Parents just bought 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid... against my advice. Hmm.

[MetroMPG]

Well, replacement IMA battery pack #3 is on order.

[Daox]

Yikes, on a 6 year old car...

[vskid3]

Have you considered a grid charger for it?

[niky]

Welp... not totally unexpected.

Still sad.

[elhigh]

That warranty is saving you a bundle. Mine needs an IMA battery and I'm limping along without the replacement. Most days it's okay.

[S Keith]

09-10 civic hybrid battery failure rates extremely high

The title of the article is messed up.

In the states, Honda is warrantying ALL 09-11 for 10 years/150k miles. Sorry if I missed that earlier in the thread.

I have a conspiracy theory...

Primearth has always made all Prius and Civic modules. It was a 50/50 venture between Panasonic and... Toyota. I believe that when Panasonic divested itself to deal with monopoly concerns, making Toyota the 80% shareholder, "D" cell manufacturing went in the ****ter. Toyota didn't care.

Unfortunately, the IMA pack design is more vulnerable to ALL single cell failures. The principal killer being venting (even controlled venting). An increase in cell failure impacts module failure by 12X instead of 6X.

For my 2X '06, I have ~20 modules where 10-11 cells are "like new"; however, 1-2 cells either have reduced capacity due to venting or excessive self-discharge.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by S Keith

In the states, Honda is warrantying ALL 09-11 for 10 years/150k miles.

Yup, same here in Canada.

Originally Posted by vskid3

Have you considered a grid charger for it?

No - it's still under warranty. Plus my dad wouldn't go for having to fiddle around with a car like that.

[MetroMPG]

My dad had the battery replaced yesterday.

I asked him if he noticed any difference in the car and he said he definitely did: seemed more peppy, and the mileage numbers appeared to be better. I asked if he noticed anything about Autostop (engine stops when the car stops) and he said he thought it was doing it more.

All of which makes sense if the pack has more capacity and it's not constantly recalibrating itself.

---

So I asked to take the car for a spin to check it out. I'm happy to report it's working fine now.

It was the first and only time I've ever driven their car that it hasn't recalibrated the pack! (It has done it from day 1, the very first time I drove it in May of last year. Even on short trips.)

Computer reported 4.6 L/100 km / 51 mpg US over ~10 km / 6 mi. of sub/urban driving, which is much better than it did last week.

My dad asked me: is the battery warranty for 10 more years, or does it expire when the car is 10? I broke the bad news to him, and he immediately did the math on how long before they'll be thinking about getting rid of it.

[Xist]

Prii and Civics have the same batteries, but the Prii' last forever, and the Civics' last never?

[Daox]

Same battery chemistry (nimh), not the same cells and totally different battery management system which is likely the biggest factor IMO.