ocmd

Greetings all: Hopefully, this site is as helpful as the one I use for my boat!

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. Received the car about a year ago from mom in law's estate. She willed it to my daughter who is learning to drive. Last week, wife and kid went out driving for some practice. Everything was fine, as it has been for about a year. Suddenly, my daughter said she couldn't steer. The power steering went out. I'm sure you know the feeling. They muscled the car back into the driveway. Wife said she noticed the interior dome light had been left on before they took off on their excursion. The car would not start - clearly, a weak battery. I response, I placed a charger on the battery, and charged it up over nite at 2 amps - nice, slow trickle charge. Next day? Car fired right up. No issues for about 40 miles. Just when I was close to home (thankfully not out on the highway) the power steering again lost power. I muscled the car into the driveway. Clearly there is something funny going on with the charging/battery system. Am I about to be screwed by a stealership? Any ideas would be appreciated.

The dash lights on are as follows:

Red battery light
Green light which say "cruise main"
bottom of these two lights is a orange looking item which looks kind of like a transmission.

I like the gas mileage of this car but now think it may be not worth the problems it looks like I am facing. Car has about 65000 miles on it.

On another note, are there any places (other than a Honda Stealership) where I can have an spare key cut?

Thanks, all!

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

easy one would be battery about to die. recharging battery too old and it will not hold charge, especially after once drained
if not, alternator about to die.
how long since battery change? (if at all) -it's 7 years old by now if not

concerning spare keys, they need to be programmed to the anti-theft system, so you can cut someplace else, but you still need to take it to dealer. not sure if they sell OE blanks aftermarket either

ezone

I'd say to go to a dealer. The battery light and charging of the 12v battery is controlled by the IMA system. CEL is likely to be on due to an IMA fault, and AFAIK regular code readers will never be able to read those codes. Plus there is the possibility of warranty extensions that might apply to your car and IMA battery.

Very few independent shops will be equipped to deal with IMA issues (or immobilizer programming), and there have been numerous software updates and a few recalls that would need to be completed by a dealer.

Same deal for the keys. It takes a special machine to cut the sidewinder keys (our local lock shops can't touch them), and since it needs programmed before it can work, you may as well just bite the bullet and do it all at once at the dealer.



It hasn't even cost you any money yet.

ocmd

Thanks, folks. I will take it to the stealership and see what is up.