I have a 2008 Civic Hybrid with about 162,000 miles on it. In October I replaced the battery with a new Bumblebee "Beemax" battery. The old battery finally completely died after about 6 months of declining performance. Within the last 4-5 weeks I have started experiencing some of the same issues I had before changing the battery. Sluggish & vibrating when pulling away from stop as well as what I can best describe as rapid jolting and loss of engine power when either trying to accelerate quickly or maintain a higher rate of speed going up a hill. Once I let off the gas it stops and seems to most commonly happen when going around 50-55 mph but is not a regular occurrence. I have noticed that when this happens the assist meter is showing no bars and sometimes even indicates that it is charging. The battery has not shown less that 4 bars worth of charge since replacing it and generally hovers between the 4-6 and occasionally all the way up to full charge. I realize that running the car until the old battery completely died was far from the best thing I could have done but it took me longer than expected to save the money for the new battery. Any help with these issues would be greatly appreciated before I take it to the dealership and have them tell me I need to spend $4,000 on a new flux capacitor or something that I don't actually need. Thanks.

 

Is your check engine light on?

Have you replaced your engine mounts?

Have you replaced CVT fluid every 30K miles, preferably every 15K miles?

Have you ever done a CVT flush?

Have you maintained your vehicle in accordance with the maintenance minder, performing ALL items required?

Spark plugs ever replaced?

EGR Plate ever cleaned?

 

Sounds like it is probably a CVT problem. If not, then a motor regulation problem. (As in, incorrect regulation of air flow, bad spark plugs, bad oxygen sensors, etc.)

When you see "loss of engine power" does the tachometer spike upwards? That would be a clear sign that you are dealing with a transmission issue.