2007 Honda Civic Hybrid Transmission and drivetrain Problems

“In the last two weeks I've had two instances where I was attempting to make a left turn at a green light and had to yield to oncoming traffic. However, when the next oncoming vehicle appeared to be far enough away and at a safe distance, I attempted to accelerate and make the turn and my hybrid system a.k.a. Honda's ima (integrated motor assist) would randomly fail to engage, leaving me with almost no acceleration power. It felt like I was driving a lawnmower. The engine would rev up, but the vehicle would not proportionately accelerate. …”

“This vehicle received a software update to extend the life of the batteries. This update increased the danger of this vehicle more than it had when it was new. The greatest hazard is that this vehicle has unpredictable amounts of power. I had an incident while trying to cross a busy street on an incline with a limited view of oncoming traffic. Normally, the vehicle supplies sufficient power to cross traffic but this time the engine revved high and the car seemed to crawl while traffic was bearing down upon me. Thankfully, the alert oncoming driver avoided hitting me. …”

“When pulling out onto a busy 55 MPH highway from a side street, my car unexpectedly was unable to provide any electrical propulsion from the hybrid motor. The hybrid battery state of charge indicator was at 6 out of 8 bars of battery level while waiting at the stop sign, but when the demand for electrical assist was given, the battery level immediately dropped to 2 out of 8 bars and provided little or no hybrid motor assist. My vehicle struggled to accelerate up to speed of oncoming traffic, even with the accelerator pedal depressed all the way to the floor (wide open throttle). …”

“Erractic power on starting from a stop. The ima system says it has assist power but the car starts moving very slowly and then drains the ima lights down to nothing. The car continues to accelerate slowly for a while until the gasoline engine starts to to take effect and getting up to speed, very dangerous in traffic. At other times the ims indicator is erratic on the dash but the system is okay. The lights will be full up and suddenly drop to nothing and a few minutes later it's full again. …”

“Had ima failure (2009) where vehicle wouldn't exceed 20 MPH. Parked vehicle, required jumpstart & but was towed home ~25 miles. Jumped car again w/ no ima; drove 2 los gatos Honda. Ima trouble fixed; explanation not specific. Unbeknownst 2 me, other drivers had same trouble & Honda was (hearsay) aware of it. Never received recall notice 4 driver window (fixed same visit) or recall 4 rear susp. (found out about 3-yr old recall by a blog back in february 2012). Honda performed battery fix that was 2 make car better, it hasn't. …”