I have an 09 HCH and I will not allow the dealer to install the "re-calibration" It is very clear they have a real junky battery we should get together in a class action lawsuit and have honda put a real battery in the car. I only had 12,000 miles when my battery started failing. Now I get only 33 mpg before the battery failure I got 44 mpg. Should have bought a Prius or a Fusion.

 

hi Jeb,

did you ever find more info on the newer TSB? I still haven't been able to work around the problems that the 09-058 'upgrade' resulted in. The lack of power on uphill starts or freeway on ramps is nasty enough to be a safety issue.

thanks

Philip

 

I'd like to ask for advice. I have a 2006 HCH with 87,500 miles. I was getting poor (39 avg mpg) mileage for last year or so, with power dropouts (re-cals?) every few days. I then got the IMA light (Code PA07F - IMA Battery Deterioration) a few days ago and took it to the dealer. They did the service bulletin update (not sure exactly what was done) and recommended to replace the battery (out of warranty which ended at 80,000 miles) for $2500. I asked to dealer to appeal to Honda Motors since it was just slightly over the warranty mileage. Honda was willing to give relief to the tune of $1000, so now the choices are:

A) Pay $1500 and get a new battery pack.
B) Drive it like it is (I got 50 mpg on the one mostly highway trip of 30 miles so far on the updated controller software).
C) Make additional appeals to Honda to get more of the battery paid for.

Advice?

 

Try Hybrid Battery Repair or another independent hybrid repair facility.

 

Hybrid Battery Repair will cost around 1500 as well so I would say go for the Honda offer or ask Honda for a deeper discount

 

Astronut,

Things that might help:

- If you had California car, the battery warranty would be longer - since the dealer didn't tell you that, then I assume this doesn't apply to you.

- I measured my '06 HCH's odometer error at 2-3% in FAVOR of Honda - but even that only gets you ~2K miles or so closer to being in warranty - not good enough.

- Did you ever bring the car in prior to 80K to complain about frequent recals or decreasing FE? If so, this should be the basis of your argument with Honda. You need to insist the earlier complaints were symptoms of the battery beginning to fail.

- Failing that, you should search like crazy for HCH owners in similiar situations. Whenever I've looked, its always been easy to find a large number of unhappy HCH owners fighting it out with Honda corporate. Some were having success. I don't recall which sites were the best - you'll have to figure that out.

-dan

 

I went with options A and C. The replacement battery came in a few days and got replaced in a few hours, costing me $1400 out of pocket. Back to good mileage. I have still have a case open with Honda to try to get more off of the replacement and a longer warranty on the replacement IMA battery (which is only 3 yr/36k miles). I'm sure there are many cases like mine that might surface if the early IMA battery problems get more attention from NHTSA or legal action.

 

Good job on the replacement battery. All HCH owners will eventually face this situation, some sooner than others. The HCH is a great car with unquestionable reliability on the rest of the car. The only weak link IMHO is this IMA battery and it cost so much to replace. Honda should consider this in HCH ownership. The savings in gas relative to a regular Civic does not add up as a savings when you have to spend $1400.00 for a new IMA battery. There is no incentive here to own an HCH and $1400 can buy a lot of gas even at today's rate. There is no justification to pay extra to own a HCH., only the good feeling that you are doing something positive for the planet but then again you are paying mega bucks for this feeling. After owning my HCH11, I am happy with the mileage and saving the money on each tankful but one IMA battery wipes all that out. Just my two cents.

 

so did we come up with a fix for the issues post software update for this tsb? I recently regrettably had this update applied and am experiencing:
excessive assist all the way down to three bars without the necessary regen that I used to get.
daily soft recals, where the battery doesn't go to zero, but always hits three bars in my commute and cuts out all assist and recharges aggressively
weird assists cut outs where the battery is fine (5-7 bars) but when merging on the freeway, assist goes from full to 1/3, then randomly back to full

i saw something in here about taking it back and making the dealer do the learn cycle again, is that helping you guys?

 

Ditto behavior ever since I got this TSB (well, I got it as part of a new PCM module that was put in). My spouse and I also do quite a bit of short city drives, in which this behavior is even more frustratingly evident. I end up having regen (not recals - I've not had one for several months, knock on wood) every time I drive out on a short drive. My city mpg has taken a bit of a hit for the almost not-very-perceivable boost in acceleration.

Can't wait for spring/summer in which I usually get excellent efficiency from my HCHII! -ag