Ideas for better cooling the IMA battery in 2003 Honda civic hybrid.

[S Keith]

Originally Posted by samwichse

I 100% disagree. Not about the pulley-driven thing, but about the IMA use. Using your HCH1 with the A/C will flog your battery hard. It's almost impossible to keep the damn thing from assisting without A/C, with it on it's hard to keep it even from forced background charging.

As for keeping it cooler... you can always pull a Mike Dabrowski and run a duct from your rear A/C footwell outlet(s) directly to the IMA fan intake:
http://99mpg.com/mikestips/insightbatterypack/

Pictured is a gen1 insight, but you get the general idea.

If you have ever compared the IMA current behavior with/without A/C, you wouldn't have that belief. A 10% increased utilization of a battery falls well short of "flog the battery hard". Heat is the #1 killer of these big fat poorly cooled "D" cells. Trust me... I have a couple hundred failed sticks.

A duct for a civic up to the rear deck would be very ungainly.. and... you'd still have to run the A/C.

[samwichse]

I don't have to have that "belief." I have an OBDIIC&C and can watch the behavior in fine detail.

Running with A/C it's nearly impossible to keep it from eventually hitting the 30% SOC level without piling on tons of forced assist at every opportunity with IMAC&C. You can't accelerate the damn thing without assist.

Maybe you live somewhere with almost no lights and no hills? Do you, or have you ever even owned a first gen HCH?