2005 Civic Hybrid ??? (what to look for)
 

hey all,

my commuter died a while back, and it's getting expensive commuting in my 600HP GTO (110 miles/day)

I've found a 2005 Civic Hybrid in my area
it's got 150,000 miles and a Manual Transmission

owner says it's got the recall done on the airbags
as well as had the IMA battery replaced


I've owned a beat up 2001 Prius (the MG2 stator died on me)
and my wife drives a 2010 Prius
I'm generally not scared of the Hybrids


what would you guys say to look for on it?
any testing I could/should do?


Thanks in advance

Russ

I don't claim to be an expert, but the only major problems I'm aware of in these cars is the battery condition. If the IMA light and CEL are not on, I wouldn't be afraid to buy it. Other than that, typical things like check the oil, kick the tires.

EDIT: FWIW, I hate the electric power steering in my HCH1. Above maybe 30mph, it's really stiff, to the point that I would consider a PS delete.

Is there a way to check the battery condition other than waiting for a check engine light or a battery failure light?

If you have an OBD II C&C (?) I believe you can check the state of charge directly, but that's not directly useful.

I'd take it for a drive and see how much assist you can get. I can drain my HCH1's battery pretty quickly, maybe 2-3 minutes of heavy assist tops, whereas my Insight lasts much longer. However, the Insight has a smaller electric motor and a bigger battery. Without experience, it's hard to have a basis for comparison.

Just lean on the battery really hard, do 2nd gear takeoffs and just WOT to draw as much from the IMA system as possible. Drain it completely, then drive conservatively to recharge. Repeat that one more time, if it doesn't code or do a negative recall, it's probably in at least OK shape.

interesting,
that's prettymuch what I did on the test drive today.
drew it almost all the way down twice and let it charge back up

on the return trip, I was averaging about 56mpg over 9 miles (reset it after running it kinda hard)