wutsausername

Hello all, I have a 2006 Honda Civic I just picked up for a steal but there was a caveat to the price. It had some minor damage and had been sitting for almost a year without being touched, not even started. Tires were flat, it was in rough shape. Cosmetically I have cleaned it up, new gas and fluids are in the car, but it still has a little ways to go before its good daily driver.

The first issue is that it dies instantly after you turn off the car. When jump started it runs fine, sounds smooth, drives great and acts relatively normal (minus the second issue). No matter how long I leave it on to charge the battery, as soon as I turn it off, it is completely dead with no sense of life not even a dim lit cabin light. I will be replacing the battery and I will update this as soon as I do so to see if it holds a charge or eventually dies and acts like this one does. The second issue is a little more confusing and I dont think they are related but this being my first hybrid I have no idea. When in drive and sitting stationary, similiar to sitting at a red light, the car acts like its going to die by dropping down to 500 rpm then suddenly jumps back to 1100 rpm. It goes up and down constantly until you release the brake pedal to go again. Onceyou try to go it studders slightly but then drives totally fine.

Here is what I know so far. In regards to the dead battery, I am aware the IMA hybrid system actually starts the car but the 12v battery controls the ECU and systems telling it when to activate so a dead 12v still means the car will not start but it does not explain why after 30 min of being on it still wont even give me a dim light when I turn the car off and instead goes completely dead. With the issue of the car in drive and stationary I am aware the car could have an "Auto Stop" feature where the car turns off at stop lights then turns back on when you try to go and this could be that system malfunctioning. I have read to check things like the Air temps sensor/ Collant temp sensor, brake switch, brake booster, and the IMA battery charge and functionability since these all are things that would tell the auto stop to not work so maybe they are partially bad and causing it to partially fail. Other than that I am totally lost because I am new to the hybrid game.

Has anyone experienced similiar problems or know of threads that may outline something like this?

wutsausername

Hello all, I have a 2006 Honda Civic I just picked up for a steal but there was a caveat to the price. It had some minor damage and had been sitting for almost a year without being touched, not even started. Tires were flat, it was in rough shape. Cosmetically I have cleaned it up, new gas and fluids are in the car, but it still has a little ways to go before its good daily driver.

The first issue is that it dies instantly (and is unable to be turned back on) after you turn off the car. When jump started it runs fine, sounds smooth, drives great and acts relatively normal (minus the second issue). No matter how long I leave it on to charge the battery, as soon as I turn it off, it is completely dead with no sense of life not even a dim lit cabin light. I will be replacing the battery and I will update this as soon as I do so to see if it holds a charge or eventually dies and acts like this one does.

The second issue is a little more confusing and I dont think they are related but this being my first hybrid I have no idea. When in drive and sitting stationary, similiar to sitting at a red light, the car acts like its going to die by dropping down to 500 rpm then suddenly jumps back to 1100 rpm. It goes up and down constantly until you release the brake pedal to go again. Onceyou try to go it studders slightly but then drives totally fine. The only reason I included the fact that it may need a new battery is because if the two issues may be related it will help with troublshooting.

Here is what I know so far. In regards to the dead battery, I am aware the IMA hybrid system actually starts the car but the 12v battery controls the ECU and systems telling it when to activate so a dead 12v still means the car will not start but it does not explain why after 30 min of being on it still wont even give me a dim light when I turn the car off and instead goes completely dead. With the issue of the car in drive and stationary I am aware the car could have an "Auto Stop" feature where the car turns off at stop lights then turns back on when you try to go and this could be that system malfunctioning. I have read to check things like the Air temps sensor/ Collant temp sensor, brake switch, brake booster, and the IMA battery charge and functionability since these all are things that would tell the auto stop to not work so maybe they are partially bad and causing it to partially fail. Other than that I am totally lost because I am new to the hybrid game.

Has anyone experienced similiar problems or know of threads that may outline something like this?

ezone

1) Buy a new 12volt battery and install it. See how it acts after that.

If that battery is bad, you do NOT want the car to decide to auto stop at a red light LOL


2) You didn't mention mileage on the car.......CVT trans can act weird when they age, or have wrong fluid or even just old fluid. If you aren't used to this style of trans it will feel unusual no matter what LOL

I would want to service the CVT trans with fresh fluid CVTF from any Honda dealership. Drain/fill/drive, repeat at least a couple times and see if it improves

Shudder during takeoff is typical of that CVT (start clutch shudder) Not really desirable, but most end up doing it.
A few have needed mounts, but most that shudder are caused by the start clutch pack.

3) The IMA battery pack could easily have been damaged from sitting discharged too long as well. The IMA pack is comprised of a bunch of simple NiMH batteries, they need love and care to live their life too.
There's a bunch of reasons the auto-stop may be disabled, that's but one






Check for airbag and other needed recalls in the links below (IMPORTANT!)
Maybe your friendly local Honda dealership can give you more tips while you are there for the recalls

wutsausername

Thank you for your reply!

BOTH issues were seamingly fixed with a new 12V battery, I expected it to fix the not starting issue but I was very surprised to find out it fixed the driving issue as well! No more studder in the transmission as well.

I will kep this thread updated if the issue comes back but for now it is acting how it should!

Thank you for the information on the recalls, I will look into it today!

Oh and my car has 110,XXX miles on it at the moment so I am hoping the hybrid batteries have been replaced and that the CVT has also had some work done somewhere along the line....

ezone

Open drivers door, look on the jamb for a triangle shaped sticker that states something about battery type. If no sticker then it could still be original.

Trans fluid service is cheap. Trans is not!
If you don't know the history, it's a good idea to do it.

wutsausername

I didnt know that about the door jamb, I will check it when I get home. The frustrating part is I just paid for a history report to see if I could look up some service history and it only has ownership and accident records, no maintenance records....

I plan on doing trans fluid this weekend as well as a coolant flush just for good measure. My new airbag just came in so I have a nice project for this week. This is my first time doing an airbag and I know you normally have to reset the system as well as replace a few sensors but im going to replace what I have and see if that light goes away. Any input there? It was a very minor wreck where the airbag should not have deployed so I a hoping I can get away with just popping in a new airbag....I have done a bit of research and I most likely will take it to the dealership for a reset and test of the system when I am done anyways. But like I said, I have done just about everything on a car, but never an airbag system...

ezone

Well...that's a whole 'nother can of worms. Yes there is a shopping list of parts to be replaced after any deployment, and the list varies depending on what all was deployed.
The list always includes a NEW SRS control unit.

Read fault codes.
If a deployment code is stored, you need to purchase a brand new SRS control unit from Honda in addition to whatever items deployed, and specified impact sensors.
Expect to need more parts once that NEW control unit is installed, because the old unit had deployed a charge and cannot always be trusted to reveal all or correct codes. (belt/buckle pretensioner codes might be expected, sometimes you can't tell when a buckle pretensioner has deployed until you see it next to a new one). Yes this is a real issue with the old control units.


Please don't waste time and money on rebuilt or reset control units, they are not reliable. Peoples lives are at stake.

wutsausername

Well, since this was a matter of safety I figured I needed to take it to the dealer......They ran a check and it looks like they need to replace the seatbelt, seatbelt pretensioner, and srs unit and he has me at 2,000 after tax and labor...He said the seatbelt does not need to be replaced but since the pretensioner does then they have to do the seatbelt because they are a complete unit? That didnt make sense to me, both individually cost 600 so that is 1200 of it right there. But my wife will be drving the car so I dont mind spending the money to make sure it is safe for her, but I do feel they may be overcharging me or not being completely honest to me about the whole seatbelt situation. Does that sound about right as far as you know?

ezone

Get a detailed itemized written estimate so we can see what's on it

Including the fault code numbers and any other notes about it


Also, the list seems to be missing the impact sensors that are listed in the official replacement parts list published by the manufacturer