I have a 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid that I bought in February of 2014. I bought it with 87k miles and it currently has about 114k as of this month. I've been having problems with it ever since I got it: brake pads, car jerking a few times when reaching 45-50 mph, status light issues, etc. The current issues I want to focus on are below. Currently these lights are on:

• Charging System Indicator
• IMA Light
• Check Engine Light

Now the Check Engine Light has been coming on off and on since about February of this year from what I noticed. Both the IMA Light and Check Engine Light have been coming on together for a month now. The Charging System Indicator is something new - first time I saw it was this morning on my way to work. There have been a few times where my car would not start and I would have to get jumped. I just had the 12V battery replaced 3 weeks ago so I'm not sure why that Charging System Indicator light came on. I found out that the IMA battery is under warranty for 8 years/80,000 miles so I'm going to call Honda today and see if I can get it replaced for free. I've been hesitating a bit on going to them because each time I try to call, and the one time I did go, they tried to charge me their base fee of $124 just for looking at a problem. Had them check the brakes and they wanted $124 for looking.

Any suggestions, tips, advice anyone can provide on my error light issues?Anything need more explanation?

 

You will be extremely lucky if you get any warranty considerations at all. The warranty was actually extended to 9/92k. You are well outside that as well. Good luck with the dealer. Mine wants $140 to simply fart in its general direction.

Simply put, we can either guess based on your descriptions, or you can read the codes and report them back to us, so we may offer more useful feedback. Most auto parts stores will read them for free. Alternatively, there are bluetooth OBD readers and Torque Pro for android or wifi based ones that work with iphone.

The first step is diagnosing your 12V. Check all your battery connections and grounds. Find the strap from the engine to the unibody. Those can crack internally and cause multiple issues.

Does the charging system light stay on all the time? If so, you are draining your 12V, damaging the 12V battery, and you won't get very far.

MCM and certain battery codes can compromise the charging system. The charging system will typically fail at idle, but above ~1500-1800 rpm (DC-DC converter input voltage too low), the light will go out. It will continue to work up to 3500-4000rpm (DC-DC converter input voltage too high).

Given the progression of issues, I would suspect that your IMA battery went bad, got progressively worse and is now affecting the 12V charging system.

However, without codes, I'm just launching mortars into the void.

Steve