Yes, I can get it to grudgingly give me a little more assist. It will go to three or four bars of assist, max, and when I let off the gas because I don't want to go more than 40 in a 25 zone, it starts to regen with a vengeance.

 

I'm not so worried about the battery in my '06 HCH for two reasons:

1) If I drove the car long enough for the battery to go south, I'm fairly confident that by that time the cost and efficiency of replacement batteries (aftermarket even) will improve dramatically.

and

2) By the time the battery wears out, I'll be driving another state-of-the-art/current 80-90mpg hybrid, and the illegal aliens here in So. Cal will get stuck fixing the battery in my (then) old-style hybrid. More power to 'em (to coin a phrase/pun).

Heh Heh....

 

You've paid for the price difference (hybrid vs non hybrid)in gas savings by 5 years; 3+ more years gives you enough savings to buy a 2 pack of IMA batteries at Sam's or Cosco (I'm sure they will have them by then; you may need help hauling them out to your car) and still have something left over!

 

Purchased the 2005 Civic Hybrid in NY. Was one of the few that was the PZEV version usually sold in Ca. Well long story short I have put 155k commuting miles on the car and given the recent gas price spike I can say that the car saved me alot of money. I had the car in for a routine scan on what I thought was an emissions issue (turned out to be a loose gas cap) when the dreaded P1433 code came up. My dealer informed me that indeed the IMA battery was failing. $2500 repair . Warranty on the PZEV is 10 years/150k. I called American Honda to see if they could help. Pretty lousy to fail 4 years and 5k over the limit don't you agree? I'll know in a couple of days if Honda will do the right thing and honor or maybe just assist with this repair.

 

Hopefully though you will still come out ahead! I thought the logic, at least part of it, was to economize by driving a hybrid, not "break even" with exhorbitant battery replacement down-the-road.

 

My old 06 HCHII's battery needed a replacement at 105k miles. Where as my 05 HCHI is getting a battery replaced as we speak at 69k miles.

The HCHII didn't have a CEL or IMA light, but the constant forced discharge of the battery required the battery to be replaced.

The HCHI has a CEL and IMA light on.

 

If it didn't have a CEL or IMA light, how do they KNOW it needed to be replaced? If you go in under warranty period, they hardly give you the time of day without a CEL of some sort. I tried repeatedly to get them to try and fix my frequent battery discharges, and the only thing they were willing to do was upgrade the software. The most current version has cut my battery crashes significantly, but I still have them occationally.

Did you pay for your replacement, or did Honda pick up part of the cost?

 

I should have been more clear. I had a friend source a battery for me and replace it after a failed attempt at the dealership. This was significantly cheaper than going through Honda.

 

Lugee, were you involved in the replacement process?

I've read through the Service Manual, and it doesn't seem too involved: take out back seat, turn off a very prominent on/off switch (important step, lol), and then a few more steps, but nothing really involved or tricky. Bottom line, maybe one hour labour, taking your time and being very careful.

 

Interesting. So has that fixed your problem, or do you still have an occaisional recal? There is one school of thought that frequent recals are mostly software/environment related, and if you still had them, it would support that theory. However, if they are gone after the replacement, it would show that your original battery really had something wrong with it--just not wrong enough to throw a CEL.