Reviving a 2000 Honda Insight "beater"

[RobertSmalls]

I rebuilt my IMA battery pack, and you can do the same.

[Red]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

I rebuilt my IMA battery pack, and you can do the same.

Yeah I'm not too worried about it. Just need to find the time to do it

[Dwffy]

Hi there,
I find your article on the Honda repair extremely interesting, but I am not too sure what the IMA drivetrain stands for. Pls explain what IMA stands for. I will probably kick myself for not knowing but at least it allows me to contact someone who has more mechanical talent and knowledge than myself. Thank you for sharing this article too.

[Red]

Originally Posted by Dwffy

Hi there,
I find your article on the Honda repair extremely interesting, but I am not too sure what the IMA drivetrain stands for. Pls explain what IMA stands for. I will probably kick myself for not knowing but at least it allows me to contact someone who has more mechanical talent and knowledge than myself. Thank you for sharing this article too.

No problem. IMA stands for Integrated Motor Assist. Basically its an electric motor that is sandwiched between the gasoline engine and the transmission. The concept is that most gasoline engines are sized to perform many tasks for a vehicle; climbing at speed, towing, running all accessories at once, high speed driving etc. As such the engine is "bigger" then it needs to be. What the IMA systems does, is allow for a smaller gas engine that is optimized for cruse conditions to be used with the electric motor providing that extra grunt when needed; heavy passing, sustained hill climbing etc.

HTH

[MechanicalRandall]

Any update on your battery pack? I have had to replace the packs on my insight twice, once under warranty and once not. (I tend to abuse the batteries in the worst ways)

Now that the car is out of warranty I was thinking of making the next swap with lithium ions or even LiPo.

Are you still at UCLA? What are you studying? I am graduating UCI in a few weeks!

Our EE's on the racecar team built a pretty stout electric car using LiPos and they seem to think making the swap in my Insight would be doable, but I want to find out as much as I can about the electronics I will need to interface with first, such as battery nannying, interface with the charging system, etc?

[jamesqf]

You might start by looking here: MIMA Honda Insight Modified Integrated Motor Assist - Is it too late? I think not if we act now Mike's the guy that developed the MIMA controller for the Insight.

It shouldn't be impossible for some good electronics types to do the Lion swap. I think basically you'd have to run a microprocessor in between the stock battery controller, and translate the readings - that is (simplisticly) if the stock battery pack has X KWhr, and a Lion pack 2X, you'd divide everything by 2.

[MetroMPG]

There's a guy in England with a lithium pack in an Insight, if I'm not mistaken.

Hmm... appears to be an additional pack for PHEV purposes, though, not a replacement of the OEM pack:

Yup: Home

[MechanicalRandall]

@jamesqf
I did actually check out that site quite a while back and after finding this thread yesterday I was highly motivated to avoid my homework and actually went back and scoured his entire website. I think today or tomorrow I am going to fill out the paperwork for and order the MIMA kit and build/install it over the summer.

When reading through his site I found where using the MIMA you are able to charge the battery to completion rather than having the IMA stop the charge when the gauge reads full. If your gauge has swung out of calibration, as I believe mine has, this is a potential solution to recal it. I have already wanted the MIMA for a few years so now is as good an excuse as any.

I definitely expect to be asking Mike for his help with the electrical after I am better educated myself.

@MetroMPG

Thanks for that link. Unfortunately, I think they are just modulating power into the standard pack slowly and the IMA thinks the standard battery is holding its charge longer.

What I need to do is find all the wires leading to the high voltage module and figure out what they are doing. Once I know what the module is expecting and sending out, it's a matter of making a "black box" with new chemistry but the same old wires...I hope.

[vectorges]

Great story

[Red]

Originally Posted by MechanicalRandall

Any update on your battery pack? I have had to replace the packs on my insight twice, once under warranty and once not. (I tend to abuse the batteries in the worst ways)

Now that the car is out of warranty I was thinking of making the next swap with lithium ions or even LiPo.

Are you still at UCLA? What are you studying? I am graduating UCI in a few weeks!

Our EE's on the racecar team built a pretty stout electric car using LiPos and they seem to think making the swap in my Insight would be doable, but I want to find out as much as I can about the electronics I will need to interface with first, such as battery nannying, interface with the charging system, etc?

Sorry about the delay in responding, finals sucked and I had a sister graduate so been busy busy. Computer Science and Engineering. BTW congrats on graduating! What'd you major in?

I think the main hang up is the BCM isn't designed for the feeding and care of a LiFo battery pack. And like Jamesqf said, the BCM would have to be circumvented or something to allow for this, as far as I've read. What do you do to your pack?