It looks like my battery is dying and I can't afford a new one at the dealer price. Has anyone tried hybrid-battery-repair.com or know if it is a reputable business? Alternatively, does anyone have a suggestion for where I can get a refurbished or lightly used IMA battery for my 2003 HCH? I haven't had much luck just trying google or e-bay.

 

Try your local salvage yards.

 

Any hybrid battery from a salvage yard has been sitting for 60+ days. Unless reconditioned, it will die in 9 months +/- 2 months. This figure has held true for more than 20 people who have relayed their experiences with junkyard packs.

 

After looking their sight over, I think you could have a very positive experience with their service, provided you call ahead and discuss the plan of attack.

I'm certain that if you set up your repair through them, tell the Honda dealer what their quote is, the Honda people would have to do something to try and keep the business.

The site did note it only supports 3 error codes.

 

I've heard them drop as low as $2,600. The problem is that the battery is at least $2,400 their cost ($2,150 + trucking).



No, there are other codes, but those three can ONLY be the battery module. All the others can be caused by other (cheaper to fix) things and those need to be ruled out first.

 

Ogre,

Have you had a bad experience with this site or do you work for Honda?

hahah, jk. Appreciate the feedback.

My single biggest concern is that the IMA is going to head south, so searching for alternative replacements is always something im open to.

What is your opinion, going forward, for companies to start up for the sole purpose of fixing hybrid car batteries?

As of now, the dealerships have it locked down, and they have no intentions to lowering the cost any further. It's sites like the one in the opening post which represent hope for all of us hybrid owners.

 

No, I'm the owner of Hybrid-Battery-Repair.Com

I take great care to not sell a service here, just to give out technical knowledge and advice. There are always alternatives and I do not slant my answers either way.

My personal opinion is that no dealer can give you anything that a competent independent mechanic can for anywhere near the price. Once the warranty is up, you should NEVER go through those REPAIR doors. (PARTS is another story.)

I am NOT here to drum up business, but to help keep people from being taken (like those who are actually under warranty or those who need a $50 junkyard part instead of a $600 dealer part). Check my posts. I have never pushed anyone toward my business.


I probably can't answer that here without getting in trouble with the moderators.

 

I am thinking about buying a 2003 Civic hybrid stick (with about ninety thousand miles) so I may need your service at some point. I wish there was a way you could post testimonials either here or on your website. Of course, the best testimonial would be the one where a long time Green Hybrid member used your service and reported the results here. I suppose it would be up to us to look for complaints about your service (if any exist).

On a different note, I assume your member name refers to the Steve Jackson games. I really enjoyed Orge (I played it some at my nerd college in the campus bar), but lost the game years ago. Keep meaning to buy it again, but I have no idea who I could recruit to play it.

 

I believe that I am in the market for the battery services, but your website has changed quite a bit since I first went to it. Is the only way to get battery work done now to go there in person for the removal and reinstall?

 

I am allowed to talk about things like this on the Insight specific board

insightcentral (dot) net

You will find plenty of people there who have had positive experiences with me. The cells in Insight and HCH batteries are interchangeable.


You are the first person in almost 15 years to make that connection. In fact, my eBay ID is GEV. How many years has it been since anyone was able to get a three character ID on eBay?

I actually have all the microgames. Did you ever play Rivets?