I have my first hybrid!! And I need help (07' honda civic hybrid)
 

It appears the battery is going out. Im going to get one of the reconditioning packs that are avalable, but not sure is that will do it. The IMA light came on once and then left, and code two codes over voltage spike and abs malfunction. To my understanding the ima battery imbalance or failing causes this and maybe the reconditioning will undo it?

This is an 07' honda civic hybrid, well out of warranty.

Sorry to hear that. I don't know a lot about the system you descibe, but I know that you might want to offer a little more detail about the problem and the proposed fix. This thread seems to discuss your problem: 05 HCH ABS / IMA Lights - GreenHybrid - Hybrid Cars

Today is a holiday, of course, so hang tight and see what responses come today/omorrow.

james

Well assuming I rule out battery, what else can be done?

It sounds quite strange, an IMA malfunction shouldn't have any relation to the ABS malfunction.

hard to say

Did you resolve your issue with civic?
I would question the 12volt converter and IMA.
The IMA provides voltage to charge the a 12volt battery, and the 12volt electronics. But it uses the 12 volt converter module to step down the voltage.
So if you're having weird failures that don't make sense. Don't overlook the converter as having problems, and or a marginal 12 V battery .
Additional;
I live in Iowa and have a pile of modules and near new IMA from a 2007 civic hibrid.
Between the two of us with might have a car running like new.
Jack

IM not far from iowa. Do you think you can do the battery reconditioning with a Hybrid automotive kit(which I have)? I have not solved it, and current I got an Ima code, but it went away after restarting the car. Its odd because it does this thing where it goes down to two bars, charges for a little while, then goes back to full bars, and after some use, skips down to two bars, and does that cycle again. Im guessing a few cells are screwed, but not all.

^^
You're describing recalibrating. I suspect you may have a few weak cells in your pack. As you use charge from the pack, those cells go below a certain cutoff voltage before the others do. When that happens, the system automatically bottoms out the meter and forces a charge cycle on the pack until the pack indicates that it's full. I'm not 100% on the processes at play here and if EM member S Keith comes on and says something different, listen to him. It was his guidance that walked me through getting my pack back in order.

I purchased a grid charger from Hybrid Revolt and wired it in. Took an afternoon - evening, really, and it was cold, and it didn't take long. That kept my system working okay for a while. Then I started getting more and more recals and the IMA light came on and stayed on. Obviously grid charging, while helpful, isn't everything you need.

Then I followed instructions to build a discharger. Following (some of, because I am a bit pigheaded that way) S Keith's advice I pulled the entire pack down to a total of about 55v DC. S Keith told me he has discharged packs all the way down to 2.0V DC, which is about as dead as a battery can get when you consider that total of 2.0 volts is coming from 144 cells. Done gently, it doesn't harm the cells. I have been enjoying a nearly-new performing IMA battery, though it seems to me that it's begun to get a little out of balance again and the next time I do the discharge, I'll pull it deeper.

I think your HCH is a generation newer than mine, but this was the process I followed when I was experiencing some symptoms similar to yours, and it has been working well since. For a few bucks building a discharger is easy.

Also: Honda hybrids tend to throw a whole mishmash of codes when the 12v battery is bad or ground straps are bad.

I would try it with a known good 12v and inspect your grounds as a very first step.

^^
OP is in Nebraska, Zed. 50% off won't cover shipping the car to the UK.

Monitor your 12 V battery voltage as you drive. Cigarette lighter plug voltmeters are handy
I would expect it should be charging somewhere around 13 to 14.5 Volts.
Turn on your headlights, fan, and slam on your brakes, whats the voltage?. errors generated as voltage drops below 10.5v to 11v might be undependable..
Check your charging voltage at Idle and at 2500 rpm's. It may be only charging properly and higher rpm's .
So what does this all mean ?
Get the facts and let's determine the source of the problem ,
J

Good advice to monitor the 12V system.

Expect to see this apparent oddity:
Voltage dropping from the "charge" level of 13.x or 14.x, down to 12.5ish, then dropping gradually to about 12.1V before popping back up to the charge level, usually 13.x V.

That is done deliberately by Honda's ELD circuit, which they've been using for something like 25-30 years. The idea is to avoid the load on the car's system, that comes from constantly keeping the 12V battery at the 14V that normal alternator systems put out. Energy gets wasted as heat that way. ELD = Electrical Load Detection. It's essentially an amperage detection circuit, along with voltage detection. As long as volts is above the threshold (which seems to be 12.0V on my display), and current use is below some preset limit, it doesn't charge the battery. Once the 13.x charge system is cut off, V will slowly float downwards, often taking several minutes to reach the low limit cutoff. Then the ELD system reactivates charging, and it goes back to 13.x V.

The fact of the battery absorbing charge is one of the "loads" detected by the ELD system. As it approaches being fully recharged, it draws current more slowly. So when that load, plus whatever else is running, comes back down to some preset level, the ELD system discontinues charging and system voltage gradually drops again. It's a cycle.

There seem to be a few built in bypasses to the logic. If headlights are switched on, it jumps to full charging voltage as long as they are on. Early examples of ELD let the headlights dim, then they'd brighten again under full voltage. Was very disconcerting to drivers. Also it stays at full charge voltage for a while after startup, just on principle. Heavy use of fans, wipers etc. would likely be enough load to keep it at the full charge level. Most stereos don't use enough current to force it into charge mode, but if you have big subs and a separate amp - that probably would keep it running at the 13.x V level.

If you swap in a significantly larger or smaller 12V battery, the rate of voltage drop will change (a higher capacity battery will have the voltage drop more slowly). But the system still functions.