Your experience exactly matches mine. I had to call Honda America.
The service manager is now talking to Honda about my 2007 civic hybrid. He finally understands and believes my story. This is how I did it.
Made the appointment for 3pm, drove from my work early enough that after the battery drained it would have a full charge by the time I got to dealer. Then had the car parked in sun or partial sun, outside basically and took the keys while I waited an hour. Had the service manager drive my car with me in it. This worked according to plan, and he saw the battery drain and loss of power, and the recharge without any added battery power.
I also took a video of it last week, so I will offer that if Honda requests it. I will keep people posted here on what happens next.

 

Got a call from the service manager and Honda still won't do anything. So I have given him the video I took so he could send to Honda. Very disappointing it has come this.
I have a link to the video I took a few weeks ago on my website:
http://members.***.net/cheezmo1/

You will have to right click and choose save as...
Its 20MB.

I will be driving around Phoenix with this on my back window:
buy a Prius
Honda won't honor
hybrid warranty

 

Watched your video and mine does the exact same thing for the last 3 months. A software update fixed it for 2 weeks, now it is back to doing that daily. I only have 27k kms on mine.

 

Wow, I am thinking hard about driving to California just so I can get my car repaired. This is very sad. But it's Honda's choice.

My wife uploaded one of my battery dumps to youtube. Do a search on Honda Civic Hybrid battery problem.
I even have a video showing no battery bars but then the car gives full assist somehow. Not sure how that is possible. I haven't posted that one yet.

Anyone having the same issue, please submit a report to the nhtsa about your experience:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm

Be honest. If you feel its a safety concern that the car is sluggish, please enter that.

 

Well it's a sad and disappointing day. I just got off the phone with Honda America and they stated even though what the service manager experienced, that the car is working normally. I told the person, i guess my car was operating above normal conditions for 3 years because i got 50 mpg and now it operates normally getting 35mpg.
So now I am going to a Toyota dealership and will try to get them to trade my hybrid for a Prius so they can use my honda civic as a test vehicle when people want to compare the Prius to the Civic Hybrid. This will certainly guarantee them not choosing the Civic Hybrid, once they see no power and poor gas mileage.
I am also going to my local news station called 3 on Your Side.
I am wonding who I see or what agency I use to complain that I am not getting the mpg stated on the sticker.

 

Hi Cheezmo1;

I am having the same problems as you and Honda refuses to do anything saying my 07 HCH-II is acting per design specifications. I have just posted 3 or 4 rather lengthy posts regarding my Soc problems and Honda's response at:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/forum...sprune=-1&f=56

It is under the first thread "What are recalibrations". It has been an 8 month ordeal for me and on going.

 

A day after Honda Corp. said the case was closed, my dealership called me and said they will replace it. So the 12th they called me to say the battery was in stock and I got it replaced on the 13th. That day I drove it home I saw 50mpg for the first time in 6 months. That did not last long. When my wife drives it to work she gets 43mpg now, which is an increase. I still get 35 to 40 driving home from work, used to be 45 to 50, but the car acts differently than the last 5 months. It doesn't do the battery dump and then recharge anymore. It does give me assist but it doesn't last long, but that could be besause it has been outragously hot at 113F. So it has helped on the longer drives, but short drives in the heat it hasnt helped. I still get 30 mpg. But something has changed in the car, not sure how much though. Last year at this time, I never got 25 to 30mpg, ever. So something is wrong, so I wonder how many people this is happening to.
I have a few friends who have a Prius, they average 45 mpg driving to and from work. Just something to think about.

 

I do have them dayly or every other day, some days 2 times, some times just once a week. I whish I could tell when they happen.

Took it to the dealer, they had me replace the 12v battery pack (at my expense) which I did because it was already 4y old, but made no difference.


2006 HCH, started to do it around 3y from purchase time (it may have done some before, but very rarely) Interesingly enought, I had leased this car and this started to happen just after I purchased it once the lease was over. Went from 45+ MPG to under 40 (35-35MPG) on my 22 miles commute (44mi total) For a reference, my FEH 4WD does over 32MPG on the same route! rated at 29MPG! Dont use AC usually, driving freeway in Los Angeles. First recal happens about 2mi from home when I get to the ONRAMP of the freeway where it crawls to join traffic revved at 5K until it hits 35MPH, then it starts to speed up... Very scary.

I also have been on several situations where a quick scape was needed, and car had no power (making a left with oncoming traffic, for example) where I was scared to death as the car would crawl out of harm way being barely missed by other cars, as the battery dropped to 0 right there... When it happend on freeway traffic it's harder to notice, as the car is mostly pushed by the gas engine. You can tell by looking at the batt meter.

I'm now extra cautious with anything I do with the car as I'm afraid it may do it again on a bad moment and put me or my family in danger.

Of course, The dealer had a very, very hard time understanding my description of the problem (hash clutch engagement when battery dropped if you where stopped -the HCH has a clutch, even the automatic one-, then slow starting from stopped) and wept refering to transmission problems even after my corrections.

Anyway. I think that we should file a class auction and report the problems on the NTSHA all of us.

I loved my car, but now I want to trade it as soon as finances permit. I remember when soon after I got the car, having my brother in law drive it to the airport, loaded with bags, 4 people, AC, and hiddling while they picked up people and they got 38MPG, when I got 45-50MPG on the same route with my driving. Now I get under 37MPG evey day (very few exceptions) being very careful and with no AC or any kind of iddling...

Really dissapointed, I whish I had purchased a Prius (I had a 2003HCH that I traded for this 2006HCH, and a 4WD 2006FEH, so I'm not new to hybrids)

I just did Los Angeles to Memphis, Tn, to Orlando, FL, Daytona Beach, FL, Savannah, Atlanta, Nashville... to Springfield, IL, Kansan City, Denver CO and to Las Vegas, NV, then back to Los Angeles on the FEH (I-40, I-75,I-4, I-70, I-15...). me, wife, 2 kids, AC on 90% of the time (including iddling at night on rest areas) and the car did 31MPG. Crossed several states at 35+ MPG. No issues even going up from Denver on the I-70 (except lack of power due to altitude at 10.000+ ft, but no battery issues) Did all that with $525 on gas. I trust the Ford to go anywhere, but not the HCH any more. Why would I get 37MPG on my regular freeway commute on the HCH when the FEH gets almost the same, and is much heavier??

Let's complain to the NTSHA before someone gets hurt.

Juan S. Fernandez
2006 HCH
2006 FEH 4WD
Los Angeles, CA

 

jsala11

I filed a complaint with the NHTSA back during April 2010 when I was getting numerous recals a day (Honda said I had no problem) because I felt the loss of assist when in recal was dangerous and a safety issue. My recal would last about 2 to 3 miles and then all was well until it happened again. It seemed random but I think it happened every time I restarted the car after stopping for 10 minutes or so, about 5 miles after restarting.

I also filed a claim with the Better Business Bureau Auto Line at the same time. I went to arbitration and the decision came back that my 07 HCH-II was a lemon (Honda had to repurchase the car) and one of the reasons was the frequent recals causing no assist and this WAS determined to be a safety issue.

After receiving the BBB decision I filed another complaint with the NHTSA explaining my car was officially determined to be unsafe to drive at times because of numerous recals but I was never contacted by the NHTSA for either submission other than the 2 computer generated acceptance forms.

It doesn’t seem that the NHTSA thinks it is a safety issue but I do and so did the arbitrator. Please submit your complaint.

 

I started having frequent recals - might have had them earlier but I didn't know what a recal was then so I wouldn't have recognized it. The charge would go down to 1 bar, I would lose battery assist, then it would recharge quite quickly. Seemed to happen up to once a day, usually just after I left the parking garage at work. I do about a 43 mile commute each way. I heard about software updates. Last service I asked the dealer about it and they replaced the small lead-acid battery and did 3 software updates. After that it dropped only to 2 bars and recal'd - it would slowly charge for a bit and then instantly rocket up to full charge (8 bars), then settle out at about 5. Then a week later I got a Honda recall notice telling me to get a software update to "prevent premature battery failure"! I went back to check and the dealer installed a fourth software update! I would say that the recals actually increased in frequency after that! It seems to me that there is a lot of disagreement as to whether this is a sign of battery failure or a software routine to make sure the state of charge meter is accurate. The main thing that bothers me about this is, if it is normal, why doesn't Honda mention it in the service manual? I don't really understand why this bothers people as far as driving goes. When it is recal'ing I guess the consumption goes up a bit, but I still get about 45 mpg overall. I have done 60K and as a precaution I'm going to swap to driving our other car to work to extend the 80K warranty as long as possible. I was told by a dealer service rep that Honda paid all but $200 of the cost of out-of-warranty battery replacement for one customer. The other thing is with all this hoopla about electric cars, if batteries don't last then it will just all be a monumental failure. And I read that Lithium-Polymer batteries don't last as long and are more prone to overheating than NiMH batteries. If battery life is a problem, then how come the Prius is so successful? The Prius needs the battery for the auto transmission to work, but in the Civic, as long as the system charges the lead-acid battery enough to start the car and operate the electric systems, then the car will still operate. Myself, I would just accept the worse consumption and sluggish performance rather than shell out the $1600 it is supposed to cost now for a new battery. What do other people think?