DIY Solutions to Honda Hybrid Battery Problems (Insight, Civic, IMA)

[S Keith]

Sorry, I thought you would glean my meaning when described the process including the the 12V reset. The "big ass charger" is the car IMA motor in regen mode...

It will get you from true 0% SoC (after deep discharge) to 80% true SoC (100% as far as car is concerned) in very short order with no fear of overcharging (car monitors 10 voltage taps) or over heating (car will run fan if it needs it).

Steve

[jscott]

I just completed an IMA battery refurbishing but it still gives me an IMA light. Did I do something wrong? I used the IMA battery charger for the Honda Insight 2000 after installing it. Now the IMA light comes on immediately, rather than after the charger recharge wears down.

[S Keith]

Without knowing some detail, it's impossible to say. What were your codes before and after?

What do YOU mean by "refurbishing?"

What is "the IMA battery charger for the Honda Insight 2000"?

[jscott]

I did not check codes before and after. Refurbishing would be discharging and recharging the sticks until they hold the charge under load. The IMA charger would be the grid charger you can buy online.

I had been recharging with the grid charger for about a year to postpone having to go through the ordeal of pulling the battery and reconditioning it. Finally, it was not lasting long and I pulled the IMA battery about 2 months ago, taking my time to recondition the battery sticks as I have two IMA batteries (one in and one out for reconditioning). I was very careful to put it together right, including making sure of alternating positive and negative sticks. However, that being said, I did not make an original map of the positive and negative positions. I did, however, mark the sticks on one side, and did not take out more than four at a time. Therefore, I likely did not get the polarities wrong. I checked them again before closing up the battery.

The car runs peppy, but the IMA light comes on right away (15 sec or so) when using the key. After resetting the code by removing the neg terminal on the 12v battery for 10 sec, I would get the light again. Like you said, I need the codes.

On the side, the grid charger fan was not working and the charger was beginning to smell of overheat. That is the second time my grid charger (first one was sent back for repair) has had a fan failure.

[jscott]

Update: Just went to Pep Boys for a free code check. P1444. So, this video helped me understand better what might have happened. I'm thinking maybe I overcharged a stick and caused leakage. However, I did not see any stick leakage when reassembling the pack. Perhaps there is another reason for the high voltage short that I am not aware of yet. Help please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ALJ47sIJq4

[timothy_dobson]

many suggest making a diy charger for topping cells instead of Prolong and other specialty devices. Thanks for the informative article on charging. Would like to see some of your vehicles and insight ( no pun intended ) the next time I am in Buffalo area which seems to be once a month. I prefer a smart way to rejuvinate batteries rather than a $3000 new one. When is the point where it is best to give up on the existing batteries?

[S Keith]

Originally Posted by timothy_dobson

many suggest making a diy charger for topping cells instead of Prolong and other specialty devices. Thanks for the informative article on charging. Would like to see some of your vehicles and insight ( no pun intended ) the next time I am in Buffalo area which seems to be once a month. I prefer a smart way to rejuvinate batteries rather than a $3000 new one. When is the point where it is best to give up on the existing batteries?

You're about 5 years late to the party. All the work has been done, and all the answers had. The information you're asking for abounds. I recommend about 20 minutes of google-fu, and you'll have more than you know what to do with.

Businesses that attempted to build on the idea that one can "rejuvinate" batteries to the point that they don't need any further preventative maintenance are out of business.

The people doing work on Honda IMA battery packs talking about reconditioning fall into two categories - the ones that provide 12 months warranty have no idea what they're doing. The ones that provide a 90 day warranty have it figured out - that's all you're going to get.

Here are the criteria:
1) grid charge your pack no more often than is necessary to maintain acceptable (not optimal as "optimal" is a lofty goal) performance.
2) when grid charging becomes more frequent and is no longer as effective, conduct a deep, low-current discharge, e.g., >1A above 1.2V/cell; <0.25A below 1.2V/cell. Limit low current discharge time below 1.2V/cell to 5 hours. Conduct up to 3 cycles. Discharging should be done only when absolutely necessary.
3) When grid charging and discharging don't produce acceptable performance, the pack is done. Yes, you could go through the pack and try to find/replace the bad sticks, but you can count on doing it at least a few times a year investing 10s of hours and days/weeks of downtime every time.

I have personally worked at the stick level on 12 Honda Insight/HCH1 and HCH2 packs. I got 4 mediocre packs out of the effort.

Steve

[brucepick]

S Keith,

Here are the last few voltage reading from a fairly recent charge cycle I did on my Bumblebee pack. I left out the beginning of the series here, just concentrating on the finish right now.

Charger puts out 350 mA, 200V max. Pack's cooling fan is powered by 12V while charging.

1:44 AM 171.09 V (I went back to sleep after checking V)
5:13 AM 171.50 V
5:46 AM 171.51 V
6:20 AM 171.51 V
6:50 AM 171.46 V

See how the V climb became very slow, then it stopped climbing, and then V began to dip? Was I right to discontinue charging? Should I have continued till the voltage climbed again, or stabilized? We're talking changes in hundredths of a volt, I'm not certain what tolerance I should look for when looking for changing vs stable voltage.

Thanks.

[S Keith]

Originally Posted by brucepick

S Keith,

Here are the last few voltage reading from a fairly recent charge cycle I did on my Bumblebee pack. I left out the beginning of the series here, just concentrating on the finish right now.

Charger puts out 350 mA, 200V max. Pack's cooling fan is powered by 12V while charging.

1:44 AM 171.09 V (I went back to sleep after checking V)
5:13 AM 171.50 V
5:46 AM 171.51 V
6:20 AM 171.51 V
6:50 AM 171.46 V

See how the V climb became very slow, then it stopped climbing, and then V began to dip? Was I right to discontinue charging? Should I have continued till the voltage climbed again, or stabilized? We're talking changes in hundredths of a volt, I'm not certain what tolerance I should look for when looking for changing vs stable voltage.

Thanks.

I really don't care to discuss the same issue with the same person across multiple forums (and PMs) - particularly about a pack that is under warranty. All you need to do is contact bumblebee. He will send you a replacement, you put it in and send the old one back. Your down time is limited to the swap time.

Steve

[barbus55]

Hi where in Florida are you? I would love someone to recharge/balance my Civic hybrid battery