It seemed to be automatic for my '04. I was all ready to go through the settlement process, but my service adviser looked up info regarding the warranty and Honda had an internal memo regarding the warranty having been extended.

 

Is there any way to intentionally fail honda civic ima battery to get replacement under warranty?
I am confident that some of the recalls and updates are intentionally implemented to prevent the battery from failing under warranty by severely limiting is assistance making it pretty much useless :/
My IMA light came on and when I took it in to the dealership they reset it, did a software update and said nothing was wrong. Honda has terrible customer service!! They don't stand behind their products. I wouldn't intentionally seek to fail my battery if they hadn't patched the software from allowing to fail under warranty just to save their asses from replacing thousands of batteries under warranty.
I get sudden and complete drops in battery meter, recals and all that jazz :/

 

Yeah, unfortunately they should have replaced your battery at that point. However, if you car does not have the latest SW flash they will do that first.

Given your recent battery charge experinces, which were very similar to mine, the battery should fail any month now.

I think the reason mine finally got low enough to generate the IMA and check engine light was due to the extremely cold weather we were having the past couple months. The battery would recal every 5 minutes, and I would hardly have any battery assistance, it seemed to be always recharging....

I have heard that a IMA light can come on if a car sits for a little while, that along with some cold weather could cause it.

I drove mine everyday and the extremely low temperatures and the condition of the battery finally lined up and got past that SW update they have to limit the charge ranges just enough to let a bad battery live longer.....

 

I have a Honda Civic Hybrid 2005 with 103.000 Miles on it. My car is registered in California and I bought it used two years ago. My check engine light and IMA light came on about 3 days ago and I took it into the Honda dealership and they told me that my warranty ended at 8years or 96.000miles so I am just slightly over. Because of that they offered me a reduced cost of about $2600. But that is still too much! It seems like everyone in CA and everyone who has a 2004 and under has a warranty of 10/150.000. My roommate has exactly the same car and got her battery replaced for free with more miles cuz her car is an SULEV. Apparently my car is an ULEV but I don't understand why they made a car with different warranties in the same year with the same make and model. Can someone help me how I can get around it or am I doomed to have to get it fixed? And if so, does someone have a cheaper idea of how to get it fixed? Somewhere I read something about $800. That would be at least a bit more reasonable.

 

I don't know about the California warranties and all but if your forced to have it fixed it is possible to refurbish the IMA battery. Myself and three or others here in the forum have rebuilt ours and it works perfectly. I am currently rebuilding my second IMA battery and plan to sell it for about $800 because I know that the cheapest refurbished IMA I could find was at hybridhvbattery.com for $1500 and they refurbish them the same way we do here. It does a little know how and a little money to buy chargers and such to do it yourself but I saved myself well over $1000 and now get around 44+ MPG and no recals. As far as the warranty is concerned I would look into calling other dealers and see if you get the same answer but Honda used to be a stick in the mud about taking care of IMA problems until they were slapped with several class actions against them and then they became more amicable, but those days are over and they are back to dodging any bullet they can.

 

Hey Brad,

thanks for your help. Do you live anywhere close to Los Angeles? Cuz if you do, I'd pay you to refurbish mine . Honda right now is offering me to get it fixed for like $2200 but I still think that's too expensive. How much do the chargers cost and do you think with a tutorial I could do it myself? Installation and all?

 

Sorry Lexya, I live in Huntsville, AL. I did price having an IMA battery shipped from WI to AL by common freight carrier and cost about $200 and was around 935 miles. It is closer to 2000 miles from you to me. From online quotes I see that it cost about the same $200 to ship to LA. Chargers cost about $30 each (I have 6 iMax B6 chargers), then you need to build a grid charger for charging the entire pack (about $200). Removal and installation is not hard, but disassembling the IMA battery can be dangerous as one wrong mistake can kill you. The process is a little time consuming, it takes about a month to refurbish an IMA battery, mainly due to the long cycling process on the battery sticks. I have a salvage yard out of Georgia that supplies me with batteries for about $250 each, but normally I have found that salvage dealers usually charge between $300-$600 for these batteries. I drive my car and always work on batteries on the side so I'm not without a car while I'm doing it. I have worked as a mechanic, 11 years for Autozone and O'reilly, and now I'm an Aerospace Engineer, so working on technical stuff comes easy for me. But in my opinion if you have the time and patience, refurbishing IMA batteries isn't hard.

 

Hey Brad,
as you describe it, I will definitely not want to do that. That sounds like a long and dangerous process. I think I will now just try and sell my car and if that doesnt work, I will try to fix it super cheap somewhere and then sell it. We will see. But I sure am annoyed at Honda. So unfair that my cars warranty is out by 7000 miles and others can go until 150.000miles! Never Honda again

 

I will never purchase another hybrid ever. $4000 for a battery when after market companies sell better batteries for half the price. Honda continues to screw hybrid owners. I finally got Honda to agree to pay half.

 

I had two batteries 'supposedly' die on me (based on dash lights, codes, and re-cals), and both were fixed by Grid charging + Full Discharge, then full charge again. They work great for 8 months to a year, and then I have to do it again.

I don't believe you can say a battery is bad because the vehicle gives you the IMA light and battery deterioration code, or even if the dealer says it is. Until you cycle the batteries full, discharge, full, you cannot be sure.

Every time I get the poor acceleration, then IMA light and code, I did the above steps, and now I've been driving for months with great acceleration and not a single re-cal or codes