It's more likely the dealer used the wrong oil for the change- it needs to be 0W-20. If they used anything thicker than that it will cause a sharp drop like what you're seeing.

I doubt they would spend the time/labor to update the software without telling you, especially if your IMA light wasn't on.

Thanks for TSB, raptox. My dealer seemed to be misinformed about an update being available...I think they were looking for specific recall notices and not TSB-related updates. Not sure if this update is worth it though, since my IMA light isn't on and all I have are frequent battery recals that aren't even that frequent/long this time of year. When the IMA system isn't recalibrating, it acts normally and returns about 45-47 MPG city right now (high temps 60's-70's, lows 30's-40's F).

 

Update....I went to my parts store and bought the mobil 0-20 w oil . Went to jiffy lube and changed the oil again. i got 46 mpg on the way home. so honda must have used the wrong oil when they changed it. so went to my dealer and they still insist that they did nothing wrong. I have had it with honda. this is our third honda and will be our last.

 

It sure sounds that way! I would have a talk with service manager and maybe even go over their head. If that happened they could use a shake-up?Hal

 

so honda must have used the wrong oil when they changed it. so went to my dealer and they still insist that they did nothing wrong. I have had it with honda. this is our third honda and will be our last.

Good to hear you solved the problem that easily. Now you know to say away from that dealer.

 

I did. I went to the general manager of the dealership. He stood behind his service dept. Although he did offer a free oil change. lol, like i would take it there again

 

Hello,
I lease a 2009 civic hybrid mostly so I can rely on a car to be there when I need it. Imagine my surprise when my IMA light came on at 6000 miles, three months old!!
Took it to dealer, he replaces whole battery package and it took 4 hours to do this.(part had to come in , etc.) Mechanic said this was unusual. It seems to me that the battery charge does not light up as it used ...still hows action.
i hope this is the end of my problem. No cost to me, except begging for rides.

 

Hi all,

I have a HCH 2009 facelift model, with just over 5000 km mileage on it. I'm in Singapore so the weather's pretty humid and hot (34-36C on the roads). Lately, I've been getting the IMA light coming on. Brought it into our authorised Honda dealer twice. First time, they just reset it. Second time, they updated the software, although they didn't state what software was updated etc.

Now it's been 3 days since the update, and I've been noticing these:

1. In the morning, with a fully charged battery (8 bars on the State of Charge indicator), after about 5 minutes of driving, the SoC would drop from 8 to 1, and while the IMA light remained off, the acceleration was not assisted by the battery at all. Which is a bummer in the morning.
2. Over the course of the day, with 4 trips at separate times, the SoC would fluctuate drastically, from full 8 bar charge down to 1 or 2 bar, before recalibrating itself. This happened 3 times today, for example.

I've been driving using advice from another forum on hypermiling, ie ensuring that the battery's as fully charged as possible, and not driving beyond 1200 rpm after any normal acceleration. Yet, the regens would not make much difference when the battery charge drops like a rock all of a sudden.

Have you guys encountered this? Seems like it might be a good idea for me to go back to the dealer and insist on a battery replacement? 3 recalibrations in a day is quite a lot I'd have thought, especially when i'm not stressing out the battery by rapid accelerations etc.

 

This is an amazing thread so far. I am going to keep reading before saying too much. The software updates often center around protecting the hybrid battery pack. My 2006 car ( put into service in April 2006) got a free replacement battery pack at about 55,000 miles and I am getting 52 miles to the gallon as of the last tank. But lets face it, it cuts Honda's margins considerably to have to do that so it looks like the 2009 owners get to take it on the chin.

 

I have a 09 HCH and I'm on replacment battery #4 under warranty. I hope something is done about the HCH's problems be for my warranty ends.

 

Ok a little advice about the NIMH cells that Honda chose to use, they are all small cells and they are tightly wrapped together, not the best engineering move, but understandably done for cost reasons(who wants a 200000$ car with experimental batteries?)

However, there are a few things you can do to extend the viable life of a battery pack such as this one. Like most D-cell NIMH batteries they each have a expected life of ~400-600 complete charge and recharge cycles. Now here is where the problem lies for many people who don't understand batteries all that well. Toyota's Prius smartly included a feature to keep their NIMH battery pack between 30-70% most of the time, no matter what the driver does. If the battery is never fully cycled then it has an almost magical property of repairing itself over time and lasting 5-10 times longer than if it were fully cycled. There is a trade-off though eventually the batteries start losing Amp Hour capacity and still need to be replaced… but at much longer intervals.

Another problem with using hundreds of small batteries is they usually don't all fail at once, one or 2 of them will go bad at first, then they start dragging down the voltage of the good ones, actually causing intense heat which damages the adjacent cells further, you see the pattern.

The Honda user is responsible for never letting those SoC bars fall below 2(also don't let your car sit for 2-3 months, it will never be the same) or sit at full for any period if possible. This makes the HCH-1-2 both much more difficult systems for the user to manage. Most people like to get in the car and drive, this car requires more. That is all.