I went to a dealer for test driving a 2007 civic hybrid with 130 000km around 70 k miles.

the car had three bars on the state of charge (Soc), I drove like 12km on the highway at around 95km/s which is like 55mph. The car had almost 80% of the bar.

I have a 2003 civic now, and from experience, when battery is bad, the battery would discharge very fast and would charge to full very fast too. Like driving two minutes in highway would fill up the soc.

I find it abnormal. Do you guys agree that battery has some trouble?

thank you

 

What you describe sounds like a negative recal initiated prior to you driving. Did you get assist and regen bars at that SoC?

The latest BCM patch doesn't usually let the SoC display go below 4 bars. However, given the distance driven vs. the SoC increase (I'm assuming it when from 3 to 6 of 8 bars based on your description of "80%"), that is typical. At highway speeds the car tries to balance good gas economy with charging, so I wouldn't expect it to charge much faster.

The dealer has the ability to directly measure battery capacity. I wouldn't buy one from a dealer without that value. Given my comfort level with working on IMA batteries, I would be very happy with 60% or better. Without that skill, I would want 80% or better.

You're still under warranty, but you only have ~1 year and ~22k miles left IIRC.

In any case, I would want the option of taking it home for a weekend. Run it through the ringer. If it has a single recal, I would take it back and say no thank you.

 

trouble is i gave 300$ deposit already, in canada, I don't know if we change our mind, if I can get back that 300$.

I didn't know the dealer can measure the capacity of the battery. so I can ask them to measure it. If you capacity is still 80% then it's a good buy.

thank you for your help

 

$300 is a small sacrifice compared to a $2000 battery replacement (non-Honda aftermarket - do not buy a Honda replacement pack).

I would confirm the remaining warranty as well. IIRC, it's 9yr, 92K miles.

Also, confirm that at 60mph on straight and level ground you can get > 50mpg.

Steve

 

yes you're right. i will ask them how is the capacity of the battery.

on flat road, 60mph which is around 100km/h, it average more like 45-47mpg