Recent events and postings by folks on this forum have gotten me wondering about honda IMA and battery issues. I have only read about these with respect to Insights -- but not for the civic or accord hybrid. And also I believe I have only heard about 'recal' in the context of the Insight.

The most obvious reason is that the civic and accord are more recently introduced (2002 and 2005, versus 2000 (I think) for the Insight). And thus they don't have the number of miles on them, in order to run into these types of issues.

But if it is a common issue, that will effect everybody's IMA and battery, then I'm thinking that somebody with a civic or accord might have run into this issue, and might reply to us here.

Or maybe you just have an opinion about why, or why not, those of us who own hybrid civics and accords should be worried. Or not.

It's an important issue because even though Delta Flyer just dodged a 6300 dollar bullet due to the benevolence of his Honda dealer, and Honda itself, I'm not sure the rest of us can expect such a favorable resolution, if the situation arises.

coyote,

I appreciate you and Adam_HybridCivic (who did the related poll- Battery Replacement ). To be informed is to be armed.

An Insight forum seems to indicate the 2000 Insight is the most vunerable to battery failure, so that suggests that part of this could be the pioneer aspect (1st hybrid Honda). I can understand the concern as you don't want battery failure even if you can expect to put it off to 150,000 miles.

We need to document this to find out what if anything we can do to prolong battery life.

Either a thread (such as Battery Replacement) to document members with battery failure or a database could be very helpful.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

I think it's just 1st gen woes. The 97 Prius used a similar battery and it had problems too. Toyota replaced them all for free as they failed, but that model was only sold in Japan, as it was the shakedown model. Honda could have probably done the same, but I guess having the first, most fuel efficient hybrid in North America was an understandable goal.

Sounds to me like it's also the battery computer that had some flawed software that could only be replaced by replacing the battery and inverter + ECU, so I think the HCH is much less vulnerable to this particular flaw, although you will probably still want to do whatever you can to prolong the battery life.

2001 Prius Photos       2005 Prius Photos
'97 Prius Simulation Prius inner workings

• NEVER let the 12-volt battery go dead - it will cause the hybrid battery to go dead too.
• Avoid driving in a manner that causes frequent recals. Prolonged acceleration, aggressive stop-and-go, extended hill climbing can cause this.
• Park the car in a garage when possible to avoid extreme temperatures
• If your car is in a collision, check to make sure everything electrical and hybrid is working properly (autostop wiring was not done in my case).

Stuff I'm not sure of....

• Forced autostops - does more power surges risk damage to the MCM and BCM black boxes protecting the battery, etc? Don't know. Hypermiling is not worth damaging the hybrid battery.
• The MIMA upgrade - As much as I'd like to get a 20-30% boost in fuel economy, I'm not as willing to consider this.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

That is my leaning at this point. That and my 12-volt battery went dead, then made the hybrid battery dead twice.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated