My 2006 Civic Hybrid battery is worrying me. It typically starts out with 3 or 4 bars and then within 1 or 2 mins. goes down to 2. It then regenerates to 5 or 6 bars within about 10 mins. Then it finally goes all the way 8 bars in another minute. It then typically stays at 6 to 8 bars. On the next trip even if it's within 1 or 2 hours the same deal repeats. The engine autostop doesn't work at all. Any ideas?

Anyone in the Portland metro area own one of those grid chargers? Or does anyone know where I can get my battery grid charged?

 

My 2006 does the same thing. It will show half full then I'll drive a mile and look and it will be at two bars. Then the auto-charge comes on and all of the sudden it's almost full.

It never happens for too long though only a few miles. I was wondering if the car was doing some kind of charging or diagnosis on the charging system or something.

 

Mine does it almost every morning I go to work. I just read in another thread if you accelerate up to 37mph then coast for 5 seconds the car will go through some kind of "recalibration" mode.

In retrospect, I do just that when I go to work. I turn from my driveway onto a 55mph road, but in less than 1/4 mile it turns to 35mph and it's a slight downhill into a great speed-trap for the police, so I have been accelerating to about 37mph and coasting down the hill almost every morning.

I wonder if that explains it?

 

I'm fairly sure what you're seeing is the meter playing games with you. Your battery can barely hold any charge now and they've done their best to hide it to get it to last past the 80k mile warranty (or whatever it is in your state). However, they lost a class action lawsuit for doing this and part of it was to extend that warranty for 2006-2008 models to 92k. This is about to save me $4500 since mine finally failed at 82k.

Before it finally failed the meter would drop to 2 pips (it never goes below with the latest firmware), then jump all the way back up after a mile or two. It lost about 10 mpg overall since the IMA is seldom helping and constantly being recharged by gas.

 

xoham: "Before it finally failed the meter would drop to 2 pips (it never goes below with the latest firmware), then jump all the way back up after a mile or two. It lost about 10 mpg overall since the IMA is seldom helping and constantly being recharged by gas."

Patrick,
Thanks for your reply to my post on another thread. My car is going through the same symptoms now as you describe above. Level drops to 2 bars, charges to full in another 3 or 4 minutes. Happens at least 2-3 times a day, certainly after every start. Yesterday, during a 15 mile drive in the city, it recalibrated 5 times! So, how long did your battery run in this mode before finally dying for good (IMA light went on)?

 

It's hard to be sure but I would guess around 1 year, maybe more. Note that I have a short commute to work and don't do a lot of long distance driving except for holidays. Note that the IMA light was only one for one evening, and then the engine light for 3. Neither are on now and the battery has not been replaced yet. It might be worth driving it right in to the shop to get them to witness it if it comes on.

 

Mine has been doing this for the past 2 years and 100,000 miles. IMA light still off.

 

My 2006 Civic had similar recal problems, finally IMA light went on (78k miles) so they recently replaced my battery. Anyone know how many years warranty is on the NEW battery (so I know to trade it in before it hits it!)

 

Thanks for all the replies. I'm also guessing that my battery is going bad. In Summer was always getting around 5.8 l/100km (that's over 40mpg) and now it's up to 6.3 (around 37 mpg). When I do get the assist the car accelerates nicely but without it it's a piece of junk. My car has over 192,000 km (120,000 miles) on it. Today the autostop worked for the first time in months. I bought the car in summer and regret it already. If I were to do it again I'd buy a VW TDI. Those are solid cars that drive forever on a tank of gas.

 

Just a thought... on page 213 of the 2006 manual it states: "NOTICE - If this vehicle is unused for over one month, the service life of the 158v battery will be reduced and the battery may be seriously damaged". This might be a problem for those who purchase a used Civic that sat in the lot or someones driveway, for a long period.

BTW - in 2010, the IMA battery in my 2006 Civic was replaced under warranty by the dealer, were I purchased it. Only had 23k but with the IMA often not available the car was unsafe to drive. Like the others that were failing, it would suddenly drop to two bars recover in a few minutes and drop again. There were no system "alarms" detected but the "hybrid" qualified tech drove it for a few days and agreed that the battery needed to be replaced. No doubt it helped that I purchased it there and my other cars were maintained at the same dealership.

Been running great since then and average 44MPG