1yr and 14k miles. no change in it characteristics yet. good luck and hopefully honda does you right

 

Update: My warranty is going to cover my transmission. But Honda doesn't make it anymore so Honda is going to rebuild it. Better than nothing. Hopefully I this fixes my problem. It will take 6-8 days to rebuild.

 

awesome...honda doesnt make that tranny anymore??lol

and to my previous post...never mind lol. mine doesnt do that...i watched the video. i thought you were talking about while actually moving. mine is a high pitched whine. i usually can only hear it while next to a highway median and going like 50mph+. hmmm hope mine is normal.