First gen Insight battery swap?
 

My gf planned a weekend getaway, to some resort that charges $22 a day for parking! But it turns out they have free parking for hybrids. My theory is that they are so high up on the mountain that they figure no one will make it up there! Ok ok you Prius guys would have no problem, but my antique with a dead battery pack would be holding up traffic. So, since my other twin has a functioning traction battery, I was thinking I would swap the batteries. Is this something that a few mechanically inclined people could handle? I was going to drive to the yard the other twin is at, park them back to back, and do it guerilla style with a helper or two. Any advice? The day I pay $22 for parking is the day I start paying retail for cars lol.

The pack is bulky and lifting it out is awkward but its totally doable. Just make sure both have been switched off and have sat for a bit before you turn any wrenches

If you're headed up a huge mountain, that pack won't last long anyways. You're just gonna have to live with revving that little engine to keep speed up. On the way back you can enjoy tons of regen.

That being said, I'd definitely still fix it... and $22 a day surely is rediculous!

Definitely doable.

After you do the swap and are done with your trip.

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I recommend testing the 'dead' pack for yourself.
Doing each one of the 20 sub-pack 6 cell sticks with one of the RC battery analyzers.

Batteries can fail for a lot of reasons ... some are non-treatable issues ... But , some of the the failure modes can be treated ... and can allow for more useful life to be extracted from the pack after treatment.

If you test the each of the 20 sticks in the pack you will be able to get an ideal of what type of issue there is ... and what might be involved in servicing / treating that issue.

The things I would recommend testing on each of the 20 sticks include:

• Discharge capacity ... Ah or Wh
• Internal Resistance ( separately for charging & discharging )
  • Can be reasonably estimated from the change in voltage ( dV ) of a rested stick under a known current rate of charging or discharging.

When going up mountains (of which there are a certain number hereabouts), 3rd gear is your friend. Even 50 mph in 2nd is doable.

One caveat on swapping packs. If one is from a manual, and one from a CVT, the battery control electronics (the two boxes mounted on top of the actual battery) are programmed differently. They'll still work, but you'll notice a difference in when & how much assist happens.

Other than that, it's easily doable by one fairly strong person. A cordless drill with a nut driver makes it go faster. Oh, and when you're removing the cover from the battery switch, there's a small bolt that screws in horizontally, which is easy to miss at first.

And wear your insulated gloves, just in case.

Ok thanks guys, I will get a helper and give it a try. I had to go a little ways up a mountain today with the dead pack and man I was holding up traffic. It would have been ok with a run at it, but there was a stop light (red of course) right in the middle. I think the guy behind me was going to get out and push for the first 100 yards after the light went green!