...

aka "UV absorbing." that's it. nothin' else. Keep you seatcovers and dash from fading so quickly.

Toyota has the same policy. My battery died on Tuesday of this week. They towed it in and said the tests were "just fine" and sent me on my way. They said the re-charged the battery but the charge level was very low so I drove it around to charge it up some more. The battery level looked lower than it ever has but finally started to go up again. My battery died again on Saturday. I called the service department where they told me they cannot replace the battery if it passes the tests. It was also afternoon so they said they had no one to even deal with it until Monday (tomorrow). I asked him if they would replace the battery and he told me if it passes the tests, it will not be replaced. I have two small children and live in Scottsdale where the average summer temperature is 108. It's been as high as 115 this summer. Essentially, I have to risk getting stuck because of this battery again and again if it keeps passing the tests. It's not like I can go out and buy a new battery for this vehicle. I am hamstrung by Toyota. I angrily called customer service and they are opening a case file but this is ridiculous. I was the biggest proponent of hybrids when I bought this car last year. I have told everyone how it's just like owning a regular car which it was until this happened. It is not true and if Toyota does not take care of this problem I will be their biggest public relations nightmare. I bought this car because I thought it was the right thing to do and allowed me to carpool with other families. Now I feel like they are just using me as a guinea pig to figure out the battery issue. It's not just Honda. Apparently, it's industry wide.

Hi A few words about recals.
I have a 2000 5speed Insight that just crossed the 100K point. For the last 20K, I have had the MIMA system installed. MIMA lets you control assist and regen so you are not at the mercy of the on board computers. One of the MIMA users lives in CA, and has mountain climbs as a part of his normal commute, and has found that limiting assist on the climbs so that the pack can last the whole way up yields the best mileage. He has no problem recovering the charge on the way down.His report:
http://99mpg.com/people/hypermilerthermalp/

While NIMH batteries do not have the severe "Memory Effect" that NICAD batteries are so well known for, they do have a memory. I have been cycling my pack from nearly full to 1 bar sometimes several times a day, and have never had a recal. Is light use of the IMA one of the causes of recals? Can't say.

The recal is very likely one cell in the 120 cells that has lower capacity than the rest, and is determining the total pack useable capacity since the pack is a single series string. The charging system runs the charge from 20% to 80%, so the low capacity cell never gets any extra charge to try to rebalance the pack. Once you start getting recals, the system seldom gets better.

If you buy a NIMH battery from any of the actual battery manufacturers, it will have a warranty that states that when the useable capacity drops by say 20%, that the battery is considered at the end of life.
Honda seems to have set their threshold for end of life at some extremely low capacity.
I know of several people that only can use 2-3 bars of charge before they get a recal. 20% actual SOC = 0 bars, and 80%actual SOC = 20 bars. This translates into about 4AH of useable capacity.
If you only can use 3 bars out of 20, or 15% of the charge, you only have .6 AH of useable charge. You paid for 4AH, and only have .6. That should be the argument with Honda.
Hondas internal IMA monitoring software has some obvious bias towards not setting the IMA battery code of death, until things get so bad as to be dangerous.

I remenber a particular case where an Insight owner was merging onto the rush hour freeway in CA with a full pack, and while accelerating to match the speed of the freeway traffic, he got a recal, and lost all assist. The resultant loss of power at this critical time nearly caused an accident. He had been around this recal issue with Honda several times up to that point, with no satisfaction. He wrote a nasty letter to Honda, explaining that recals are not just an aggravation, but a safety related issue, and that if they do not fix the problem he would be forced to take them to court, and that he knew of many more people that have the same issues so a class action was not out of the question. His pack was imediately replaced at no cost.
Recals are an indication of a mismatch between the actual capacity of the pack and the expected (4 useable AH), and therefore are not normal but a clear indication of reduced capacity. How much reduction in capacity should be allowed before the pack is rebuilt or replaced is where Honda is stretching things way in their favor.
Mike

Mike
MIMA equipped Honda Insight # 007
PHEV booster drop down E-Wheel
www.99mpg.com