Hi Jess,

Thanks for the reassurance. Now I'm wondering if any sw updates were being done while they were replacing the battery pack. In any case, it's a great car and we love driving and saving at the pump. So we're looking to keep the car as long as we can. Then when the 150k mark comes along.....ummmmm



Anthony

 

When that day comes and passes...replacing the pack will still be cheaper than buying a whole new car.

 

Looking through the Service Manual, I don't see the labour charge being more than one hour. That is a pricey battery.

 

Replacing the battery pack is about a half an hour job.

 

Yeah, step 4 ref's to another page, basically taking out the back seat, and turning off the battery on/off switch. Maybe the pro's quote and accomplish this in 1/2 hour. For me I'm sure it would take an hour minimum. Either way it's not a lot of labour. Anyway:

5 grand for a battery strikes me as unreasonable. That has got to come down, likely will, can't be soon enough. Or Honda should sort out some re-build procedure.

 

What are the warning signs of batter that is failing?

 

Prior to CEL turning on, I noticed the battery becoming discharged after 2-3 days of no driving at all. This is when the battery meter is full only to find it drop to 1-2 bars in the first few hundred feet of driving after have not using the car for a while.

 

Well, warning light indicated that my IMA is also failing--although it seems to be working just fine, diagnostics confirmed. I have only 65 K on the car (2006 Civic Hybrid II), 3 1/2 years old. Although the warranty is covering it, this is very discouraging--thought we would get 100K at least! We probably 2/3 highway and 1/3 city driving.

Carol

 

Carol.. we're in the same boat, maybe in the same place. I'm in Palm Beach County and live within 3 miles of the beach. 2006 Civic Hybrid w/ 59,800 miles on it. Got new tires in March 2008 and had my avg MPG go from ~47mpg to ~41mpg. The car has slowly been having to recharge itself more and more. MPG as of late is high 38s mpg. The past few months everytime I start it, with a few hundred feet the battery is dead. Yesteryday the IMA light came on. Dealer is ordering me a new IMA battery and Controller. Should be installed Thursday.

I've had many more problems than this with the car over the years and am quite sick of it. I bought a new car to avoid problems and that's all I have had. Anyways, thinking about driving it another 10-15 thousand miles and trading it in/selling it....NOT for another honda.

 

Wow, it does sound like our cars are "twins"--except that we weren't having any real battery problems before the IMA indicator came on--though in hindsight, it seemed like it wasn't holding the charge as well as it used to. I still really like my car--and the service guy said that the batteries "should" last the life of the car. Whatever that means. I'm feeling a little skeptical. He did say they usually get one a month needing battery replacement (dealership in Gainesville)--but I don't know what percentage that might be!

Carol