Hi, I'm new but have been reading through some old posts here and I have some questions, maybe someone out there will know more about than me.

I've had a used 2006 civic hybrid for four days now so ALL of this is very new to me. Anyway, yesterday morning my check engine light came on, and then a few minutes later the IMA light came on. I called my husband who really didn't know what to tell me as we're both new to hybrid ownership, turned around and went home, made some calls, ended up making an appointment with the dealership for that afternoon.

However, when I went to drive it to the dealership, the IMA light was off. A couple hours (and $95 later) the dealer told me the battery was in fact bad and needed to be replaced. The employee than told me that I didn't need to worry because it was still covered under warranty and that they would order it and replace it for free. Whew, what a relief. I picked up my car, no more check engine or IMA light. Felt so much better knowing it wasn't quite the headache I was afraid of.

Only this morning, I received a voicemail from the same employee at the dealership telling me he was mistaken and it was not covered after all. He left me a number to contact Honda's customer service and told me that was my best bet, was to discuss the matter with them. So I called, and was told that it would be assigned to a manager who will contact me by close of business tomorrow. He said they MAY work with me, but that it's highly unlikely they would cover it 100%. So now I guess I just sit and wait.

My questions though are; If the battery does indeed die, is it able to still be driven normally running on gas alone? The dealership told me it is, but after reading some posts, I'm not so sure. And is there ANY alternative other than paying for a $3K battery at the dealership?

And my biggest question is that since picking the car up from the dealership, the check engine and IMA lights are both off and I have driven the car around town both last night and today without any problems. I don't notice ANY loss in power or gas mileage whatsoever. Everything seems to be running smoothly. Is it possible that those lights came on because of some freak malfunction and my battery doesn't actually need replacing? (perhaps that's just wishful thinking on my part) but I feel like if the battery was in fact bad, that the IMA light and/or check engine light would either re-appear or stay on. I know very little about cars, and even less about hybrids, but it just seems odd to me that even when the IMA light and check engine light appeared, I never loss any power and since they've been off, I've still had no problems.

Should I even bother looking into the costly battery replacement if the car is running as it should and the lights never come back on?

ANY input is appreciated

 

I would think you are covered under warranty unless you have a really high number of miles on the car. It depends on which state you live in and how many miles are on the car.

If for some reason you do end up paying for the battery replacement even though you are still under warranty, you should read the information on the following website, and look into getting reimbursed for what you have paid:

http://www.hchsettlement.com/