2003 Honda Civic Hybrid problems, complaints & recalls
Most-reported problem areas: Power Train (22) · Air Bags (7) · Vehicle Speed Control (4)
🧭 Reliability snapshot
Compared against other Honda Civic Hybrid model years — complaint volume vs the model's median year, recalls and severity. How we score →
🛣️ Complaints by mileage
42 NHTSA complaints that reported an odometer reading.
Safety recalls (6)
Air Bags:frontal:driver Side:inflator Module 2019-06-27 · campaign 19V499000 · 3,947 vehicles
Defect: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2003 Acura 3.2CL, 2002-2003 3.2TL, 2003-2006 MDX, 2001-2007 Honda Accord, 2001-2005 Civic, 2003-2005 Civic Hybrid, 2001-2005 Civic GX NGV, 2002-2006 CR-V, 2003-2011 Element, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2008 Pilot and 2006 Ridgeline vehicles. These vehicles are equipped with driver frontal air bag inflators assembled as a recall remedy part or replacement service part, that may explode due to propellant degradation occurring after long-term e
Risk: An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver frontal air bag inflator, free of charge. The recall began August 12, 2019. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are Q5A and Y58.
Air Bags:frontal:passenger Side:inflator Module 2019-06-27 · campaign 19V501000 · 1,657,752 vehicles
Defect: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2003-2006 Acura MDX, 2005-2012 RL, 2003-2007 Honda Accord, 2001-2005 Civic, 2003-2005 Civic Hybrid, 2001-2005 Civic GX NGV, 2002-2006 CR-V, 2003-2011 Element, 2007-2008 Fit, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2008 Pilot, and 2006-2014 Ridgeline vehicles. The vehicles are equipped with passenger frontal air bag inflators assembled as a recall remedy part or replacement service part, that may explode due to propellant degradation occurring after long-
Risk: An inflator explosion may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger frontal airbag inflator, free of charge. The recall began August 12, 2019. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are E5D and X5C.
Air Bags:frontal:driver Side:inflator Module 2019-03-06 · campaign 19V182000 · 1,101,534 vehicles
Defect: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling specific 2003 Acura 3.2CL, 2013-2016 ILX, 2013-2014 ILX Hybrid, 2003-2006 MDX, 2007-2016 RDX, 2002-2003 3.2TL, 2004-2006, and 2009-2014 TL, 2010-2013 ZDX and 2001-2007 and 2009 Honda Accord, 2001-2005 Civic, 2003-2005 Civic Hybrid, 2001-2005 Civic GX NGV, 2002-2007 and 2010-2011 CR-V, 2003-2011 Element, 2007 Fit, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2008 Pilot, and 2006-2014 Ridgeline vehicles. The affected vehicles received a replacement driver air bag inflator
Risk: An explosion of an inflator within the driver frontal air bag module may result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver, front seat passenger or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver's air bag inflator with an alternate inflator, free of charge. The recall began April 10, 2019. Honda owners may contact customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's number for this recall is O41. Acura owners may contact customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Acura's number for this recall is U40.
Air Bags:frontal:passenger Side:inflator Module 2015-06-15 · campaign 15V370000 · 3,498,481 vehicles
Defect: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain model year 2001-2005 Honda Civic vehicles manufactured March 21, 2000, to January 20, 2005, 2001-2004 Honda Civic GX vehicles manufactured June 14, 2000, to August 19, 2004, 2003-2005 Honda Civic Hybrid vehicles manufactured February 24, 2002, to January 18, 2005, 2003-2007 Honda Accord vehicles manufactured February 21, 2002, to August 28, 2007, 2002-2004 Honda CR-V vehicles, 2002-2003 Honda Odyssey vehicles manufactured June 19, 2001, to Ju
Risk: In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the passenger's frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the passenger seat occupant or other occupants possibly causing serious injury or death.
Fix: Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger air bag inflator, free of charge. The recall began on July 1, 2015. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are JU4, JU5, JU6, and JU7. Note: Vehicles that have already received a replacement passenger air bag inflator as part of the recall remedy for an earlier campaign such as 14V353 or 14V700 (Honda recall numbers S95, JH6, JH7, JH8, JH9, JJ0, JJ1, JJ2, JJ6, JM5 and JM6) a
Air Bags:frontal:driver Side:inflator Module 2015-05-28 · campaign 15V320000 · 6,281,043 vehicles
Defect: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain model year 2001-2007 Accord, 2001-2005 Civic, 2001-2004 Honda Civic GX, 2003-2005 Honda Civic Hybrid, 2002-2006 CR-V, 2003-2011 Element, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2008 Pilot, 2006 Ridgeline, 2003 Acura 3.2CL, 2003-2006 Acura MDX, and 2002-2003 Acura 3.2TL vehicles. The affected vehicles are equipped with a dual-stage driver frontal air bag that may be susceptible to moisture intrusion and other factors, including manufacturing variability that
Risk: In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver frontal air bag inflator, free of charge. The recall began on July 1, 2015. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Owners may contact Acura customer service at 1-800-382-2238, select option 4. Note: Vehicles that have had their driver frontal air bag replaced previously as part of a recall remedy prior to September 12, 2014 need to have their air bag replaced under this recall as well. Vehicles that, on or a
Air Bags 2014-11-04 · campaign 14V700000 · 0 vehicles
Defect: American Honda Motor Co. (Honda) is recalling certain model year 2001-2005 Honda Civic, 2003-2004 Civic CNG and Element, 2002-2005 CR-V, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2005 Accord, Pilot, Civic Hybrid, and Acura MDX, 2005 Acura RL and 2006 Honda Ridgeline vehicles originally sold, or ever registered, in geographic locations associated with high absolute humidity. Specifically, vehicles sold, or ever registered, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto
Risk: In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the passengers frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the vehicle occupants potentially resulting in serious injury or death.
Fix: Honda will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger side air bag inflator, free of charge. The recall began January 26, 2015. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-800-999-1009.
Service bulletins (65)
Technical service bulletins are repair instructions manufacturers send dealers for known issues. Unlike recalls, the fix is not automatically free — but naming the bulletin at the service desk can save diagnosis time and support goodwill repairs.
Equipment 2018-08-09 · ABOM08092018901 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
dealer message - today, american honda is notifying dealers of a voluntary noncompliance recall for a small number of honda vehicles due to an error on the replacement (service part) underhood emissions labels. american honda previously notified carb and the epa for this action.
Engine And Engine Cooling 2018-08-09 · A18070 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
service bulletin - emission certification labels that were replaced on a small number of vehicles may have been replaced with a label listing incorrect information. the affected emission labels are replacement service parts, and were not installed at the factory; they were installed during postmanuf
Air Bags:frontal:driver Side:inflator Module 2016-03-31 · A-PS-03312016-30 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
video - this video from honda senior vice president bruce smith is in response to a recall expansion that honda announced in january which applies to honda and acura vehicles equipped with certain takata psdi-5 driver front airbag inflators. please let us know if you would like a copy of the video s
Air Bags:frontal:driver Side:inflator Module 2016-03-31 · A-PS-03312016-30 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
dealer message - this video from honda senior vice president bruce smith is in response to a recall expansion that honda announced in january which applies to honda and acura vehicles equipped with certain takata psdi-5 driver front airbag inflators.
Air Bags 2016-03-28 · A15-067 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
service bulletin - in certain vehicles, the front passenger airbag inflator could produce excessive internal pressure during airbag deployment. if an affected airbag deploys, the increased internal pressure may cause the inflator casing to rupture. metal fragments could be propelled upward toward th
Air Bags 2015-12-19 · A15-067 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
"service bulletin - american honda consolidated some models from the previous airbag inflator campaigns into this current bulletin based on information from nhtsa. do an in vin status inquiry and, if indicated, repair the vehicle. in certain vehicles, the front passenger airbag inflator could produ
Showing the 6 most recent of 65 bulletins. Search all of them free at nhtsa.gov.
What owners report
2019-06-28 · Air Bags · 59,800 mi“after the recall appointment on 5/3/2019,the sign "abs" still comes on all the time in the panel.besides,the auto audio system fails when the ignition is on. when the car is not on the audio system comes on again. this may be checked besides the abs sign.…”
2019-06-04 · Power Train · 182,670 mi“i was driving my car on antioch rd. crestview, fl and had stopped at the stop sign to jump onto p.j. adams rd. when traffic permitted i tired to pull out the car lunged forward a few feet putting the hood area completely in the road when the d light started flashing and the car stopped moving . the motor reves up but the car wont move. i was almost…”
2019-01-30 · Power Train · 180,000 mi“when starting from at stop the car hesitates and shudders when you press the gas pedal unless you let the car idle and roll forward first. it also has problems when you have the cruise control on for more than 10 min. after approx 10min it acts like i have turned off and back on the cruise control several times before it does turn off and then …”
2018-09-16 · Power Train · 138,000 mi“there is a shuttering in the transmission that occurs when the car is attempting to get out of first gear. the shuttering is becoming more violent. the car has also slipped out of drive (while on the road) and wouldn't accelerate. i've read that the shuttering isn't fairly common in this model and/or type of transmission.…”
2018-03-31 · Power Train · 106,000 mi“i drove this 2003 honda civic hybrid took my baby honestly from the shopping market. it was just at the right turning corner, the vehicle suddenly lost power to move, i immediately press the emergency button, got out off the vehicle let other autos passed me ahead by the side way. later some kindly guys help me pushed the car to a parking lot near…”
2018-01-04 · Vehicle Speed Control · 38,600 mi“when driving at 50mph on a national highway 95s heading to philadelphia around 11am,the speed of the car suddenly reduce to 20mph and then stalled and stopped moving. i had to pull aside to check the engine. after some thirty minutes of rest,i had to return home with an idea of getting the car checked by the dealer.the dealer reorted of having no …”
2017-09-30 · Power Train · 133,000 mi“jerking and noises got worse over a one week period. dealership, where all service has occurred for this car, says it needs a new transmission ($4800) and is not worth repairing. the mileage is quite low for this problem, 133,000. we've heard this is a common problem for these hybrids 2002-2005.…”
2017-09-01 · Electronic Stability Control (Esc) · 3 mi“"takata recall" 2003 honda civic hybrid with ima and engine lights went off. no charge to battery cause the car to malfunctions. such as electrical steering wheel stop working. engine lost power and stop while driving on city street at stop side. i changed new diehard 12v battery and also checked and verified the ima battery is good (each cell a…”
2017-08-03 · Unknown Or Other“this car was totaled in 2009! but i keep getting recall notices. i check the "destroyed" box, but the recall notices keep coming. how can i convince your database that this car no longer exists?…”
2017-03-16 · Service Brakes“vehicle brakes won't work when braking on a bumpy road or highway. vehicle wont stop on top on a bump that is on the road. when in motion, when trying to make a sudden stop on a bump that it is on the road, vehicle brakes will slide and not stop. either on city or highway roads. i am concerned that when i am speeding and i have to make a sudden…”
Excerpts of consumer complaints filed with NHTSA, lightly truncated. They are owner statements, not verified findings.