My car is a 2007 Honda civic hybrid. Basically, the car died on me on Xmas day. Totally dead, everything stopped working even the horn. No sign trouble was brewing. I took it back to Honda as last year the hybrid battery stopped working and was replaced and I thought the same thing had happened again.

It's been in the garage a week. On new years eve they called to say the small battery wasn't holding a charge. I challenged this as they said they couldnt look at the electrics without this being changed. The rac changed the battery a year ago and it's still under a 3 yr warranty. So they could get on with it without faffing around I told them to change the battery.

Today they tell me there's a short circuit and the DC convertor needs replacing. They can't get this for 3 months, 1) and 2) it's gonna cost around £1500 as a guesstimate.

The man I've been dealing with is a total idiot. To be fair he works in customer services. Is it true you need a working battery to run tests on the electrics I.e the fuse box? I ask if they can take the battery back as I don't want to throw good money after bad, apparently the answer is no. The battery is used.

I hope I'm making sense. I have no idea what I'm dealing with, I just think I'm being ripped off.

Have any of you had problems with short circuiting? I was looking online and apparently there was a recall of about 36,000 cars in 2011 for the same problem. But these were slightly earlier models. I've tweeted Honda (no idea if I've done it right as I don't use twitter, ever!) and plan to call another garage today for a second opinion. I guess I just need to work out what to do in the meantime.

Any help would be greatly received. Thank you 😃

 

Why is it taking you so long to realize you need to get the hell out of there and go to another mechanic ?

 

Thank you for your reply. Although a more helpful response would have been even more appreciated!

 

to test electrical components you need some power to it or else you won't get any results back.

I'm not very familiar with Hybrids but I would probably suggest bringing it to a different dealership... It's unfortunate you had to get another battery when potentially the other one was working.

I would speak with Honda also... having the car for a week and not even being able to diagnose it accurately it kinda strange to me. Also I would assume they would have parts on site to be able to test with so they could swap out the part try it and if it works change it/order it.

This is the reason why I'm not keen on a hybrid... unless it's still under warranty cause after warranty it's extremely costly!


Keep us posted but for sure I would go to a different dealer. I would probably check to see which is the best dealdership in your area and go to that one. They do surveys for dealerships you just got to search for them online.

Good luck mate!