Hi! I purchased a used 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid and it currently has 165k miles on it. About 4 months ago the IMA light came on and off, I fixed a leaky transmission and it seems to work fairly well. Well recently it kept dying all together and the IMA light continued to come on. I brought it to a Honda Dealership in South Bay (I live in LA) and was told BOTH BATTERIES NEED REPLACING!!!

I just bought the car in April 2012 for $8000, was quoted $2700 from Honda to replace IMA and now I am trying to find what my options are. It is a bit too expensive for me to be able to repair right now, so I simply changed the starter battery so it would stop dying and drove it home to my driveway where it has been sitting for a couple weeks now. I was told it has 8% battery on the IMA.

1. What are some places in LA that can do it cheaper?
2. Should I look into reconditioning the battery? Where?
3. I am a Mech Engineer but not too familiar with cars, would I still be able to follow instructions to replace myself?
4. Any input on options I should look at?

Honda refused to replace even though only 15k out of warranty, and the used dealership I bought from of course also refused to do anything. Value of the car is below what I bought and cost to fix is very high.

Can anyone assist in pointing me in a good direction?! Thank you so much!

 

First thing I would have them do is look up your VIN number to see if you are covered under Service bulletin 06-085 which came out around May 9, 2008. This one extended the warranty mileage by 5% due to odometers overstating the mileage. So for a CA car with an original warranty mileage limit of 150,000 that would be raised to 157,500 miles.

Then I would have them look up the recent warranty extension for the IMA which increases the warranty on the IMA by 12 months or 12,000 miles.

157,500 plus 12,000 would bring the mileage limit up to 169,500 if those 2 items apply to your car.

If for some reason you do end up paying for your IMA replacement, you should read the following link; you may be able to apply for reimbursement:

http://www.hchsettlement.com/

 

For a link to a list of other places that might be able to do work on a hybrid car:

http://www.hybridcars.com/preferred-hybrid-shops/

also:

http://www.re-involt.com/Our_Installers.html

 

I literally just got off the phone with Honda Corporate regarding this. My 2006 HCH has just over 150k miles on it, and I was informed that the warranty has been extended to 11y/170,100 miles (in any state following CA emissions laws, at least). I assume that the odd number is in conjunction with the 5% odo and the settlement (http://www.hchsettlement.com/).

My dealer was awful in getting me information about this, and had told me that Honda "would not be participating" in the repair. I had no idea that the warranty had been extended so far, and was about to shell out $3,300 to get a re-involt battery installed. While their battery may be a design improvement, it's not enough for me to shell out nearly half the value of the car! Best of luck -

 

Honda's math works out even better than mine. erms should definitely check into this.

 

I was waiting to reply so I did not jinx myself, but IT WORKED!!!!! I called up Honda and questioned about the extended warranty to 170,100 miles and she said my car qualified. The honda dealership told me that it just went into effect on december 21, 2012 so I cannot believe that I lucked out. I am glad I had my car sit over the holidays until I made a decision on what to do.

I cannot thank each of you that replied enough. I would have never known to call Honda back or about the warranty had you not responded to my question. Thank you truly from the bottom of my heart. you saved me a lot of decision making, money spending, and new (used) car shopping! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

My car is running excellent now, but just for anyone looking, Honda does not provide any type of warranty on the battery replacement. Which is ok. Thanks again!

 

Happy to hear yours got replaced under warranty! I have to say, I jumped the gun in posting this immediately after hearing from a first line representative at Honda. The next day I got a call back from someone else at Honda America, and they informed me that the extension only applies based on the warranty that your car was sold with. Because I am in a state that adopted CA emissions in 2011, that means the extensions put me at 80k miles + 5% + 12k (something like 96k). I was put through the ringer to get a pricetag put on the repair, but in the end cheaper than a new car and taking nearly a total loss on trade in/private sale.

Honda was "kind" enough, however, to cover 40% of the cost, meaning I got out of the dealer paying roughly $2k. Now that I have a functional car, I can make the decision to drive it until it really dies (152k on it now), or sell it and cut my losses. I was put through the ringer to get a pricetag put on the repair, but in the end it was cheaper than a buying new car or taking nearly a total loss on trade in/private sale.

The repair was just done yesterday. Car is acting better, and I'm hoping things improve over time. My dealer is pretty clueless about these cars, which seems to be the rule rather than the exception. Got 42mpg going 75mph for ~1.5h today, with a little bit of around town driving - hopefully this improves. As long as I'm not losing power when pulling into busy traffic anymore, I can live with it.

 

RutherfordBrave, 42mpg at 75 is incredibly good fuel economy! Is that instantaneous or an average?

 

I never get less than 42 mpg...thanks for this thread...