I totaled my car about 6 weeks ago. I don't remember what the battery level was when I got hit but do remember having the car off and hazards on until the normal battery died.

I want to get a hybrid with a dead battery and put mine in it. I pulled my battery yesterday. After pulling it, I tried to get a reading with my multimeter to check the voltage. It was showing zero.

I wanted to confirm that:

- there is not a circuit that has to be activated to for me to "turn the battery on" (The circuit that the large on/off switch behind the small plate would activate?)

-If the battery is dead, could it be damaged from sitting that low for 6 weeks? We have been down in the 20-30 for temp over the last two weeks. Prior to that between 30-50 degrees. This battery is only a few years old as it was replaced during a recall recently with an oem unit at the dealership.

The accident may have cracked the intake manifold, since the throttle cable freely moves and when it is running, it is bouncing off the rev limiter. So, I cannot just pop the IMA battery in and start the car to let it charge.

Any comments are appreciated. thanks.

 

You need to check voltage here (+ and - "charge" locations). Master must be on, and you need to be careful:



Anything above 144V is fine.

You should also check and record all your tap voltages as described here:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f...tml#post258791

These can be checked with the master off.

EDIT: If there is not visible damage to pack, it's likely fine. You won't get voltage at the main terminals unless the 12V relay is energized. The welds between "D" cells in the sticks can break, but it's highly unlikely as they are supported at multiple points within the pack. It's a remote possibility, but probably not worth checking unless another problem develops.

 

thanks so much, I will be doing this tonight. If the battery was low when I got in the accident, and it was like this for the last few weeks, could it be damaged?

so then checking the voltage where the two large lugs connected is not supposed to show voltage?

My biggest concern is that I buy another civic with a dead battery and when I go to put my battery in it, my battery ends up being bad from sitting in the cold at such a low charge.

 

Please check my post again. I edited it.

Generally speaking, no. Sitting doesn't hurt these batteries at all. Trying to use them when they're in an extremely low state of charge can hurt them. If your main voltage is above 144V (>156V even better), AND your tap voltages are within a range of 0.2V.

Honda IMA packs took a nosediving in quality around 2008-09 with 09/10 HCH2 failure rates at >30% after 3-4 years. Search this site for posts by me with key word "primearth".

I vigorously recommend you check the link in my sig and obtain an LED power supply to charge your pack and fabricate a discharger to discharge your pack. The LPC-100-500 would be the easiest.

Given that your pack was previously healthy, I would follow the usage instructions on the sheet except terminate the 25W discharge at 96V.

EDIT: WTF... I typed a whole paragraph that is missing... Please re-read this message.

Anyway

 

awesome. that is a relief. I really appreciate the input. I will move forward as you have suggested.

Another question you may have an answer to: when Honda replaced the battery during the recall, they also replaced the "module" or something along those lines. I assume this is the component that determines how aggressively the system charges and assists. I was told that the batteries were going bad because Honda originally make the system too aggressive with the assist and not aggressive enough with charging, which caused them to always run at a low state of charge and prematurely fail. Is there any truth to this, and if I replace another civic's dead battery with mine, would you suggest putting the other parts of the charging system from my car in the new one as well?

 

To my knowledge, the ECU updates to address battery management have only been issued to the 2006 and up due to their much higher failure rates.

You will need to match your pack with the BCM in the car; however, that is as easy as cutting a wire or adding a resistor as I describe here:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f...tteries-30663/

Obviously, as you suggest, you can always swap that out too. That would be my recommendation; however, I can't say that all '03-05 BCM are completely interchangeable. I expect if you manage to find an '05, you'll be fine - maybe '04 as well. whatever the case, you're likely not more than a patch, wire clip or resistor install away from functioning.

I believe the only part you need to swap is the BCM - the box the orange connector plugs into.

 

great post !