Well after 8 months of Civic Hybrid ownership and about 11,000 miles I'm officially done with it.

Let me first say that I am a VERY experienced mechanic and engine builder so I'm no dope when it comes to cars. I was also a motor carrier for 5 years and drive a diesel pickup so I pretty much know about diesels too.

For those thinking about buying one of these cars they're a great car if you're not planning on driving it 70-75 with the A/C/ on, but if you live in a state with a big speed limit and don't want to get run over DON'T BUY A CIVIC HYBRID!!!!

The car gets killer mileage (my best was a 52 mile trip to Rockford, Ill. at 60 mph with the air off when I got an awesome 52 mpg using Gumout carb and injector cleaner as a fuel additive.................but take it Texas in 93 degree heat and run it at 75 with the a/c on and WOW what a difference! The car's mileage dropped to 27 mpg and it felt like someone tossed a 3 foot parachute out the window every time I turned on the a/c!!!!!

With a measly 85 hp and a 13 hp hybrid motor the car just does not have enough horsepower to get "hybrid" quality mileage at those high speeds, WITH the air on.

The answer? I'm going to buy either a VW TDI Jetta, or Passat. With their turbo-diesel engine I can boost the horsepower simply by tweaking the turbo and/or injection pump, but even if I don't the car will AVERAGE over 40 mpgs.

That said, the Civic hybrid is an awesome CITY car, but all mileage claims go out the door if you plan on running it hard with the a/c on. I'll leave these Civic hybrids to those who live in town and don't have to drive at freeway speeds when it's hotter than you-know-what outside!!!! But I bought mine to run over the road and buy diesel pickups (using a towbar to get the Honda home) and it's just not suited for that type of driving if you don't want to cook inside of it!!.

 

I have a 2006 civic hybrid and I always drive with the auto climate control on, which is esentially AC on in the summer. I also got 52 mpg on a road trip from Kansas City to St. Louis and back on I-70 driving between 65-70 mph. I never noticed any lack of power. Very happy with mine.

 

If you set the AC to 78 degrees, it only uses the -electric- scroll compressor, and doesn't have the power loss effect. Its when you set the temp below 77 or so, the mechanical compressor is engaged.

Most vehicles mileage starts dropping heavily above 62MPH. You aren't going to find too many cars that get above 25MPG going 75MPH.

The Civic hybrid beats the PRIUS (the first 2 gens?) on the highway. The Prius shines more in city driving.

 

Mine gets 36.8 at 75 with AC on, but it has some mechanical problems I'm working on that I am sure are hurting the mileage... this weekend is the EGR valve, gonna remove/clean it and put it back in, hope it works cause I don't want to replace the solenoid

 

EGR valve is likely less of a problem than the ports. When you clean the EGR, pop the little EGR port cover off and clean out the ports. If you have any clogged, that should get rid of potential stumbling and what sounds like light detonation under very low load.

 

Yea, that was gonna be a part of the job, and that's almost exactly what the symptoms are, along with misfires that happen only within the first 5 minutes of the drive (doesn't matter cold start, shopping trip, gas stop etc), was a lot worse but changing out the coils helped tremendously, but still does it... noticed a week or two ago that the EGR valve is trying to open during the event, and immediately snaps closed when the event ends. Had previously considered the EGR valve when Torque free was giving an EGR valve code, but then bought Torque and it didn't have the code, and noticed that the codes it was giving were reversals of misfire codes, but the valve being open during events immediately made me go back to it

 

I have to check my EGR / ports also. I sometimes get rough idle.

 

HCH2 #2 needed it when we bought it. Since I had the two parked together, I did HCH2 #1 in barely 20 minutes start to finish... ofc compressed air to blow out the ports helped immensely.

 

Bought new Civic hybrid in Jan 2004.
95% of my commute is freeway.
Hot and humid Georgia summers.
Hypermiled it for a few years and achieved almost 75MPG. Hardly any AC.
Got tired of hypermiling and began more normal driving. Averaged around 60MPG. Began using AC as needed.

Got impatient after a few years and averaged 74-79MPG AC on constantly. Averaged 40-45MPG. No engine power issues.

Then the Hybrid battery went dead, disabling the IMA at about 230,000 miles. This cause the regular lead-acid battery charging to go funky, but car is still very drivable. Seems like the car gained 1,000 lbs without the assist. MPG dropped to low 30's after IMA quit. Still no engine power issues @ almost 80MPH.

I drove it just past 300,000 miles before buying a new CR-V.
I gave my Civic hybrid to my son. Now it's his daily commute car.

I am not sure why the diesel people still stick to their old hybrid stereotypes after all these years.
I was part of a popular TDI forum back around 2006, mainly to compete in their mileage competitions. I was always within the top 1 to 3 positions until someone got mad at my competitiveness, complained to the admin and closed their mileage competition to include only diesels.

I was also told by the TDI community my hybrid won't last past 100,000 miles. It's 300,000 and still going.

I was recently in the market for an automobile but diesel was not a consideration because of fuel cost. I think TDI and diesel in general is a great alternative except for fuel. Yes it's true you can make your own, except I don't want to go through the hassle. It's not worth my time versus the cost of petrol. Maybe worth my time if I had to buy the expensive diesel though.

Just my two cents.

 

Used contact cleaner, realized halfway through I hadn't seen the gasket... then noticed it a little bit later and realized that A) I didn't need it, and B) I had no idea how to get it apart looked like it might twist, but couldn't twist it, and didn't wanna give it too much force, was hoping I could manually actuate the valve, but couldn't get it to budge (didn't wanna scrape it up though)