My HCH '03 is sitting in the yard. I cancelled its insurance and didn't register it after being informed by Honda dealer in central Texas that I might as well drive it off a cliff or pony up $7500 for a new IMA battery. Aside from what I think of Honda for sticking the first wave of people brave enough to purchase Hybrids for the good of the planet with this mess (all cars should run perfectly over 100,000 miles these days), I need an ethical solution to get this car out of my life. Do any of you know a non-Honda mechanic in Austin or San Antonio capable of repairing the cells that are corroded? If this work could be done at a fair price, I would sell the car and move on. As upset as I am for my own situation, I find it criminal that we paid a premium price to try this high minded technology only to be treated indifferently by the manufacturer when it goes bad, conveniently always it seems from the threads I've read, conveniently after the 80,000 mile warranty expires. It calls for a revolt and a very loud outcry of bad publicity for Honda. Searching for solutions. Thank you kindly.

 

First of all $7500 dollars is way, way, way too much to replace the IMA battery. I'm curious exactly what the dealer said needed to be replaced. For 7500 dollars I would expect to be able to purchase 2 or 3 complete IMA systems. And if you have under 100,000 miles as your post alludes, you might very well be under warranty still. I would check with another repair shop or online.

Second, my '03 Civic Hybrid has almost 200,000 miles and while the IMA and CEL lights are both lit, and the codes indicate I have a degraded battery pack, I continue to drive the car with no breakdown yet. The lights have been on solid for over 40,000 miles. I have been very happy with this car. I have averaged over 50 MPG over the life of the car and have had few unexpected repairs. Hands down, the best car I ever had.

Finally there is at least one after-market hybrid battery repair option. You might want to check out hybrid-battery-repair.com to see if he can help.

Good luck, sorry about your bad experience, but unless your vehicle was abused/salvaged you have a really good car there.

$7500. Wow. That's the highest I've seen...

 

When you bought the car, what was the warranty on hybrid components?

First, try calling Honda customer service, ask if they will extend the hybrid warranty.

Presently, Honda offers 8 years/100,000 miles on hybrid components (and in states that follow California emissions standards it is 10 years / 150,000 miles).

Perhaps the other option is to sell the car to someone who lives in a California-emissions-following state and then have Honda fix it.