I have NOTHING to do with any Law offices. What I can tell you is that the NTSHA is INVESTIGATING this issue seriourly. I got an email from them after a complaint I filed on their site. The email came in as I was replying to some posts here today:

My name is Kareem Habib; I am an investigator with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the US Department of Transportation. I am currently conducting an investigation into problems with Honda Civic Hybrid vehicle. You have previously reported to us that you had power loss in the engine of your vehicle. Some people have also had problems with sudden loss of acceleration which can cause a variety of symptoms.

Please answer the follow-up questions below (some of these you may have answered previously; this e-mail is being sent to more than one person).

FIRST, you must hit REPLY on the e-mail before filling out the form. Then fill out the form and hit SEND.

All personal information will be kept confidential.

I appreciate your help with the investigation which is still on-going.

Reminder: FIRST, you must hit REPLY on the e-mail before filling out the form. Then fill out the form and hit SEND.

Kareem Habib,
Federal Investigator
NHTSA, US DOT
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington DC, 20590

and there is a form underneath that I'm not going to post, nor his email address. The email address has a @dot.gov domain. The survey has my ODI complaint number. I'm a computer security specialist working for an Anti virus company, this is not a scam email.

The dealer I took the car to called me back after speaking with Honda. They said this behavior was NORMAL, as they compared the car to another one on their lot WITH THE SAME PROBLEM and it did the same thing!! Then he told me Honda said the car was using the ALTERNATOR to charge the battery! after the accesories on the car where using it. The car was OFF before, was turned OFF inmediately on parking, was turned ON inmediately after being parked, and had not done that like that until the update was applied. I told him to compare the car to a car NOT having the issue (a new one, for example) and he said NO, he needs to compare to another car from the same year (and they one they have is, of course, also broken...)

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Worst than that, the dumb guy at Honda HQ I talked to also said that since my car had a 12V battery, it also had an ALTERNATOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he insisted!!

And then this idiot implies we work for some lawyer.... this is for sure the last Honda I get. And screw the lawyer. The only lawyer I will get is if I get into an accident due to a battery failure....

BTW, wife says that she picked up the car and on the 10 minute drive from the dealer home it hadnt' done it, so may be they did do something... I'll let you know on the next few days.

 

Alternator? What alternator?
Have them try to pull up the part number for a Honda hybrid alternator.
That should keep 'em busy for a while.

 

Sorry Steve, I have out of the country in a place that restricts Internet, I was home at Thanksgiving and when I took my 09 out it bucked when cold, took it in and got the update. I actually have had 1 recal since then and my MPG has gone UP in the cold weather. Totally happy with my 09, got it with 14K and found out the Nav system and the battery cooling suystem had to be replaced before I got it. Noting real major, Kinda wish Navtec would actually update the DVD for the Nav as it is way of from highways around KC that have been rerouted for years.

 

Mark, thanks for the latent report and good news. I'm still getting significantly better MPGs and performance – maybe the '09s and beyond will escape the mixed/negative results of some prior year models. Wish we had more '09 owners to weigh in with additional data.

 

my 09 has suffered from the update, I had daily recals, which are now probably every 3 days which is an improvement. However my economy is worse and performance is not as solid from the electric motor, meaning I cannot glide like I used to.
Crappy thing is I can't sell it because Honda Canada is blowing them out for 24k brand new and I would take a serious hit selling it.
I used to get 4.2-4.4 L per 100 kms now cannot break the 5's (getting about 5.4l per 100 kms)

 

DO NOT GET THE SOFTWARE UDPATE INSTALLED!!!

I can only speak for myself but got the IMA SW update in Sept and I have seen a 16% reduction in city miles. I can get no better than 33MPG for city (used to get 39MPG) and that is driving like a Grandma. I can get no better than 38MPG on the Highway used to get as much as 50MPG. I used to love my Honda Civic Hybrid!

I have tried to get my Dealer to revert back to the old IMA SW settings but they say they cannot. I have tried everything I can think of with my Honda Dealer and Honda Motor Co. but no one is willing to rectify my issue. They say the recall says it will affect MPG but they are not sure why it has affected mine so poorly. It seems like I am not the first customer with this issue from all the blogs I have now read.

So the net result is you buy a hybrid car for the fuel economy. Then Honda finds out they have battery problems which are expensive to fix even though we are supposed to have at least an 8 year warranty. So Honda decides to update the SW so that the battery is used a lot less so that the battery makes it to 8 years and then they are in the clear. Shame on Honda! I will not buy Honda again and I will tell all my relatives and friends not to buy Honda. It is unfortunate that Honda has to loose its solid reputation this way!

 

Please file an online complaint with the nhtsa here:

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/Complaint.cfm

It takes 5 minutes. The nhtsa and the California CARB are looking into this issue. I filed my complaint under Power Train...

You can also look up complaints for the car and you'll see that the bad update and battery problems are the most common. Look up the 2007 year...

2006 HCH
2006 FEH

 

I reckon you been readin' all the wrong blogs. Most of the garbage out there in the blog space is from people who never saw these updates coming... then when they landed in their cars they come up with all sorts of guesses about what its supposed to do. you just gotta weed out the garbage my friend and look for the good info from the people who really know bout this crap.

my experience says "get the software updates cause if you don't things will get even worse". the updates worked for me cause I tried hard to learn to drive the car the right way early and cause of that the battery was not as trashed as other people's. it worked for me and I know i'm not the only one.


ks

 

You make a very good point. I could achieve nothing but sub-par fuel economy and performance from my '02 Insight, which infuritated me. I cursed and accused the car for what seemed like obvious shortcomings in its Honda's fuel economy claims. Unknowingly, I now see that I was really trashing its battery while trying to drive it like a granny, thinking that's what it 'should' take to get stellar gas mileage. It took me until my third hybrid to give up my arrogance and really study what worked (and what didn't)! Learning to properly drive an IMA hybrid takes more than common sense and a light foot, and learning the basics at cleanmpg.com will make a world of difference.

 

yeah Steven

I was reading thru some old posts where msantos was telling people that we should drive the car to use less electrical assist and some posters pounced on him saying that it makes no sense. at that time I thought he was full of crap cause youre supposed to get better MPG if you use more electric and less gas, right???
man oh man, I was such an arrogant and ignorant idiot thinking thats the way it worked.
msantos also warned about the battery not lasting long enough if we keep raping it for electricity all the time and he was right.
yeah, we reap what we sow and now theres no shortage of complaints. The good thing for me is that I woke up in time and recals no longer hit me the way they did before the updates. I am a happy dude now.
Thank you Honda for the updates, but no thanks for bad training of their staff and not sharing more info with hch2 owners. The web is just filled with garbage now.


ks