I noticed something wired today with my car. The OAT is 1c and I started my car, the battery charge indicated 6 bars and while driving it went to 1 bar all of a sudden. Kept on driving and it recharged to 6-7 bars. Is this normal? What happened. I am new to this HCH technology so is this normal behavior?

 

Winston
This is a forced recalibration of the IMA. I have had this happen only once, but others have it happening almost every day.There has been allot of discussion about this on this site , so check it out. There are some PCM updates that have somewhat corrected this problem. You should be able to get a print out from your Honda dealer on any updates your HCH may have had. I had a awful time trying to get my dealer to give my HCH the updates for PCM.
Cheers
Hal

 

Hal,
Since I only have the car for 4 days now, I will monitor and see if it happens again. In the mean while I have contacted the dealer to see if they did all the software updates. I am told by the salesman that it is Honda certified so most likely done. I am not taking his word for it and asked to see the service history. I am told to book a service appointment which I am trying to do now. Also read here about a upper control arm TSB which I do not is was done. the car is still under the dealer's warranty of 6 months/12000km so I am pushing for everything to be done now. If my IMA battery is going to die I hope it does so soon so I can get a free replacement. Will keep you informed of my situation. Thanks again and Cheers.

 

The battery recalibration (which we sometimes call a "crash") is a normal thing, and some of us '06 owners get them frequently. Basically what happens is that your battery control module doesn't know what the state of charge is--instead, it calculates it mathematically by adding regen and subtracting assist. Occassionally, this calculation gets out of sync so the battery goes through recalibration.

There are a couple of theories about why the battery gets out of sync, but it doesn't mean that your IMA battery is defective. I've logged almost 100 crashes on my car over the last three years, but there has never been an IMA light or anything else that the dealership could use to diagnose/indicate a problem occuring. Recalibrations are frustrating though--in fact they are my only real annoyance with the car.

I'm running the latest software version in the US and it has helped the problem. I think that Honda Canada has different versions (they had a fix before the US fix), and I think they are working on another update. Check out the Honda Civic Hybrid forum of www.cleanmpg.com for more information on this. MSantos is a good source for information on this subject and he is in Canada.

 

Hal, Thanks for the insight. I assumed that a recalibration is a sign of a pending failure of the IMA battery. I guess I am worried without cause. I have however made an appointment with the dealer this Wednesday to check things out. My driving maybe what is causing the milage to be around 6.3-6.5l/100km but unable to drive around here any slower since the traffic is pretty quick and I would cause grief for other drivers. A slight trip on the highway for 20km saw my milage go down to 5.9l/100km and I could only assume a longer steady state highway trip would only see further decrease. Fingers crossed that is so. I am a bit envious when I see guys on this forum report 50-70 mpg and i am no where near that. I take it that they are driving very slow around 45-55 mph, I on the other hand average speed is around 60 to 70 mph. I guess you don't get something for nothing. I will keep you posted on my service visit with the dealer. Cheers

 

Hi Winston;
You may want to look at alternative routes to work. 70mph is not going to give you great FE . Hal

 

Good Morning All,
I really need to vent in how disappointed I am with Honda Motor Company and my 06 Civic Hybrid. I have been in the automotive industry and employed by a domestic manufacturer in the technical end of things for over thirty years and I have never been so frustrated with the lack of lack of customer service and product reliability by the once almighty and powerful Honda Corporation.

The only reason we purchased this automobile is so my wife that I love dearly could drive in the rideshare lane by herself to and from work on the busy Southern California freeways. Of course the mileage helps with gas at the price it is at but that is secondary. About 1 1/2 years into our ownership my wife had concerns about a lack of power, low battery state, and forced regens. This was going on during the hot socal summer and I started working with my dealer on this concern but I was advised all is normal.

To make a long story short and after many dealer visits we are at the 3 1/2 year ownership point. I have bought my wife a Escape Hybrid to drive because I do not feel safe or confident with her in the Civic trying to drive on the freeway and losing the battery, you might as well be driving in deep sand, very unsafe! I have had all the updates, patches, reflashes done and the car is still miserable to drive. I did meet with the Honda Parts and Service Director for our area to voice my concerns and he listened to my concerns and said all we need is a IMA light to come on and we could replace the IMA battery, sweet!

We left for a trip to Arizona last week and the Honda sat all week as we took our Escape on the trip. When we arrived home I jumped in the Honda to go to the grocery store and as usual instead of using the IMA motor to start the engine the standard starter cranked her over and the engine started but to my great surprise the IMA light came on! I was never so happy to see a light come on. I plugged in my scan tool and pulled a P0A7F "IMA Battery Deterioration" and went to the dealer right away praying the light would stay on which it did. The dealer took it in and to my surprise I recieved a call later in the day that Honda would not replace my battery but install another patch and give that a try.......

I picked up the vehicle the next day and lost all battery power within 1 mile of the dealer and the vehicle performed a regen. It also still uses the standard starter motor to start the engine. I let the dealer know and they said nothing can be done unless the IMA light comes back on.

Sorry again for the long letter but it has been a long 3 1/2 years of ownership of a vehicle that was produced by a once great manufacturer. I have owned many previous Honda's over the years and stil have 3 Honda motorcycle's. It appears there are many other folks in the same boat as I am.
Have a Merry Christmas, Jack

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles with Honda. I dont understand it but other people in this forum got a new battery when their IMA lite come on. I believe you should escalate it to Honda. Cheers...Merry Xmas

 

I haven't had the same problem with my 08 that you have had, well not yet, but I completely agree with you Jeb, and I will never buy another Honda again.

 

Hal,
Got my car back from the dealer today and they updated the software on the PCV/CVT/IMA... I guess being Honda certified does not confirm all software is updated when buying a used car from Honda. I hope this will get better IMA charging and also better FE. Only time will tell. I am happy at least that they did find the software needed attention. When I spoke to the Service Advisor he said that they only do TSB's if you have a problem and will not just do them because thet exist. They will however do all Recalls. Could you enlighten me on what the software update has done to my car? Thanks