Honda civic hybrid how does it work

The battery might potentially be harmed by extreme heat. Curing paint in a bake oven that reaches degrees F may damage a car's battery if it has been damaged and repainted. When working on a Honda Civic Hybrid, body shops are advised not to allow the oven temperature to become too high. The price of the battery is determined on the type of battery you purchase. The refurbished battery is a used battery that has been thoroughly checked and, if necessary, individual cells replaced.

A one-year warranty is included with the refurbished battery. Batteries that have been refurbished aftermarket are also available from a variety of sources. Because the Honda Civic Hybrid has its own starter, it does not require the hybrid battery to start. However, contrary to popular belief, you cannot just ignore a dead battery. Because dead batteries still try to receive a charge, the motor generator will be constantly trying to charge the battery, consuming more gasoline than if the battery hadn't been there in the first place.

The hybrid system in the Honda Civic was a parallel system, which means the engine, transmission, and drive axles are all conventional. To add a little HP to the engine output while accelerating or travelling up steep hills, an electric motor generator is sandwiched between the engine and the transmission or between the transmission and the drive shafts.

It recharges the battery while coasting and braking. The extra horsepower is roughly 13, but at low gas engine RPMs, it might be nearly twice what gas alone could deliver. At the very least, you should have the battery disconnected when it dies. If you remove it fully, you'll save some weight, but I'm not sure how heavy this battery is or if it's worth the labor, so at the very least disconnect it.

The terminals must be insulated and protected when the battery is disconnected, otherwise they will short out, causing further issues.

It's not as simple as unplugging the cords. There are three sorts of hybrid cars, according to Honda. The hybrid battery delivers some or all of the power required in each case. It does have an excellent driving position, supportive seats and decent space in the back, but also suffers from huge A-pillar blind spots and a boot that's short on floorspace. It lacks folding rear seats, too. Still, the cabin is easy to get on with - besides a small gauge on the dash, there's not much to set the Hybrid apart from a standard Civic.

They include Honda's own diesel Civic, a car that proved more economical in our hands than the Hybrid.

It returns just 38mpg, while the diesel averaged 44mpg. But official CO2 emissions are low, making the Civic an attractive buy for company car drivers. Skip to Content Skip to Footer. In-depth reviews Home Honda Civic. Overall Auto Express Rating. You can use a charging point map in order to find those closest to your location.

Just like conventional cars, hybrid cars do emit greenhouse gases due to the presence of the petrol or diesel engine. Emissions produced by petrol and diesel engines include carbon dioxide CO2 and carbon monoxide CO.

In contrast, electric cars are zero-emission vehicles but it should be pointed out that emissions are produced in the process of generating the electricity. The key difference is that hybrid cars are much more fuel efficient than conventional cars, requiring less fuel to cover the same distance. By operating the vehicle at lower speeds, the electric motor increases fuel efficiency which means that a hybrid car produces fewer pollutants over the course of its lifetime.

Power Products. Subscribe here. Hybrid cars have been on our roads since the late s, yet they remain something of a mystery to many drivers. As the hybrid car becomes more common, interest is undoubtedly growing. One of the most common questions on the minds of today's drivers is how a hybrid car works. From the workings of the hybrid engine to the process of charging a hybrid car, we aim to clear any doubts you might have about the hybrid car.

So how does a hybrid car work? Interestingly, although the Civic can't move away from a stop using only the electric motor, Honda says there is one situation where its hybrid can run on just electricity--at about 15 to 20 mph when cruising on a flat surface at a steady speed with a fully charged, or nearly so, battery pack. Since the electric motor and the gas engine rotate inseparably, the Civic must cut off fuel to the engine and use its variable-valve-timing system to close the engine's valves and make it easier for the electric motor to do its job.

The Civic's only giveaway that it's running on electricity alone is the digital bar graph that lights up suddenly when juice is being sent to the motor. So it might not have the beans to get the Civic going from a stop, but the hp electric motor does have enough gusto to keep the car moving at low speeds--all by itself, if only briefly. However, it's such a short span of time under such specific and not-often-encountered conditions that the fuel savings are likely minuscule.

Honda probably makes the claim to equal those of its major rival hybrid, the Prius. The second big trick that hybrids can do is recharge their own batteries.

The recharging occurs when you lift off the throttle, when you hit the brakes, or when cruising if the computer determines that the battery needs charging. When you get off the gas in a hybrid, the primary source of deceleration is the electric motor, not the gas engine as in a conventional car. Moreover, the hybrid uses a special electric motor that can also operate as a generator.

Send this electric motor electricity, and it will produce power; rotate it using external forces, and it will produce electricity. Using the car's momentum to spin this motor, therefore, creates electricity, which is sent back to the battery pack. That's called regenerative braking. Hitting the brakes lightly will cause the electric motor to resist motion further, and in doing so, even more electricity is produced to send to the batteries.

The Civic has a digital display that shows how much electricity you're sending to the battery or how much you're using up. Brake moderately hard, and you'll light up the maximum number of green LEDs. Hit the brake pedal harder, and you'll activate the conventional brakes, just as you would in any other car. It's a challenge to send the maximum amount of charge without employing the traditional brakes.

The final benefit of a hybrid is that the gas engine shuts off when you come to a full stop, thereby saving fuel. In the first Civic hybrid, if the air conditioning was on and the econ button was not engaged, the engine wouldn't shut down. So, at a stop, the electric compressor keeps the cabin cool.

As soon as you lift your foot off the brake, the gas engine whirs to life again. The EPA testifies that the Civic hybrid gets 49 mpg in city driving and 51 on the highway. But those numbers are rarely achieved. To get mileage in the highmpg range requires gradual acceleration, timid cruising speeds, and cautious use of the throttle. Suffer a short lapse in concentration or accelerate immoderately, and fuel economy will suffer.

Fact is, to do this right, you will drive more slowly than you ever have.