Compression test on an 06 Civic Hybrid?

Our in-the-family, venerable 06 Civic Hybrid is not sounding too good. Has about 235,000 kilometers on the odometer, and in the last few months the coolant level in the reservoir keeps disappearing; I've refilled it 3 times now, if not mistaken.

Yesterday my son was over, and mentioned it was sounding off. I took it for a short drive, and could hear a distinct wub-wub-wub during any amount of throttle on, and maybe a bit while coasting, not sure. I was thinking Constant Velocity joints.

Got back, rolled it into our garage, and with the hood popped, it would sound ok in Park or Neutral, but everytime I pushed it from Neutral to Drive it started making a fairly loud/pulsing sound.

We traded cars, I've got the Civic now, and have a service appointment booked for tomorrow.

In the interim, I've pulled the front bank of spark plugs (there are 2 plugs per cylinder), disconnected the wiring to the rear bank coils, pulled the fuse labeled "FI" (assumed to be Fuel Injectors).

I've dusted off my compression tester, put a little silicon on all the O-rings, and got it screwed into spark plug well number one.

One concern: this is a car with push button start, and it's the hybrid motor that turns it over when starting. I'm thinking to:

1. Floor the gas (not exactly sure why, but that what everyone says)
2. Depress the brake pedal (required to start the car)
3. Press start button, count 5 engine revs, then push it again to stop.

Does this sound good?

 

Hmm, see this:

For Toyotas, saying you need to intervene with software, do a special cranking test.

And this from PriusChat, again, Toyota specific:

Compression Test | PriusChat

 

Ok found the gospel, in the cylinder head section of my (paper) Shop Manual. Not sure if I'm able to circumvent the sentence.

 

I think I'll button up, leave it to the pros. There's several procedures involved, and I'm not sure I'm even on the right track. Will post what they come up with.

Good point; complete senior moment on my part.

FWIW, here's the paper trail from the reference in the first sentence of the image posted above.

 

yeah I've watched Eric the Car Guy video on leak-down. I have a compression tester, which I could take the valve out of, and I have a mighty vac. Do not have a leak-down gauge set though, nor compressed air. So a little sytmied. I think I need to restrain myself, see what the pros say tomorrow.

FWIW, there is no white froth on underside of oil filler cap, but not sure what that proves. Coolant is disappearing somewhere.

Addendum: for quick-and-dirty leak-down: take the Schraeder valve out of your compression tester hose, hook up shop air to the other end of the hose, and then listen/look at various points. Trouble is, no shop air.

 

The results from taking the car into dealership for assessment:

1. Water pump is leaking, needs replacement ($514)
2. Engine mount is split, allowing excess movement ($514)
3. (CVT) Transmission is the source of the noise, requires rebuild. Price not nailed down, but roughly $1500 labour and $1500 for rebuild kit.

The mechanic took me down, showed me everything regarding items one and two. Very thorough/careful guy. They test drove after and said you could "live with" the transmission as-is for a while, just do the others.

Lurking behind all of this: the car is on it's second hybrid battery, and incessantly recalibrating, less than two years in.

We're probably not going through with it, just sell as-is. Just for giggles I changed the transmission fluid (it was only a year old), and it smoothed out slightly. The fluid drain and fill replaces about 60% of overall.

Too bad, it had a good run. My wife has a soft-spot for the car; it was her daily driver mostly.