My 2004 Honda Civic hybrid now has reached 150,000 miles, no problems at all, and 46-52 mpg in town and 48-54 and sometime on up to 60 mpg on the highway. Now the battery system indicator lights are on, the dealer made a few adjustments which helped for awhile, and now they are on again. Replacement costs, nearly $4,000. My question: What are my alternatives? 1) Bite the bullet and replace the battery at the dealer? 2) Recondition the battery if I could find someone (there are some on line)? 3) Sell the car (but if sold with a battery problem, price would be low, wouldn’t it?)? 4) Keep driving it (and the key question here is, what happens if I do? Would the vehicle keep running without the battery/hybrid feature, or would the car just quit entirely?)? Thanks for advice!
I’d try and find someone who could recondition the battery, find the bad cells and replace them.
There are a couple of battery reconditioners that I’m familiar with and I just had my Insight battery done.
Hybrid Battery Repair is on the East coast and Hybrid Battery Revolt is just outside of Phoenix, AZ.
Either place is going to cost way less than the $4,000 at the dealer, I paid $800 to have mine done.
Your car may be fine to drive with the bad battery, however if the normal battery light on the dash (not the IMA light or check engine light) comes on then your car is not charging and will likely strand you.
I found that driving with the battery needing attention made my mileage go down as the IMA system was always charging in the background and that puts a lot of load on the engine. Now that I’m back with a good battery I’m seeing 80mpg on a continual basis instead of the mid 60’s I was getting previously.
Thanks! My hand is forced now. The car won’t pass North Carolina inspection with the service engine light on…