coop

I'm curious if anyone has done any I.C.E upgrades to their hybrid and if there were any additional concerns/issues that arose because the vehicle is mostly battery powered. A friend of mine drives a Toyota Prius and there are two batteries with the second one specifically for powering the engine, but he hasn't touched it for any upgrades.

Sometime in the future I'd consider purchasing a hybrid but don't want to incur complication from upgrading components and adversely affecting the vehicle's electrical/charging system.

LudlamTheory

thats why id never get a hybrid. electrical system is WAY too sensitive.

sadboy916

i would not run anything to the stock batteries just get a seperate yellow top and run everything to that.

WhiteRabbit

hybrids are really really neat cars actually. I really witsh we could fold the seats down in the civic hybrid. maybe future generations. that is hte first concern. theres alot of material to get bass through to the cabin! maybe removal of the rear speakers will help that.

I wouldnt put anything big and gnarly in the hybrid, its weight, and its power, two things the hybrid needs to maintain slightly better gas mileage than my HX!

the other concern is that it is able to gain on gas mileage by shutting hte car off at complete stops. this could be a potential concern while playing at loud volumes, the car has to restart at every signal!

Im not sure what the answer is, but im sure that the hybrid would be able to handle smaller stereo's just fine, on the order of 400 rms class a/b with 50 rms per side and a 300 rms subwoofer, poweroutputs in that range.

I would probably forget that pair of XXX and pair of earthquake D3's though.

tbaleno

Yes, I have a civic hybrid. I have done I.C.E stuff on it. Check out my page at www.sounddomain.com/id/tdb30.

I currently am running an alpine MRV-F450 amp and a Rocford Fosgate 1050S amp and I'm not having any problems. Thats about 1400W RMS. The battery is dinky so I don't know if I'm doing any harm to it. I was thinking of getting a replacement shroud around the instrument cluster that will hold 2 addition 2" guages I would be putting in an battery gauge and an amp gauge.

As far as hitting hard with base. I have my both original rear speakers in (but disconnected) and am running 2 IDQ V2 10s in the trunk and I can feal the hair on my head stick up when I play it real loud. Its not as loud as some cars I have been in but its louder than most you will see.

Again. I don't know if I'm hurting the battery but so far I'm not having much light dimming in fact so little that I'm not sure if its my car bouncing from the bass or the lights dimming. The gauges don't dim. I may go with a larger non sealed batter if I need to in the future but so far I haven't needed to and the only thing I may do at this point is add another 1000W RF amp for my front stage. Fitting the amps and the subs in the trunk are kind of tricky since you can't bolt onto the battery pack but I'm going to see if I can do something with fiberglass and make a decent enclosure. Its particulary hard for me because I want to keep the spare in the trunk and keep the car as close to stock as I can.

I had to pay an arm and a leg for my front components because there is only about 2 1/2" mounting depth so you will need to find some think speakers for the front. The trunk has a mounting depth problem too because of the springs that from one side of the trunk to the other. I hear that there is a modification that lets you remove those springs and put in different springs in another location.

I hope I didn't rattle on too long and that what I wrote is fairly cohearant.

Tom Baleno

P.S.
Oh and when people compare milage ratings are they comparing real world with real world or factory with real world? I get between 36 and 45MPG real world (36 is in winter when I start the car twice a day with my remote starter and the car doesn't turn off at stops because its too cold outside)

VTEC01EX

iTrader: (6)

The mounting depth should be the same across all Civics, and I agree, it is a pain.

That hidden face on your deck looks AWESOME. Especially with your car being a Hybrid, if I didn't know any better I'd really think there was a radio delete option. Nice!

vBoogieMan

I just bought an 08 civic hybrid last night with nav and I want to know if anyone has hooked up an aftermarket subwoofer that can still be controlled with the subwoofer volume setting on the nav/head.

actually I don't have the nav installed yet cause the dealer has it on order for me...

I don't want to get too crazy but would like some decent sub...

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

what about the stock EX sub?

ONE7thREBUILT

Hybrid cars are BY FAR not the future of the automotive industry. HYBRIDS are the main excuse (generated entirely by oil companies) to keep burning non-renewable fuels. I don't know how many people know, or realize, that 100+ mpg vehicles have been around since the early 80's. Hydraulics, hydrogen, or whatever else you can imagine are much better than our current 30% efficent (at best) combustion engines are capable of.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

didnt some of the first civics get around 60mpg? seems like everything moves backwards.

civicsrcool

tread is 4 years old =/ lol

Envy

iTrader: (1)

ha and the first civics also had like 40hp.

WhiteRabbit

Can anyone answer concerning tbaleno's car:

Is that dash gauge pod available locally, such as from an autoparts store? what is the cost?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i believe that is a dakota digital gauge. ive seen it in person. and the pod is from ebay only place ive seen them is online.

WhiteRabbit

I thought there was no way it would come up by searching for dakota digital gauge, but Ill be darned.

$25 bucks is right in the budget too. I wonder if local suppliers can order it.