My SRS light had been coming on and off for months. I received a "recall letter" from honda 1/3/12, for an airbag issue. I called dealership service dept, was told that my car was not part of that recall. I was part of a mass dumping from honda for cars from 2000-2004. I then told them that my SRS light was coming on and off, was advised to bring into service dept. I did. While being serviced, technicians scanned vehicle & checked for codes (which was $95) - no codes were found. They then ran a diagnostic troubleshoot, which indicated that SRS control unit needed replaced and then recheck. Was told that would be $495, they did not have the part and would have to order it. Was also told, they were not even sure if that would be my solution. When I asked them what would have caused this control unit (for airbag safety feature), to need replaced. I was told that they "were unsure and maybe a short caused it. It is an electrical unit and many things could go wrong." when I asked what could cause a short, was told, 'not sure, could be wetness or an electrical malfunction." (wet inside my car, I know for a fact that is not the case.) I then stated, that this sounded like a manufactures defect to the unit. I was told otherwise. I asked about what happens when the SRS light is on, told that the airbags will not be active and not deploy if in accident. Why is there no lifetime warranty on the airbag safety feature & system, (which is on all cars today), like there is for the seat belt mechanism & system? Upon review of the federal safety agency, I see that there are numerous other complaints of this issue, of the SRS light coming on and the control panel malfunctioning with suggested replacement.
2004 Honda Civic electrical complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 32 of 32, newest first, as owners wrote them.
For the past few weeks, car wouldn't start when turning key. Lights on panel light up but no sound and doesn't turn. After trying up to 10 times or as few as 3 times, the car would start and drive normally. Then at other times, it would start with no problem. Took into honda dealer on november 3, 2011. Car started with no problems so could not detect actual problem. Drove car home and drove fine. Last night my daughter drove the car in a residential area at night, so wasn't going too fast then didn't notice anything until she started braking. Then realized the brakes didn't work and the steering froze, the car just stalled. They panicked and drove uphill and let it roll back several times trying to stop it then came to a stop and parked it. Someone came to assist, jiggled the wheel and it was fine and the car restarted with no problems after. Drove the car home. We are afraid to drive it again in case it locks up again especially at a higher speed and with no brakes or steering control. Researched it on internet and found that there was some recalls on ignition switch where the electrical contacts within the ignition switch gets worn prematurely causing the switch to malfunction. This could be very serious and dangerous and thought it should be reported. Would appreciate any information you may provide us and recommendations. I checked my VIN and there was no recalls but it sure sounds like the same problem with other recalls. Thank you so much and looking forward to hearing from you.
I am unable to give a VIN number since my civic is currently at the dealership ([xxx]) where it was purchased my speedometer or MPH rarely works. Occasionally when I hit a bump it will work temporarily. I've discovered when researching the internet that I'm not the only one with a speedometer problem for that year honda civic. For safety reasons, why hasn't there been a recall? Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 honda civic. The contact stated that the ignition lock was inoperative, making it difficult for the contact to insert the key to turn the vehicle on. The dealer denied any assistance with repairs to the vehicle. The manufacturer was not contacted and the vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 125,000. Updated 12/16/11*lj the consumer stated the vehicle was repaired at a cost of $ 722. Updated 12/21/11
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 honda civic hybrid. While parked, the contact noticed that the check engine light and the integrated motor assist light illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostics, where the technician stated that the integrated motor assist battery would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 132,000. Contacted honda of america they are replacing my battery pack with brand new one from the factory. I am paying only partial cost they are paying the rest of the cost. [xxx] updated 10/12/2011 *ln information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
Alternator and battery failed simultaneously - while driving car to garage for repair, engine cut out completely and I was unable to use hazard flashers to signal danger (and could not open electric windows to use hand signals). I don't think this is specific to the honda civic but this seems like a real safety hazard. Emergency battery backup for hazard flashers might be a good idea for future designs.
My 2004 honda civic hybrid that I purchased new has an ima battery problem that started in september by causing a check engine and ima lights to activate. The code says the ima battery has deteriorated and this is very dangerous because when I pull onto the interstate I have to give it full throttle just to merge in with traffic because the battery can't provide full assist like it used to. Sometimes it can't get up to highway speed fast enough as cars come flying up on my bumper or they whip out into the other lane and fly past me. I called the hendrick honda dealership that I purchased it from and they said it only has an 8 year 80000 mile warranty but the honda insight has a 157000 mile warranty. This seems to be a common problem for the 2004 honda civic hybrids just like the honda insight. Please investigate this complaint for me and the thousands of other honda owners with this same problem.
My wife was driving my honda civic lx, 2004 . We have been using this car since last 6 year without any problem. On nov. 1st we were driving this car to go to work; car was running perfect smooth with no indication of any problem. During evening hours when she was driving back to home after work. Car started fine as usual but she drove about 5 miles and as soon as she reached on the walt whitman bridge (nj) smoke started to come out from the engine compartment, she pulled over car in the shoulder lane and got out of the car. She called the police for help, as soon as police officer arrived on the scene, car busted in the flames. Police called the fire department for help and soon whole car engulfed in flames and started to burn with high flames. By the time fire truck showed up whole car was destroyed by the fire. It was very unusual that the running car with no problem for 6 years and fine running car all of sudden caught in fire. It seems to me that there is some faulty electrical problem and may be due to manufacture defect. I am very fortunate that there was no injury or death in this incidence. However my car was completely burn down and destroyed. I will appreciate if you can help me with this. Did anyone before reported this kind of problem in this model of car which may suggest manufacture defect?
3 months ago I bought a honda civic hybrid from a dealership in alexandria,va. The car door wouldn't open nor start on sept 4th and so I had the car towed to the honda dealership to find out the problem. The honda dealership diagnosed a 2nd class alarm in the vehicle and a bad battery, so they fixed it on sept 8th the car died again while I was at work so I had to hitch a ride home. So on sept 10th I called the sales manager in va and told him the car was giving me problems. On saturday september 11th I was going to make a trip to see the sales manager in person when my car quit working when I was trying to make a turn into the bp gas station in md. My mother had to pick me, we then went to the va dealership and they sent a tow truck to get the car on their account. Now after 4 days of waiting to hear about the status of the car, the general manager from the va dealership told me it was all my fault, basically insulted me as a woman saying that I should be more experienced,that I should've gotten a warranty on the vehicle which I had until their financial accountant told me 3 weeks after I bought the car that the bank couldn't finance the car for the whole amount financed. So I said I just bought that car and I have only made 3 car payments. So I found out later through my mechanic friend that the ima battery was on it's last leg and they probably put a band-aid on a gash which was the lithium battery which is the life-force of the car. The cost is 3450 he tells me. So I asked the general manager if you weren't going to do anything with the vehicle why did you tow my car from oxon hill,md to alexandria,va. He had no response and went on to say if I wanted the car fixed it would come of my own pocket and that was that. I have just paid 550 for a used ima hybrid battery pack and my mechanic friend if going to install for me. The old ima battery was worn out,rusted, the length of time this occurred was every day since incident date, still not fixed yet.
I own a 2004 honda civic hybrid, with a defective ima (hybrid) battery. I had noticed difficulty accelerating effectively onto freeway ramps and just sluggish performance in general. Honda diagnostics state the battery has failed. The car only had 85k miles on it at that time. The poor performance of the vehicle makes it frightening to get on and off the freeway where I live. Replacement cost is $3500, which I cannot afford. Many websites such as hybridcars.com and edmonds.com have 100's of posts by frustrated consumers. Unofficial estimates of later model vehicles, with even lower miles, state at least 5% of the cars have defective battery life. Honda could extend the warranty or lower cost for replacement but is stallingas there are class action suits in the process of being filed. Please, please, help honda civic hybrid consumers, many of whom were counting on honda's good name and hybrid fuel economy precisely because they could not afford to spend $$ repairing a car or guzzling gas. I am a medical student, and single mother who was counting on this car making it another 5 years. I have cared for it well and cannot afford this expensive repair.
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 honda civic. The contact stated that when the vehicle was in park he was not able to take the keys out of the ignition. The contact had to move the gear shift around in order to remove the keys from the ignition. The dealer was contacted via email and they have not responded. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 45000 and the current mileage was 65000.
Honda civic hybrid, 2004 1) at service checkup was told that battery (normal battery, not hybrid cells) was a little low in charge and should be replaced soon. I decided to wait and get a battery in the next few months. While driving about 3 weeks later there was a sudden electrical malfunction affecting all car functions. Lights on dash would go out and intermittently work or flash all lights simultaneously (along with radio, heater, etc), power steering suddenly went out making it difficult to steer, then would come on for a second or two, causing the car to swerve. Brakes worked intermittently. While not working I pushed the brake as hard as I could with only minimal slowing - it felt like the anti-lock mechanism was engaged. All of this happened while driving 30 MPH 2 miles from the dealership, so I was able to get to the dealership. Once I understood what was happening I was able to control the car at 20 MPH for the 2 miles. 2) one time when battery ran out of charge. 3) I got to the dealer - they replaced the battery and everything immediately worked as normal. The dealer was skeptical that the problem was serious and I was not able to see where to file a complaint with honda. When I have asked about this the service department says that something else must have caused it and diagnostics would be required. But over the past year it has never happened again, and 70,000 mile checkup did not show any problems. It appears that the battery is somehow linked with the hybrid battery system, such that loosing battery power does not just keep the car from starting, but shorts out all electrical systems, then perhaps comes back on as a small amount of charge is replaced to the battery? I added an aftermarket stereo, all rest of electrical is honda. If no other complaints exist perhaps this is the cause, though it doesn't seem likely.
I bought a new honda civic hybrid in 2004 with an extended 7 yr 100k warranty. At 91k miles, I took the car in complaining that the ima battery indicator was low. I was charged over $150 for a new regular battery, told the ima battery was fine, and sent home. I visited my dealer on several occasions with similar complaints about the ima gauge being low and the engine light being on. Just after my warranty expired, I was told that the ima battery was deteriorating and that it would need to be replaced, at a cost of over $6700. I have seen similar complaints online from other honda hybrid owners. I feel certain that the ima battery was "deteriorating" the first time I brought it in and was put off until the warranty expired.
Had to get a boost off and a couple hours later the ignition switch completely stopped working.
Speedometer fails by getting stuck at a speed at a speed and not decreasing once the car is slowed down, then that speed is the new starting speed and the speedometer increases with the cars speed. The speedometer eventually reaches past the maximum and is pegged at the bottom. Sometimes the needle will re-adjust towards 0, but only about 2mph when the car is turned off.
Srs airbag light indicator went on suddenly on ignition and never turned off. Brought to dealership who said the SRS fuse box needed to be replaced as it wasn't under warranty anymore. Other civic's also have multiple complaints of this. Front passenger window also moves up real slow almost to a halt sometimes using both driver and passenger power window switches. Haven't taken this in as already past the warranty too. Electrical stuff seems to be going kaputz after the warranty ended.
Honda civic hybrid 2004 model car stopped briefly for passenger pickup, or for putting gas in a gas station, does not start for over 10 minutes and then starts up. It has happened 3 or 4 times in the past 2 months.
The door lock actuators on both the passenger and driver door of my 04 honda civic coupe failed, on separate occasions and honda replaced them. Honda claims it was an internal failure and failed to give me more details as I had requested. For the period when the actuators were inoperable I was unable to unlock the door with the power locks and had to open the doors manually by either the key or pulling the lock up from the interior. The failures both occurred on a day when the outside temp reached 90 degrees fahrenheit, and were resolved on cold nights, however, resumed during the hot daytime hours. *
I bought my 2004 civic lx 2 door, thinking that I would not have the problems of a used car I was certainly wrong. The first problem was that I never received a copy of or signed the pre delivery inspection check list. I had my car up to the dealership at just over 3,000 miles for its first alignment. Then, I had problems with the car not starting. Sometimes it would start and sometimes it wouldn't. It didn't depend on the temperature outside or the amount of gas in the car. Sometimes when it would start, it would crank out as if I was letting out the clutch too fast. But on many attempts to restart the vehicle it would crank, but would never turn over or fire. Had the car up to the dealership once again for the starting problem , but they said since there weren't any error codes, there was nothing that they could do the car seemed fine. My latest problem; at just over 9,000 miles, I just had my front left wheel bearing replaced.! Once again my alignment was done. Everything has been covered under warranty. But what is going to go wrong next??? I certainly wouldn't recommend a honda to anyone I know.
2004 honda civic si - car caught on fire. Fire started in engine compartment while driving. Car engulfed in flames. Car declared a total loss by insurance company.
While driving between 35-40 MPH consumer was driving and the vehicle failed. It was decelerating. Consumer called the dealer, and they towed the vehicle, and arranged for the consumer to get a rental car. Meanwhile, dealer was not able to duplicate the problem, and insisted that consumer keep the vehicle. Consumer was very dissatisfied.
While parked, the vehicle's trunk caught fire without warning. *jb it was later determined that the batteries electrical wiring and cables arc causing the fire.
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