I'm hoping to get some feedback from anyone besides the Honda Service department on this concern. They said nothing was wrong with my battery so here it is.

Over the last 6 months ive decided to monitor my battery more than ever. It probably started when I noticed how quickly it began losing juice to 1 bar anytime I would turn the car off. My question is should the battery lose its charge that quick after being turned off for 10-15min? Recharging is never a problem but obviously in those 5 minutes I have to step on the gas a bit my MPG suffers and the car runs extremely sluggish since it's on 1-2 Bars. Once the battery bars fills up the car runs exceptional. It's just confusing how I have my battery maxed out yet when I step back into my car and drive for about 1-2minutes the battery just drains to 1 bar and I have to see it recharge.

My 2nd question is to anyone that lives in Los Angeles with a hybrid. I'm well aware with stop and go traffic I shouldn't expect to be hitting anywhere near 40mpg. So is 32MPG something I should just accept in LA ? On the highway I get about 37mpg max.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I came to the forum with similar battery behavior.

What I have learned going through other posts is that this process of rapid discharge and recharge (on the IMA scale) is called recalibration. Frequent recals indicate a bad/dying battery. No consensus on how long it would take for your IMA light to come on and Honda probably would not help you with battery replacement until the light does come on.

The rapid discharge and low battery level does not mean that the battery is totally drained... It is just that the battery does not hold as much charge as the car thought it did, so it calibrates the remaining charge (during which the level shows up as low). Once the calibration is done, the car shows the battery as full even if the battery capacity is now way below its original capacity. In other words, a full level on the indicator does not mean a battery holding 100% charge and a low level doesn't mean a completely drained battery. I assume that the more frequent the recals, the worse state the battery is in.

I am getting about 6 to 10 recals a day, in a driving distance of about 20-30 miles with 3 stops in between. Hoping that the IMA light would come on and I can get the battery changed before warranty expires...

Good luck.

 

I sold my 07 after being very disappointed with it's performance. I bought a Camry hybrid and now use less fuel dispite the larger engine/car and find it is nowhere as sluggish as the Honda. Infact I think the sluggish behaviour of my Honda got worse and worse over the years I owned it to the point of it being a danger to pull into traffic. Good luck with yours.

 

Thank's alot for that explanation. It kinda sucks that I have to wait for that IMA light to come on if that's the case. The performance if the car suffers immensely everytime it has to recalibrate Ive read that the 2009 models have the worst battery problems than any year . Is their anyone in the higher up Honda Department I can email or call about this problem?

 

I live in L.A. and I have an '08 Civic Hybrid. I get about the same mpg. It's sad that I'm happy with anything less than 40. My wife just got a Fiat and it gets about the same mpg as mine plus it has pep!

 

I just got my battery replaced without the IMA light coming on! My path to a successful replacement was, well, not easy.
1. The first dealer I went to with a log of recals from 2 months said they could not reproduce my problem (I doubt if they test drove) and said the diagnostics did not reveal any trouble so they cant help.
2. I wrote to American Honda with a log of recals (4 months), who opened a case, called the original dealer, called me back saying my battery behaviour is normal and there is nothing wrong with my car.
3. I took pictures of IMA scale for three continuous days, showing the rapid fluctuation of charge and frequent recals (at least 4 per day in 15 miles of driving) and posted them on Honda Facebook page. No response from Honda, not even an acknowledgement that a problem might exist.
4. Took the car and pictures to a different dealer, who test drove the car, updated the software (a new update, because I already had an update from 2010), still saw no improvement. Concluded that the battery was failing, ordered a new battery and replaced it 2 days ago, all without the IMA light ever turning on.

I have driven the car 25 miles since the battery was changed, without getting a single recal. The FE is still only 35 mpg, but all my driving has so far been in the city under heavy traffic and with A/C on. I hope to see better FE when I start driving on the hwy.

The lesson in short is, take pictures/videos of every recal for a few days and try different dealers to see whether any one of them would replace your battery. My battery was so bad that 30-50% of driving time was spent on recalibrating the battery, resulting in low FE.

How frequent are your recals?