ramishkad

I was recently faced with a similar decision; choose between the Civic Sedan and the Audi A3 Sedan. I drove both these cars. And for context, I was using a 2011 Civic FD3 for 6 years prior to this. For me, the new Civics interior felt like a downgrade compared to that of the FD series. It felt like the inside of any other 'millennial' generation car and which didn't have any unique identity or premium feel for that matter. Aside from that the Civic was rich in features. It probably carries a few more gizmos you probably would never use, but all grades come loaded with Honda Sensing (auto break, adaptive cruise control, etc etc). Audi A1/A3 does not come with the safety equivalent Audi Pre Sense. Performance wise, both cars felt pretty much about the same. Both had 3 Cylinder 1 liter turbos that were quite peppy and fun to drive with. But the handling, ride quality and comfort in the Audi was far more superior to that of the Civic. Now I've never driven an A1, but I assume it would have the same premium ride quality feel as the A3. In the end I went with the A3 over the Civic and it wasn't a difficult choice. I would suggest you test drive both these cars to get a first hand feel before choosing either. In your case however, keep in mind that the Civic and the A1 are not in the same competing category; Civic has more features, bigger passenger space and better exterior looks (subjective).

One is a Honda hybrid and the other is a Toyota. In Sri Lanka, the KDH would have a definite advantage if you are worried about the resale value in 10 years.

Hi, New Audi owner here. May I please know why you are not satisfied with Vishwa mototrs? Everyone I know is recommending them. As for suggestions, several people have suggested to me the new Bosch service center by D*MO lanka. Please note that I've personally not serviced a vehicle yet at either of these places.

I am using a 2011 Civic Hybrid and the battery has lasted well for 100000km (and judging by the current available capacity it would do well for at least 40000km or more). The battery would do just fine if you run the car frequent enough. To get the real benefit of this car you would need to run 1500km per month or more. I heard a lot of horror stories about this vehicle back when I bought this in 2013. If you do your research well and buy one which has a battery with a reasonable usable capacity and done regular maintenance with correct lubricants, it's a great vehicle to own. I wrote a detailed post on how to check the battery usable capacity and the factors affecting cell deterioration a while back. You can check this post for more info:

I had this exact same problem and the only solution was to get a new license (one which has that microchip). And they do expire. As for the documents I I recall needing the old license and a copy of the NIC. But this is more than 6 years ago so you might want to check if the current process requires anything else by dialling 1919. You have to do the medical test as well (which is provided in house ) for all types of vehicles. And according to one of my friends who went in recently, they now even check blood sugar levels (he got rejected for high blood sugar). On the plus side, you get a SMS notification when you expiration date nears.

Change the 12V. Mine also came with a Furukawa battery and when it lost the charge I replaced with a new Furukawa (FB) from the local market. Well as I remember it drained in like a year and wasn't impressed by it. Then I switched over to a Panasonic maintenance free battery and everything has been fine since then. Be sure to match all the specs of the battery when you switch over. Lots of garages would simply match the voltage and replace with the first similar sized battery they see. Try to match CCA, AH and RC and all other specs as closely as you can.

I don't know how fast you drove or if you crated traffic by trying to drive this way, but my question is, is all this effort worth it? Can you enjoy your ride this way? I also drive a hybrid and in the first couple of months after getting it, I was obsessed with trying to see how much fuel it would do. I wasnt bothered about the fuel cost, but I wanted to see if I can break my best fuel efficiency record. It was all about improving 'stats'. I didnt drive slow on purpose but I tried all sorts of gimmicks to get F/E maximized. And let me tell you, the drives became really boring and I almost fell asleep couple of times during night time drives. Turn off your fuel efficiency display and set it to show temperature or something else. Now forget about fuel efficiency. Try driving now. You'd feel a huge weight lifted from your head and you'll feel the freedom of driving once again. And if money is your concern, you won't save more than Rs. 500 a month by changing your driving style.

As far as I know, the SoC values get reset and the BCM does an immediate recalibration once the 12v terminals are disconnected and reconnected. Any error codes logged by the IMA system also get cleared at this point. I am not sure if disconnecting the 12v causes the usable capacity to be reset to 75%. However, I do know for a fact that you can reset the usable capacity to 75% using an Honda Diagnostic System scanner connected to the OBD2 port. Once it's reset, it may take a several runs of the vehicle for the actual usable capacity value to be determined and normalized by the BCM. Thankfully, the same diagnostic system software would show the number of km run since the last reset. So if you see an old Honda hybrid up for sale with 75% or any high usable capacity value, just check the number of miles since the last IMA reset using a HDS scanner. There is a chance the battery is genuinely good, but there is also the chance of some cock weasel trying to sell a vehicle with a deteriorated battery by hoodwinking the buyer using an IMA reset.

Hi, No it does not have an alternator. It just has the DC-DC converter. In the case of a weak hybrid battery, the power would be continuously drawn from the petrol engine in order to keep the 12v charged( a continuous battery recalibration by the BCM). This is a very inefficient scenario with higher fuel consumption, lower performance and not to mention premature wear and tear of both 12v and IMA system components.

I will answer to you based on my experience of driving a Civic. Since they are based on the same IMA generation, this is possibly valid for GP1, GP2, Insight but I am not certain. The hybrid battery will not die out within a day. It's a process that happens over time and when the usable capacity of it drops below a certain percentage, your dashboard will show a warning indicator. The IMA system pairs the engine with an electric motor so the amount of 'work' the engine has to do is reduced. The hybrid battery powers the electric motor. The weaker the hybrid battery gets, the less and less the electric motor will 'assist' the engine. 1. The petrol engine will be used more frequently to charge the hybrid battery as it has lost its capacity to hold a charge. The battery control module would frequently try to recalibrate the battery to adjust to the new (lesser) level of usable capacity. Fuel consumption will be higher than normal. 2. The cars pulling power will be lower at times due to the lack of electric motors assist. In the case of the civic hybrid, it will lose 20HP of power when the battery charge is dropped. The car would feel like a drag to accelerate. 3. Car would be started by the 12v battery as opposed to the hybrid battery. The civic comes equipped with a regular starter to start the car when the hybrid battery does not have enough charge to do so. But the 12v battery will wear out faster than normal. Technically, you can drive the car for years and years with the hybrid battery almost dead (but not physically removed) and with the IMA indicator showing. It will get you from point A->B but it would be a downright shitty driving experience.

The IMA indicator can come up for a number of different reasons with the most common being a deteriorating hybrid battery. You have to take the vehicle to an agent and read the actual error code to diagnose the problem. The 12v battery indicator coming up usually means that the 12v battery is not getting charged by the IMA system. There can be a number of reasons for this but you need the error code to properly troubleshoot the problem. From where did you replace the hybrid battery from? Did they do any software updates when the battery was replaced? In any case find out what the error code is.

Dude you deserve a medal for this. Translation is spot on.

I'm using one since 2013. If you are getting a 2008/2009 YOM one, make sure the hybrid battery usable capacity is above at least 40%. You can get this checked at Stafford. These cars are great if you drive a lot of miles per month but don't get a FD3 if you mostly do city driving. In that case FD4/FD1 would be the better choice. FD3 would do around 17-20kmpl long distance, 20-24kmpl highway but only around 9-12kmpl in Colombo heavy traffic.

Don't rely on this scan. They just plug a generic OBD2 scanner into the car and check for errors. Most manufacturer specific errors are not detected by these generic scanners. They could not detect one of the most common errors logged on my Honda FD3 - only the manufacturer specific Honda Diagnostic System was able to read it properly. In fact I ask them not to do the scan because I'm not sure if their scanner is read only or read/write both are allowed (nobody knows any tech details on the scanner). I personally don't like a generic OBD2 device connecting to the ECU. Always get it scanned by the agent.

Hi, I didn't know this was a factory defect. It's my bad for not reading the thread from the beginning. Sorry about the confusion.

But isn't this a bad way to profile an issue? You read couple of posts online about a problem on a particular vehicle model, and then declare it's a failed product without any sort of verification and discourage anyone from buying it. Couple of people may have had it, the service adviser may have said it's a known issue, but who knows what the probability of the issue surfacing is, or what factors contribute to it? In my honest opinion, most of the horror stories about certain models of vehicles in the SL car market are made up in this way by people who have NO first hand experience of using the said vehicle. It mutates the truth as it spreads and I absolutely hate that trend of spreading rumors without solid, verifiable fact.

How bout "Stormy Daniels"? ? I've always had doubts about the engine break in period. Aren't modern cars "broke-in" at the factory itself? But let's assume this is required. In such cases, there is no theory that says running the car slow or at low RPM is required during this period. From what I've read the recommendation is not to the vary the RPM rapidly, or drive the car at a constant RPM for long. Same with the 1000km service period. I think modern engines do not need such quick first time oil changes unless specifically mentioned by the manufacturer. Then again if it was me I'd just do it just so I can have peace of mind. Congrats on your purchase and enjoy the ride!

Not sure about the Dunlop price but I know that Autodrome prices are before a discount. They run this promotion (h**p://autodrome.lk/savenow.php) for as long as I can remember which gives you 30% discount on the advertised prices. To claim that you have to follow them on FB or do some BS like that. I haven't purchased under this scheme but I can see the 185/55 EP300 listed for LKR15000 something on that page.

What was the total mileage of the car when you changed the spark plugs? If was considerably less than 100000km you might want to check what caused the premature wear. As for Stafford, when I go to them I usually diagnose and find out the issue myself and only direct them to do the specific repair / replacement. Otherwise in my experience they sometime resort to trial and error which can be a waste of money and time.

What's the ECU unit problem and how many people have complained in the said group? I couldn't not find any such info or a trend on any other source on the internet so this sounds a lot like baseless rumors that rampant in SL car market. This lists 1 electrical problem by 1 user for the 2017 model which does not prove anything. In fact the 2016 model has way more issues than that. Switch the make and model to any car on this site and you'll see small number of problems reported for almost every vehicle. However where there is a known factory fault, the number of faults reported for the said model are clearly higher than normal, which isn't the case with 2017 Civic.

Can you check if this type of solution is applicable in your case? https://imgur.com/gallery/j8Bcp/ If a reliable mechanic does not recommend cell replacement in your case, I'd just wait till I save up 200k and do the battery replacement. From what I know the car will still drive with this issue, but fuel efficiency may be lower.

Do not go for cell replacement or grid charging solutions. They are temporary workarounds. There are various types of batteries for the FD3; OEM, Chinese, USA etc etc. These have differing capacities, safety and pricing so you need to find out which battery you are getting and do the research on that. I'm sure the place that quoted 170k does not sell an OEM battery. If I were you I'd go with hybrid hub if these were the two options available. I saw some ads on ###### where some company called Dynamic Holdings had advertised Panasonic Japan batteries for FD3 at LKR 350000. I have no idea if these guys are legit or not though. When you are getting a battery, make sure to check the shelf life. If you get it through Stafford, they would order the battery based on the request. So there very little shelf life - only the time it takes to ship it to SL. Batteries that have sat around idle for long tend to lose their capacity quickly. As for your question about replacement batteries, I am using a 2011 FD3. I replaced the battery via Sterling warranty back in 2014 and it's been running fine for 3.5 years now. And yes, the fuel figures do not change too much when you have a bad battery. But it gets annoying when it drains fast when you climb a mountain etc. Once you change the battery, make sure the Battery Control Module software matches the battery. If not get it updated.

This likely comes up due to an error in the hybrid powertrain. Since the cars mileage is 275000km, the most likely cause for this is a dying hybrid battery. The IMA indicator can come up for a number of other reasons such as bad 12v battery, bad hybrid battery cooling fan, etc. To exactly know the cause of the issue, connect the vehicle to a diagnostic scanner and read the logged error code.

Thanks for the detailed review of each. If you had to choose between EP200 and Michelin Energy Saver, which would you choose? Currently using EP150 and weighing my options on what to get next.

Been using little trees for about 4 years now. I once got a batch of 20 or 30 from Ebay. If you are looking for them in SL, they are available in select Keels supermarkets. You might want to check the search results here as well : https://www.google.lk/search?q=little+trees+lanka&oq=little+trees+lanka&aqs=chrome..69i57.2259j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8