Oh, yes, I have emailed them. I may need to call them then.

Thanks!

 

Absolutely, positively give them a call. There may be a way you can swap the boards between the two packs, or he may have a different solution.

 

How's your battery? Hope you were able to resolve with bumblebee.

 

Hi sorry I did not close the loop here.

Actually I contacted them, the suggested a few things but finally I had to take the car to the dealership. The issue was incompatible battery types, SB1, 2, etc.

So mine was SB1 and the replacement was SB2 and therefore it would not be recognized by the IMA system. They went through a lot of checks to find that out. Finally, they updated the software for the right battery type and things were all working fine.

I shared this with Bumblebee. They offered even to cover the cost. Although they never did and I did not remind them. Anyway, the battery is working fine.

I think honestly it is their responsibility to ask about the type of battery upfront. As I understand there are more than a couple of different types. Then either provide the same type replacement (which is hard I know) or just warn that you may need a software update.

This means you can not do it at home as a DIY project.

Hope this is helpful. Thanks everyone for all the advice and help!

 

How much was the update?

First, had they asked you your battery type, would you have been able to answer them?

Second, I agree they should convey the potential need for an update.

In retrospect, I expect their experience with accord hybrids is much lower than with Insights and HCH1/2 due to the much lower production numbers, and they may not have the accord-specific knowledge fully nailed down.

 

Hi Steve,

The update itself was $120. But the whole screwing around and not finding the cause was another $200. It took them two days to find out what the issue was. They offered to change the MCI (?) and this board and that board but I insisted I don't want any of those since I knew it worked perfectly fine with my own old battery therefore nothing else was wrong.

Why they could not find out what the issue was? Because I changed the battery myself. To your question, there is a sticker on the battery, big white sticker saying "Battery type SB1 or 2", large bold font. Apparently when Honda dealership changes the battery, they put the same sticker on the frame of the driver's door, so when you open the door, you easily see it. Of course, I did not know this rule, never actually noticed it. So when these guys looked at the car, they went by the sticker on the door frame and assumed the battery in the back was the same type.


When they could not find the cause, I told them to put the old battery back in (it was in the trunk ) and as soon as they took out the backseat they saw that the sticker on the battery does not match the sticker on the door. This time they used the right software and the issue was gone!

 

I stand corrected

 

Now one thing that is disappointing to me after all of this is that the MPG is about 15-16 mpg. It was around 25 mpg for a few days right after I changed the battery and then it went down to 16 mpg and now is even lower 14-15 mpg. The same thing happened after I used the grid charger. I thought the batter was old and grid charger did not do much for it.

I am assuming the very low MPG is from the very frigid temperatures we are having these days in Boston but even when it was a bit warmer, in city, it was usually around 6 mpg.

This cannot be old software since that was updated recently.

 

Boy that was frustrating. Hope your mpg will go up more.

 

I can't even relate to the numbers you are typing. 6, 14-15 mpg for any small six is ridiculous. mpg takes a big hit during extreme cold, but this is ludicrous

Hybrid or no, there is a major contributor to your bad mileage. I suspect it's drastically altered driving/environmental conditions, etc. Extremes are not the best time to establish economy baselines.