I guess fate meant it that I am to bypass the battery earlier than expected!
Drove the Insight for exactly 70 miles today. After the first 10 miles the IMA light came on, and stayed on after clearing it 3-4 times. Not getting any assist, regen, or autostop as expected.
Driving without the IMA isn't as bad as everyone seems to make it out to be. I just shift at 2500-3000 RPMs instead of 2000-2500 RPMs. My MPG is the same. Averaged 69.3 MPG over all 70 miles, which is pretty normal. Tank is at around 65 MPG (this includes my fast driving and braking to clean the lot rot).
Grille block helps with warm up, but my warm air intake apparently was a failure - intake temperature stayed at 60 degrees Fahrenheit for half the trip and struggled to get higher. Maybe I accidentally created a cold air intake since I've read that 110-130 degrees is ideal for intake temperature. The air intake is about an inch to an inch and a half away from touching the catalytic converter. Considering making it touch the cat this time. Also, I have no engine bay belly pan yet, so a lot of cold air is coming up there.
So, I will be bypassing the IMA as soon as possible. I am already offered $500 for the battery core by a company to be refurbished, which I will go with unless one of you guys wants it for $600 or whatever. The IMA light just came on and it probably could be grid charged easily back to full health, but I just don't have the time for it, nor do I care to invest the money into a decent grid charger. I was already planning on bypassing the battery when it began dying. Bypassing the battery will let me:
- Lower the floor for more storage space like Ecky did
- Remove about 100lbs (?) of weight from the car
- Possibly install Scott's rear springs, modified to lower the car back to it's original height from it being raised due to the hybrid battery being removed
- Drive the car anytime without worrying about a hybrid battery condition
- Have more fun driving the car -- actually, yes. Throwing the car in neutral and coasting to a stop is less tedious than downshifting through the gears to regen, and I don't have to constantly worry about keeping the hybrid battery charged enough to prevent forced regen. I had more fun hypermiling the car like a normal car and still getting phenomenal fuel economy. No more back-of-the-mind worrying about the hybrid battery condition.
- Recover some of the money spent on the car. Selling the battery core for $500 will make the overall price of the car $1000 instead of $1500.
Bypassing the battery will save me the effort required to wire up 1) regen button, 2) FAS button, and 3) IMA calpod clutch button mods. Instead I will "just" have to wire up a kill switch.
...but does the Insight still track distance/fuel economy with a kill switch???