This may turn out to be a lengthy story, so I will try to keep it to the main points so bear with me. I will appreciate any and all help you can offer.

I took my car in on the 25th for the basic reall check of the grease and to find out a. why my brakes made a weird thump once in awhile and b. why the area, in cabin around my shift got hot in the upper left corner.

After spending almost 3 hours at the dealership, they had no answer for a and b, but assured me they made note of the issue and that they had completed the recall work.

I go to lunch down the street, and then when I go to get on the highway I notice that I have almost no power out of my car. So I start to pay attention to my car and as I press the pedal to accelerate I notice my IMA assist rise about three bars then drop down to nothing, the charge area starts to show and the car continues to try to rev, but with the assist going up and down inconsistently.

I go back to the dealership, tell them what is happening. They put their foreman in my car to drive around and although the problem continues, they attempt to convince that this is normal operating procedure because, and I quote "as the car builds momentum, even if I continue to depress the pedal to accelerate, the battery will not need to assist in acceleration"
Needless to say I was furious, and I refused to leave until they fixed whatever they had done. They tell me they do not see a problem and therefore there is nothing to fix.
More pitching a fit and they decide to roll a brand new hybrid off the truck, put numbers on it, and they have me floor it around the area to redline and everything in order to prove to them that the car is malfunctioning.

After realizing this they take my car in to the back and try to figure out what is going on. I sit there until 430 pm when they tell me they have contacted american honda who is going to have to call them back, and it might be 2 days or 5 minutes.

I tell them I am not sitting there for 2 days and demand a rental. They agree to this, offer me an accord or civic, I choose the accord.

Come to find out, there is not a honda available, they send me to Hertz who puts me in a Cobalt that gets ridiculously bad gas mileage, has side mirrors that wont go back up... AND I am on a wait list to pick up a Prius after work that Monday.

Monday comes, they "think" they have fixed my car because it is not showing the problem again, but they have some sort of form for me to fill out if the problem happens again.

I pick up my car after 5pm on Tuesday drive it around, it seems fine. I take this form that has questions that include: what is the ambient temperature outside when the problem occurs? Was the a/c on? etc

They tell me that there is actually nothing "wrong" with my car, that it is enacting a safety feature that occurs when my battery gets to 102º then it cuts out my assist. They tell me that American Honda is conducting a large investigation on this problem and after I fill out the form, they will be able to get a software update from American Honda that will change that 102º to 115º.

I ask why they can not do it now, and they tell me that American Honda needs me to fill out the form first when and if it happens again, fax it to the number on the paper, then they will send Duval Honda the software that they can not even put in to every hybrid because according to Duval Honda, this software will be VIN specific.

I leave mildly comforted, and go home, I have no trouble in the over 30 mile drive, and am really rather relieved to have my car back.

I drive to work Wednesday morning, do just fine, so I am VERY happy. I park in the garage like usual. Work my day, and I get back in the car to head home.

I do not even get 1 mile from the garage when the problem occurs, and really it seems worse than before with the car trying to rev and then assist and rev then assist.

Needless to say I call Duval Honda to find out what I should do. They tell me to fill out the form, fax it, and call American Honda to try and get the ball moving faster but that their hands are tied, they do not know what to do.

I explain to them that I am concerned about driving my car while it is malfunctioning. I am told to continue to drive the car, and after continuously expressing a concern for my car as well as a rapidly dropping gas mileage I am told "Honestly, who cares if it breaks."

Clearly I am not happy. I am close to my BF's house so I park it there, ask him to take me back to work so I can fax over all this information. I send it to American Honda customer service, the fax number that is on the form that Duval Honda gave me, as well as a copy to Duval Honda.

I get ahold of American Honda, explain everything that you have read here. She is appalled, puts me on hold. Then tells me not to drive the car and that it will probably need to be towed.
That seemed like a more logical explanation to me, better than driving a car that is not working right, where noone knows what is wrong.

SO I am to expect a call from Mr. Ogawa the next day who will be my case manager, who will talk to Duval Honda and who will let me know what to do about my car. He will also talk to me about a rental.

So, i get a ride home, I get a ride to work the next day and arrange for my brother-in-law to get me after he gets off work.

I call my dealership to let them know I had spoken to American Honda, that I was told not to drive the car, and that I was to wait for additional instruction.

Bill, the service manager is surprised they told me not to drive the car, and of course, wants to talk to American Honda.

The next time I hear from anyone is 3:45pm when Duval Honda calls and says "Has american honda contacted you?" and I of course say no to which he says: "Oh, really? I talked to them at about 9am this morning and Mr. Ogawa was going to call you and explain everything. I'll give him a call and tell him he needs to call you"

No information about what he said, what I should do.

SO I wait, I get home after 5pm, and I decide to call myself. I get Mr. Ogawa's voicemail, and leave a message. He calls me back shortly, lets me know that he had not had a chance to really look at all the information I sent over but that he had talked to Bill. He had heard that the customer service had told me not to drive the car and had apparently "put the fear of god in to me" and that it was not needed because he had spoken to Bill and he feels the car is driveable.

I explain to Mr. Ogawa several things, including my 60 miles per day expressway driving over bridges, the fact that I paid for the mileage of a Hybrid, that they do not actually know what is wrong with my car and that while Yes, he is correct it is technically driveable, it is not driveable in the condition it should be.

He repeatedly tells me he is sorry, there is nothing he can do and that I am to "drive the car malfunctioning" I am flabbergasted, ask him to repeat himself and he says" yes ma'am I am telling you to drive the car malfunctioning, I can not tell you not to drive the car, so yes, drive the car malfunctioning" I tell him this is unacceptable. The least they can do is put me in a rental until this is resolved. He apologizes, said there appears to be an investigation judging from the form I sent over. Asked if the questions seemed promising for a resolution to which I said no... and he said that he was sorry, there was nothing he could do and that I should trust my dealership when they say the car is driveable.

Needless to say, this ridiculous, circular conversation was over.

I call American Honda back, get Mr. Ogawa's ext. because my mom and co-owner of the car wants to hear him tell her that he wants me to drive the car malfunctioning.
It goes to voicemail. We call customer service who lets me know that he has just left.
My mom wants to talk to someone higher than him and relays the experience again.

TODAY, August 1st.
I am supposed to hear from someone above Mr. Ogawa, a Mr. Mohammed... but I do not.
At 10 am I seek legal advice who faxes a letter to Duval Honda.
At about 3pm I get an unknown caller on my cell who is a Scott Franklin. I make him tell everything to my mom.
He basically says the same thing Mr. Ogawa does, that Bill has said the car is driveable. My mom says that if the car is so driveable Bill and I can switch cars and he can drive mine.
She tells them that if there is an ongoing investigation and that they are collecting data, it is not our problem.
She reminds them that the car is under warranty and that it is their job to fix it.
She reminds them that it was working before it went in to Duval Honda.
Still, Scott tells her to drive the car. That the car is driveable.
She says, yes the car is driveable, but so is a tractor.
She tells him that they need to atleast put us in a rental until this is resolved. He says no, because they do not know how long it could be.
She says "exactly my point"

So here I am with an 06 Hybrid Civic that is malfuncitoning, they don't know why, they don't know how to fix it. American Honda wants me to drive it when it is not in proper working order.
They do not care that a. it puts me in danger b. is adding unneded wear and tear to my engine.

I have 27,000 miles on my car and no doubt they are trying to wait until my warranty expires.

Please let me know if anyone else has heard ANYTHING about this or knows what I should do.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

 

WOW Sorsha, your ordeal has worn me out! A lot has gone on but (as a former field engineer) I'd go back to where things first went wrong with your car. The dealer (mechanic) that took care of a "recall" seems to have caused/created a new problem with your car. It's probably safe to say that many of the dealerships have mechanics that just aren't very familiar with the hybrid cars (yet). When the work was done on your car, something fairly basic (like a cable or wiring harness) could've been disconnected or loosened. Or, depending on what work was required to address the recall, some disassembly of various components was required and then the reassembly wasn't done correctly. I don't know what kind of internal diagnostics these cars (my Accord included) have but I'd think hooking up your car to an analyzer to look at the health of the system and also for fault codes would be helpful. Anyway, your car WAS operating properly BEFORE they initially messed with it. I think something was done there (probably accidentally/unintentionally) and they need to put someone back on your car that has decent knowledge of the hybrid's system (hardware: cables, various sensors, electric motor; software: how the system SHOULD properly function). Hang in there. This SHOULD be fixable!

 

Thank you for the reply.

Unfortunately, I had initially hoped that all that had happened was a loosened and not tightened wire, bolt etc. However, Bill, the service manager informed me that none of the work I had done could have possibly caused this problem and that my recall work in fact was nothing more than them looking at the area, nothing at all had to be removed.
He found this to be incredibly humourous and used the opportunity to inform me that they actually havent seen a car yet that they had to do anything on for the excess grease recall.
It really made me wonder what they did with my car for so long.

They atleast claim to have done all sorts of diagnostic checks on my car. They even showed me the car hooked up to the computer and how it was running. They used this opportunity to show me the sensors that were indicating that my battery was overheating.

They also told me they had no idea what happened, what is causing the problem or how to fix it.

It was at this point they lied to me about American Honda having a software update for my car that would raise the initiation of the "safety" feature for the batter from 102 to 115.

Currently, they do not want me to bring in my car because "their hands are tied and they have nothing left they can do"

This is ridiculously upsetting, especially when I see other people have this problem, but I can not find out how far they persued the issue.

I drove my car home on Friday night, it was 77 degrees outside, I cranked it up, rolled down the driveway and had no assist.

It is very troublesome.

Currently my plans are as follows:

Collect as much information as I can.
Go in for my oil change in 20% and ask that they make their second attempt to repair the vehicle.
Go in for my "30,000 mile maintenance" which seems uncalled for and is a whopping $571 and ask that they make the 3rd attempt to correct the problem.

This is of course assuming that the Better Business Bureau does not tell me to do otherwise when I speak with them tomorrow.

I can not understand why, when my car was in working order and came out broken they refuse any sort of responsibility and instead claim that there is nothing they could have done, nothing they can do, and basically think that my car is just a big mystery.

So as of right now, I am going to be driving with an assist that sometimes works, sometimes does not work, as of friday night, says that it is assisting, when it shouldnt be...

I appreciate the help guys, honestly though, I want the car fixed so I can get out from under it.

There does not appear to be anyone here locally who is qualified to work on the car, and while I LOVE the car, this is unacceptable.

 

Well, it could be just a coincidence that the car started acting up right AFTER they had it - but it is highly suspect to me. But, you've mentioned something interesting. They showed you that the battery pack was overheating. Well, I wonder and would ask them is it really overheating OR is there a bad temperature sensor giving bogus/inaccurate feedback? Temperature devices can and do go bad. IMO, they NEED to determine what is actually happening there, high temp or not! And then they can go in the proper direction from there - continue troubleshooting until they find the true cause. Hang in there!

 

Are there no other dealerships at all in the JAX area? Here in central Ohio, there are five just within a half-hour of my apartment, one on the way to the Ohio U campus should I need to drop in on the way down, and four or five more near the places I visit in Cleveland (which is only two hours away). Even though there were no symptoms of a grease problem on my car, Immke did the entire relay replacement without batting an eye. The cost for the 30k service at Marysville was only $240, not including tax. There's just no nice way to say it... The guys you've been going to are quacks.

http://automobiles.honda.com/tools/dealer-locator/

 

I'll trade you--mine assists too much!

Seriously though, a few more questions:

1). I assume you are using your A/C right? Do you have it set on auto or on "AC On"?

2). How many bars of battery do you have when you have the problem of it not assisting?

3). The dealer didn't mention anything about a software upgrade or anything right? (I went in for the grease recall as well as the "battery crash" problem I'm having and they upgraded my software--although mine assists MORE now, not less).

4). Does it behave the same way in "S"?

 

1. It actually does it whether the AC is on or not, ON, or Auto, though I usually have it on Auto.

2. The battery usually has over 5 bars, it was still doing this with the battery 1 bar from completely full.

3. The dealership claimed they had updated my 3 cpus and that it did nothing. I was supposed to fill out the form and get a different update that would change the battery cutoff from 102 to 115. but i think they completely made that up.

4. what is "s"?

thanks a bundle.

LeAnn

 

"S" is the second "gear" on the transmission. Usually, that will make your car use less assist than in "D" and increase the charge, but I was curious to see if it behaves similarly in both gears.

Were the updates done when you had the recall, or after you came back with your problem?

I think it's probably worth taking your car in to another dealership and getting them to check things out. It seems a little weird that your car is behaving so differently after a recall fix that wouldn't touch any of the IMA components.

 

P - Park
R - Reverse
N - Neutral
D - Drive
S - Slow... err... sport
L - Let the wookie win

 

Mine is doing the same thing, and has been for the last 3+ weeks. I occasionally lost the charge in hot weather, but now I am losing the IMA charge multiple times a week, in cooler temps. It is annoying but not "dangerous," so to speak. I've lost my assist for short periods on city streets and highways and haven't felt endangered. The car is slow, but not entirely disabled. That's the beauty of the IMA system, the vehicle can operate even without the IMA system functioning.