Every car owner worry about spending money to repair his/her car due to regular wear and tear. An equipment with so many moving parts will require a lot of maintenance work. It’s a necessary evil. With an electric-gasoline hybrid cars, there is an added problem: the main battery. When it’s damaged, it’s going to be expensive to replace. This is what hybrid owners have been dreading, including myself.
Honda does not have an official word on why a Civic Hybrid’s IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) battery might fail. But a technical bulletin to service dealers suggested a similar problem with Honda’s first hybrid cars, the Insight, which used the same IMA technology. The letter said modules controlling the battery charging mechanism, allowed overcharging. However, repeated overcharging could cause overheating and reduce the life of the battery. Combine that with the hot weather in places like California or Arizona, the battery would die even faster.
The letter might explain my situation. For the past few weeks, there have been record high temperatures in Southern California. I noticed my 2003 Civic Hybrid car’s IMA light came on and off, indicating a possible problem with the main engine battery.
Last week, I took the car to a local Honda dealer down the street and had them check it out. They told me that it was possibly due to a false reading in the ECM (Electronic Control Module) device. This should also fix the issue I had with the Check Engine light reporting a catalytic converter failure. They summarily reset both indicators and returned the car to me. This Monday morning, the light came back on! It looks like the ECM software update doesn’t fix anything.
In California, there is a warranty extension for the IMA battery to 10 years/150k miles. However, this only applies to Civic Hybrids with SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicles) specification. For some odd reason, the State only gave my car a ULEV. So I’m out of luck.
Now, I may not have a choice but to replace my IMA battery. I called a few other dealers and they quoted me about $3000 to get a new one! I can buy a lot of gas with that money! Or a down payment for a new car!
I don’t want to give up on my car just yet. In the past few weeks, I watched the battery charge and MPG indicators. I noticed I was down to 41 MPG on a full tank, or roughly 500 miles per 12 gallons. Even with the IMA battery poor condition, I’m still getting a much better mileage than all economy/compact/sub-compact cars out there. So it got me thinking: Do I really need to replace the main battery? My answer, at this point, is no. The car is still drive-able and still saves a lot of fuel.
Some people suggested, after 5 years, the car’s life is at the end anyway, so it might better off for me to buy a new car. It may be true in a cold climate cities when the car goes through adverse weather conditions and salted roads. In Southern California, the weather is moderate and mostly dry. A well maintained car can last more than 10 years in this part of the country. My last Civic was 8 years old when I had to trade it in for a larger car. Similarly, I plan on using this Civic Hybrid, if it lets me, to go beyond 10 years, or at least until 2011 when my car pool lane HOV sticker expires. There’s really no motivation for me to get rid of this car right now.
With the IMA battery still operational in a somewhat limited capacity, the car still getting a quite decent mileage and still in good condition, my hybrid car woe is not too bad. In the meantime, I think I’ll write to American Honda to petition a warranty exception for my car’s battery. I’m hoping Honda has the sense to take care of me, one of their loyal customer. I’ll update this blog when (if) I get a word from them.
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12 responses so far ↓
1
Quincy
// Jul 8, 2008 at 12:58 am
Rudy,
You better re-read the warranty on your Civic Hybrid. That extended warranty isn’t for 5 years– It’s for 15 years.
Also, if your Civic Hybrid isn’t rated SULEV, it still has an 8-year / 80,000-mile warranty on the battery.
You should stick to your guns and tell Honda to replace the thing. That battery SHOULD still be under warranty until 2011 or 80,000 miles.
Good luck.
2
David Bradley
// Jul 8, 2008 at 8:42 am
I wrote about how to extend battery life for portable gadgets such as laptops and mp3 players, it never occurred to me that it could be pertinent to hybrid drivers.
http://www.sciencetext.com/boost-your-battery.html
David Bradley’s last blog post..Identifying Digital Gems
3
rudyamid
// Jul 8, 2008 at 9:34 am
@Quincy:
Actually, the IMA battery is extended to 10 years, not 5 nor 15. Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve made the correction in my post. My car is at 122k miles already, so I’m way past the regular warranty for the IMA battery.
_
@David:
I read your tips for laptop batteries, but how exactly do they relate to hybrid cars?
4
David Bradley
// Jul 8, 2008 at 9:52 am
Well…okay, they don’t really…it was your mention of the heat. Maybe thinking about keeping the car in the shade when you can might help?
David Bradley’s last blog post..Identifying Digital Gems
5
rudyamid
// Jul 8, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I believe the heat issue is also during run time. I did wonder why my car’s cabin was always hot, and my AC couldn’t do enough to keep it cool. Since the battery is behind the back seat, it might have something to do with it.
6
David Bradley
// Jul 8, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Unless they can come up with a decent battery cooling system it’s going to be another black mark for the hybrids. Even if they guarantee to replace them if they fail that really defeats the object as the metals and other materials cost a lot initially in energy to extract and produce these beasts…
David Bradley’s last blog post..Identifying Digital Gems
7
rudyamid
// Jul 8, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Yeah, producing hybrid batteries are definitely not a “green” process. The nickel mined in Canada, shipped to China for processing, and then to Japan for manufacturing. That’s a lot of fuel and materials wasted.
8
David Bradley
// Jul 9, 2008 at 12:33 am
I think so. It seems that when they make claims of eco friendliness for products they rarely mention the sourcing of materials nor the long-term consequences of using them. There was a study done a couple of years back, I think New Scientist reported on it, that basically said the amount of energy and resources required to build a new car far outweighs the energy savings even after 20 years of simply driving an old lemon, at least for UK drivers (possibly different if you’re talking about 5 mpg gas guzzlers from 1950s US.
Trouble is, drivers want the latest bells and whistles, like climate control and iPod docking and you don’t get that with an old lemon.
David Bradley’s last blog post..Identifying Digital Gems
9
farzan
// Jul 10, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Looks pretty cool. Would love to see it in motion
farzan’s last blog post..REVIEW: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
10
portland search marketing
// Jul 11, 2008 at 11:29 am
Honda is really ahead of the game in this market! Look out Toyota!
portland search marketing’s last blog post..Firefox 3 Tool: Snap Links Plugin for Firefox 3
11
Halim-Belajar SEO
// Jul 11, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I’m still think that Toyota are better. There support are great, well at least in my country.
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12
rudyamid
// Jul 12, 2008 at 9:29 am
Hey guys,
In terms of who’s better in the Hybrid business, Toyota or Honda, I believe Toyota overall has the best technology. However, I think both support for hybrid batteries are the same. I’ve read them on the Prius user groups. They both try to avoid paying for the battery replacements.
Toyota is big in South East Asia. I’m not sure about their support over there, but sales are definitely impressive.
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