Honda hybrid question

Littlehorny

My wife has a 2010 Honda Insight hybrid and we think the battery is starting to be not as efficient as it used to be as she says it doesn't give as good fuel economy and is down on power when excelerating. It is to expected as its 8 year old but there isn't big mileage on it.
I went on a Honda Insight owners website (an American one was all I could find) and they said that a new battery pack was $2,500 . One piece of advice that came up was if your battery pack is only starting to fade that changing the normal car battery would help as the battery in her car is probably in it from new.
Would anyone know if a new normal battery would be worth doing? And would any know anyone with experience of replacing the hybrid battery pack and how much would it cost in Ireland?

corks finest

Littlehorny wrote: »

My wife has a 2010 Honda Insight hybrid and we think the battery is starting to be not as efficient as it used to be as she says it doesn't give as good fuel economy and is down on power when excelerating. It is to expected as its 8 year old but there isn't big mileage on it.
I went on a Honda Insight owners website (an American one was all I could find) and they said that a new battery pack was $2,500 . One piece of advice that came up was if your battery pack is only starting to fade that changing the normal car battery would help as the battery in her car is probably in it from new.
Would anyone know if a new normal battery would be worth doing? And would any know anyone with experience of replacing the hybrid battery pack and how much would it cost in Ireland?

have the same modell car, fairly bullet proof,,,, few relative questions, have u changed the cvt fluid? have u got the service updates(3)did u replace the 12 v battery? havent heard of a battery pack failing yet, and some cars are on a 250, 000~300, 000 miles, does she drive with the eco button on? recent cold weather really affects hybrid economy, has she her tyres pumped up to 40?

Littlehorny

corks finest wrote: »

have the same modell car, fairly bullet proof,,,, few relative questions, have u changed the cvt fluid? have u got the service updates(3)did u replace the 12 v battery? havent heard of a battery pack failing yet, and some cars are on a 250, 000~300, 000 miles, does she drive with the eco button on? recent cold weather really affects hybrid economy, has she her tyres pumped up to 40?

Thanks for the response, she only has the car about 18 months so I will get the cvt fluid changed alright and put a new 12v battery in it.
She has been driving on eco recently and I will pass on your comments to her, also didn't know the tyres should be up to 40 as well.
What do you mean by service updates? the car was serviced here in Ireland right after we bought it and the rest of the service history is in Japanese.
Your right about it being bullet proof, I done loads of research before she bought it and every where I looked, the car was getting high reliability ratings. Thank you very much for this, really appreciate it.

colm_mcm

Have spark plugs been changed? Or air filter?

n97 mini

If that's a Japanese import any service bulletins or software updates can't be done by a Honda dealer here, just FYI.

The most likely reason for a drop in economy is the very cold weather we've had recently.

Littlehorny

colm_mcm wrote: »

Have spark plugs been changed? Or air filter?

Its been 16 months since it got a service because she does such little mileage, I will do oil, plugs and air filter in the next couple of weeks while i'm getting the few others pieces done.
Thanks very much Colm.

colm_mcm

Littlehorny wrote: »

Its been 16 months since it got a service because she does such little mileage, I will do oil, plugs and air filter in the next couple of weeks while i'm getting the few others pieces done.
Thanks very much Colm.

There are 8 plugs in them AFAIK and the small ones are pricey enough, no harm in shopping around for them in advance.

Littlehorny

colm_mcm wrote: »

There are 8 plugs in them AFAIK and the small ones are pricey enough, no harm in shopping around for them in advance.

Thanks again Colm, will look into that alright. Thanks to everyone, the help and advice on this motors forum is always great. It has helped me from stopping the missus worrying as well.:D

n97 mini

Just remembered something. I have a similar car (Civic IMA) and my wife used to own one too. A couple of years ago both experienced a sudden drop in fuel economy (of maybe 25%) a few months apart, and in both cases it was the same problem: the front left brake caliper had jammed. After driving it for a bit one alloy wheel was noticeably hot, whereas the others were normal. I fitted re-manufactured calipers to both cars... they were €150 from the local motor factors. This might explain the sluggish acceleration as well as the poor economy you're experiencing.

Colm is right about the spark plugs. There are 8 and they are very expensive here, around €30 each. Get the part numbers and look on Amazon etc. I usually pay around €8 for them online. They're very long life though and only need to be replaced every 72,000 miles.

corks finest

n97 mini wrote: »

If that's a Japanese import any service bulletins or software updates can't be done by a Honda dealer here, just FYI.

The most likely reason for a drop in economy is the very cold weather we've had recently.

fyi service updates are being done here, mine were, contact honda ireland, nominate a local honda garage, wait for honda ireland to contact you,, i drive a honda insight import from japan, and until service updates were done car was juddering, eco wasnt v good, after i received updates at kol honda, cork all was fixed

zilog_jones

Littlehorny wrote: »

She has been driving on eco recently...

If it's like the Toyota hybrids, this will have a significant effect on throttle response - if it has any relation to when you started noticing it's "down on power" then I'd suggest turning it off.

zackaie

you better trade in it for toyota prius