With my continued gas savings I bought this! (2001 Insight)

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

The first tank without the IMA functions is going better than I expected.

At 342 miles the FCD is reading 75.2 mpg and still rising, so now I'm not sure where it will top out. I didn't think it would go over 75 mpg, now it's already past that mark and there are still over 300 miles left on this tank to bring it up

Sounds like it's even better than when you had the battery hooked up.

[cowmeat]

I know, right? It's gonna be real close to what I can pull off with the IMA functioning!

The good news is that my kid thought he killed his big battery the same way I did, and and about a month afterwards it resumed its normal functions. I think I'll leave mine off for another couple of weeks and see if sitting it idle will bring it back. If not, at least it's still drive-able and hypermile-able

[cowmeat]

Update on the first tank without IMA function:

I really missed the autostop/start feature Friday. I dropped the mpg from 75.2 down to 72.8 dropping my kid off at the Orlando airport, sitting for an hour on 417 waiting to get back onto I-4. FYI: Do NOT drive within 20 miles of Orlando on Friday afternoon if you want to maintain a good tank! To make matters worse, we have the first tropical storm of the season sitting out in the gulf dropping large amounts of rain and blowing my car all over the place!

I was able to bring the FCD back up to 73.5 by the time I got to work this morning, but I don't have much of a tank left to work with.

Anyway, it's going to be a close one to make 700 miles for the tank, not sure I an pull it off now, but I'm gonna try.

[cowmeat]

Success!

Made my goal of 70 mpg and 700 miles for the tank! Not a big deal in this car, except the tank started out at an abysmal 64.6 mpg at 75 miles due to the constant recals from my dysfunctional IMA battery, so I turned off the IMA battery and drove the rest of the tank without assist or autostart/autostop.
I sat in Orlando traffic at a dead stop cursing for an hour with the AC cranked, and drove a couple of days battling a tropical storm, so there was a lot going against me for the last couple of weeks.

Basically my car is now a pimped out Geo Metro, but it's nice to know I can still hit 70 mpg with my regular commute

[cowmeat]

I'm learning to drive the Insight a lot more efficiently after losing the IMA functions.

This tank put me back to the mpg I was pulling with full assist, and other than the speedier take-offs I used to get with the battery functioning, I haven't really missed it.

I'm starting to think my grid charger is what killed it, rather than the discharger. My son grid charged his using the same grid charger this weekend and he's already having issues.

[Ecky]

Interesting, have you verified that your current charger is running the fan properly? What's the charging current?

[cowmeat]

Nope, never even thought to check! I guess that could definitely have a negative effect if it wasn't running the fan

Charging current reads like 3.5 something . . .

[Ecky]

3.5 what, I wonder? If it's amps, that's definitely too high, 350ma is more typical. When I rebuilt my grid charger, I raised the charging current from 350ma to 500ma, and as a result I'm a lot more careful about the temperature outside, and leaving it overcharging.

[cowmeat]

I dunno, I could be wrong, it could be saying 350 like yours, I know it had a three and a five . . . . That would suck if I killed it by not having the IMA fan working. Especially with all the trouble I take to put sun shades in the front and back windshields every day, lol!

[NoD~]

When I give the IMA battery fan 12v, it's LOUD. Easy to tell it kicks on. I'd say plug in your harness and just listen. If you don't hear it sound like a vacuum cleaner running in the room next door, it's probably not working.