2001 Honda Insight IMA Battery Questions
 

Hello!!!!

I just picked up a Honda insight after reading the forums here for a good two years. I was previously driving a C5 Corvette as my daily and averaging around 25-30 mpg actually which is not that bad for a super car. Going from a vette to an insight is like riding a turtle.... :turtle:

The battery on this insight was apparently replaced at 140k miles and it now is completely dead at 177k miles, i only spent 1000 dollars on the vehicle because of this :):):):)

Im going to be buying a Bumblebee battery replacement for the vehicle and i sure hope that will last a bit longer since it is advertised at 30% longer life than OEM.

My question is why do these batteries die so fast and how can i make them last longer?

Thanks!

Welcome to the site He-man.

I admit I did chuckle when I heard the previous vs current car. :)

I'll let people better versed in the Honda hybrid packs answer your question.

That battery died prematurely. In the south, you can probably expect 10 years, and in the north, perhaps 15+ years out of an IMA battery. Heat exposure, and to a lesser degree, age, are what kill these batteries, not miles.

There are different degrees of dead, too. Do you get any assist at all? Does it start using the noisy backup starter, or do you not hear a starter when you turn the key (indicating it's using the IMA)?

If it's not too far gone, you can possibly resurrect it and get a few months to a few years out of it by buying/building a grid charger. I assembled one for myself for ~$30.

When you do get a new battery, I'd suggest grid charging it 2-4x per year to keep the cells in balance (don't do it more frequently as you can lower its life expectancy by frequently overcharging), and avoiding baking it.

I still have the Vette but, being environmentally conscious, i wanted something better on fuel. When i was test driving the car it was such a strange experience and i couldn't stop laughing it was so slow and dinky. But i love the car and even with just the gas engine i still got around 80 on the drive home on the freeway going 50-55. :)

I have a couple trickle chargers, will those work? Or do i need to buy one from eBay or something?

Can you give me a parts list for the 30 dollar grid charger?

That's kinda funny, too!

Hey, I'm a funny guy ;)

You can find the details in the build thread linked in my signature. Start on page 8:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...d-29288-8.html

You'll be building a trickle charger, but it needs to be able to provide at least 180v DC @ 350ma or less, and you'll also want to power the 12v cooling fan for the battery while you're doing this.

The units available on eBay sometimes have the ability to discharge your battery and then charge it to full, which gives a slightly more thorough balance, but you can do that yourself with an incandescent lightbulb, and I don't think it's helpful or even good for a battery that isn't on its last legs.

Is there anywhere that i can buy the cells for the battery separate from buying a whole battery? If i test all the cells and find a few that are bad where can i buy new cells? Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!