Mortaine’s Blog

So, I was having trouble for about 2 months now with my 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid, where overnight the battery would discharge, and I’d go out in the morning to find a dead battery and the car wouldn’t start. The 12 volt battery would die, and the EMA (hybrid) battery would also be fully discharged as well– kind of sucky all around.

In May, I took it in, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. At that time, John told them that something sounded like it was trying to engage over by the air conditioning when he tried to start it when the battery was dead. In June or July, same thing– and nothing was showing up in the computer. Finally, this past week, I took it back into the shop because it was happening again. Preliminary testing indicated that it happens when the AC is left on overnight, but it wasn’t 100% consistent (though every morning last week I had to jump the car. I dropped it off on Thursday night and intended to pick it up Friday, if they could fix it.

Friday they called and said that the car had behaved herself, and could they keep it another day. I explained I was heading out camping, and they could keep it till Tuesday, at the least.

I talked to them a few hours ago. They found a relay in the air conditioning was stuck on. They replaced the relay for parts-only, and they claim it works now. So, I’ll pick it up whenever I can get back over the hill, and voila! Fixed car!

By the way, the liberal use of keywords here is so a search engine might pick this blog post up and make it so other people can find this solution. Apparently, either the car computer isn’t picking it up, or Honda of Stevens Creek isn’t actually doing the diagnostic work.