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.
On 1., you want the throttle wide open for least restriction while cranking. I'd ground all the plug wires if it has coil packs, or disconnect their 12 volt supply. Never worked on a Honda, but seems like that should work. Later edit: Nevermind, looks like you found the instructions.
Sorry, my mechanical aptitude is not high enough to comment on any of your questions, but I have one question. Are your sure your 06 HCH has push button start? Our 08 HCH has key ignition not push button.
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.
Mendel, I have thought about that on the Prius, doing a compression test and dealing with the automated starting system. To avoid all the technical stuff about compression testing I would go with a Cylinder Leak Down Test. It will give you more answers about the actual problem and diagnosis of what is wrong and is easy to do.
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.
If I'd seen this thread 2 years ago I would have shared that the crank position sensor relearn can also be done without the hds and it's pretty easy just by driving up to 80 kmh twice, than up to 40 kmh twice or something like that. I've been grid charging 3 packs for my 06 civic hybrid since the first IMA code in 2013 and about 110 k miles. It's now at 186 k and still works nice when it's warm out but has nasty IMA behavior when it's below 0 degrees C. I had the 06 hybrid sitting, with pack and 12 volt removed, for almost a year while I worked on the neglected O2 civic ex. Now the 02 is sitting again and the 06 civic hybrid just got put back into service. They sure are a pain when the pack starts to recal. Grid charge / discharge helps but I'm still learning how to get the best results from a pack after charge/discharge cycling, for my driving style and the cars behavior.
