Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | |||
| 08/09/2010 | 41232 | ||
| Upon receiving the 'mandatory' ima recall issued by honda, i noticed my honda civic hybrid (2008) acted very differently when it came to accelerating from a stop, particularly on a hill. from a stop it takes several seconds before the car will move forward at a reasonable speed (which it did not do prior to the update). prior to the update, the car would accelerate like a normal car with the ima kicking in to assist the car forward. post update it's like the gas engine wants the ima to engage but the new firmware won't allow it to. the first time i experienced this, i was nearly hit coming out into traffic as my car hesitated. honda has stated there is no way to reverse the update. this decrease in power continues to affect me today (at 60,000 miles and climbing). this update has affected my fuel economy as well (having dropped between 30-33 mpg on a good day). while the fuel economy may not be a personal safety issue, it is an environmental safety issue. | |||
| 10/15/2010 | |||
| Purchased vehicle new in march of 2008. in october of 2010 an ima battery update was required by manufacturer. since the update i have taken the vehicle back to the dealer on a monthly basis for almost a year with the following problems, they of course can not get the vehicle to do everything that it does to me and the dealer always tells me it is operating within manufacturers standards. i have given up taking it in every month and now just take it in for its routine maintenance, i give them a printout of my concerns and the tech attaches it to the workorder. a) low fuel mileage, averages 25 to 28 mpg. before ima update, was averaging 35 to 45 mpg. b) slow acceleration from stops, this is very dangerous because we never know if the vehicle is going to move or not. we must leave ourselves alot of space when trying to merge with traffic because of this. c) idles rough, off & on, while stopped or parked, this is using up gas because the ima battery does not come on as much as it used to. d) assist is not coming on as much as it used to, if at all. e) ima battery reading goes from 1-2 bars upto 8 or so in minutes and then back down to 1-2 bars within a minute or less. usually reads about 1-2 bars most of time. ima is charging itself on flat ground, up hills, down hills and when braking. i would trade the vehicle in for another, but am afraid that some other sucker would end up with something that is not operating correctly. i did purchase the extended warranty on this vehicle. | |||
| 10/14/2011 | 25684 | ||
| Gasoline leak where filler tube attaches to fuel tank. noticed strong gasoline smell in garage, put car on ramps and could see fuel dripping from spot where the filler tube connects to the fuel tank. dealer says that the entire tank must be replaced and they are back ordered nationwide. so this is happening to others and no recall???? | |||
| 11/09/2010 | 35200 | ||
| Tl-the contact owns a 2008 honda civic hybrid. the contact stated that he recieved a recall notice on his vehicle. the vehicle was inspected by a dealer for the recall and after the component was repaired the vehicle was getting less mpg than what it was prior to being repaired due to the recall. the failure mileage was approximately 35,200. tb | |||
| 09/09/2010 | 28000 | ||
| This is now the 2nd occasion in which i own a honda that has a leaky gas tank. the first time was in 2007 with my 2004 honda odyssey that began spontaneously leaking gas from a valve in the gas tank. it was repaired. last week on 09/09/10 i filled my 2008 honda civic hybrid up with gas as normal and by sunday afternoon it was leaking enough gas to make the smell in the garage unbearable. i took it to the dealership and was informed that the line from where the gas is put in by the user and where it meets the gas tank is defective and has begun leaking. because this hose is integrated in to the gas tank - honda is replacing the entire gas tank. i am currently waiting for this repair to be completed - but because it has now happened to me in two separate honda vehicles i have some concerns about the safety of the gas tanks in the honda vehicles. | |||
| 08/10/2010 | 13500 | ||
| In august 2010 i took my 2008 honda civic hybrid to the dealer for routine maintenance. the dealer performed a purported software update on the battery system without notifying me until afterwards. immmediately upon leaving the dealer, i noticed a profond reduction in power and acceleration. on the freeway portion of the drive home, i was almost rear-ended twice as i drove in the slow lane up a minor grade where the vehicle could not accelerate over 40 miles per hour (with the pedal fully depressed in the passing gear)-- prior to this date i had driven my vehicle for its prior 20 months of ownership up that same grade at 70mph. additonally, prior to this date i had never even utilized the s gear on my transmission. ever since honda's software update my car has become a severely underpowered accident waiting to happen. i am reduced to driving in the slow lane on the freeway with vehicles flashing me as they approach a 40-45 mph vehicle at 60-70 mph from behind. i have called the honda service departments at several local dealers regarding this problem, and get a universal response- wait for your system to adjust to the software update or you need to adjust your driving. what the heck does this mean? i drove the vehicle fine for 20 months prior to the software update and now it drives like a 20 year old 4 cylinder engine with 2 bad pistons. the decreased power and acceleration are a dangerous accident in the making. i am fearful of being rear ended. this is an every day problem that was caused by this software update and i suspect that it is happening to every 2006-2008 honda civic hybrid that goes to the dealer for this software update. an additional consequence of this alleged software update is a profound drop in gas mileage from approximately 37 combined mpg prior to update to 29-30 post update. i have never lodged a complaint with any organization before, but like i've previously stated, this update is a danger to the public. | |||
| FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER | |||
| 03/03/2011 | 56927 | ||
| '08 honda civic hybrid experiencing a dramatic decrease in fuel economy. ima battery suspected. dealership upgraded software (as per honda recall) and told me that to get better mpg's i should shut off my heater (we live in wisconsin!) and recommended an air filter change. i stated that an air filter and shutting off the heat would not increase my mpg's from 28-31 back up to it's prior performance range of 40-50. vehicle is still dramatically underperforming. note: service advisor @ bergstrom honda admitted that in his 4 years there that he has seen many civic hybrids with severe tire cupping (i previously filed complaints on this issue also, vehicle is going on it's 3rd set of tires within 57,927 miles!) and also mentioned the poor performance after the honda software upgrades to fix the ima issues. it is my belief that honda is well aware of the ima issues and is trying to hide them under the software update (to save replacing x number of expensive hybrid batterys). i believe that as owners we have lost valuable lifespan on these batterys and that we have lost out on a good portion of our hybrid battery warranty coverage due to honda's design. | |||