Thank you Hunter XXXXX.

Thanx for the info. As I remember they used NiCd batteries in cell phones
and the like but they had memory problems requiring discharge/recharge so
they went to NMH. I believe that is what is in the car. I don't know why
the parts people told me about low charge. I think this was a fairy tail as
an attempt to explain the short life.

The new program they put in when I got the "new" recycled battery
definitely maintains a higher battery charge much more that the old
program. It comes with a 3 year warrant. I will not have the car that long
so I do not appreciate the significantly reduced fuel economy.

When I was working on Hybrids about 23 years ag we looked at NiC batteries
but they seemed better at high power output but were not long lasting. I
tested a plug in hybrid built by GE. It was not really successful due to
batteries (lead acid) and engine (VW) mismatch. I developed a good way to
measure fuel economy and actual pollution in a rechargeable involving
national driving habits. My SAE paper was one of the best in that year. So
much for bragging.

My post was designed to solicit new battery installation and the effects on
fuel economy.

 

Sweat talk the parts manage,r he/she may be able to help. My second battery failed after 26,000 mi on it and would have cost $3200. My manager talked to sales people not Honda inc. and got me a 90% reduction. However my fuel economy dropped about 2 mpg as, I am sure, a result of a new program to protect batteries. The maintaining of a higher battery charge is clearly noticible.

 

I ended up getting a used set of 20 sticks off of ebay for $80 shipped. I was quite happy with that deal. I tested all 40 five times to try and get repeatable results. I'm pretty satisfied with the tested output of the cells I reinstalled, but I ran into a bit of an issue. When I first fired it up, it used the IMA battery to start the engine, not the backup 12V. Good sign I suppose. I tried accelerating uphill, no assist. I tried braking, no regen. I also have no bars showing on the battery gage. I did charge the cells before I reinstalled them. I pulled codes and got p1600 and P1558. If I clear the codes and restart, they pop right back up. The minimal info that I've been able to gather lead me to believe that these have something to do with the battery temp sensors. I read that these were optional as later model year civics as well as all aftermarket sticks do not come with ptc strips. Does anybody know how to bypass the ptc system? Is it as simple as unplugging a connector or do I need to jumper two pins with a resistor/thermistor? I'd like to fix the issue properly, once I know what the exact problem is, but for the time being, I don't want my newly rebuilt battery to perish.

 

Confirm your 12V is good. Did you disconnect and reconnect the 12V since installation?

Did your original sticks include the temp sensors? If so, did you transplant them to the installed sticks? I am not aware of these being optional. The temperature is used to determine if the fan needs to run.

This list of error codes from ampedhybrid suggest temp sensor related. http://ampedhybrid.com/obd-c1

 

I did unhook the 12V batt, codes/IMA light/CEL reappeared immediately. I cleared codes again, but they came right back. 12V battery is 5-6 months old and seems to be fine. My original sticks and the ebay sticks all had the ptc strips, I didn't remove the shrink wrap on any of them. I pulled my battery back out and measured the resistance of each of the strips. All were 1.1-1.5 Ohms. I checked the resistance of all the little red components on the jumper board and they were all within 10%. I checked the wiring that goes from the harness to the two ring terminals that connect to the first and last PTC strip, they're good. I tried swapping my original sticks back in, same two codes. With the old sticks installed, I'm measuring 22 Ohms across the whole PTC circuit, which is good. I did unplug the battery and clear the codes several times, but they come right back. I guess I should have written down the codes a few months back when my CEL and IMA lights first came on, but I didn't. I do know that I had three codes and now I have two. Can anybody tell me which module controls/tests the PTC? There are other wires inside the case besides the PTC, does anybody know what those are? Two of them look like they come together at a little resistor, but I'm not sure what for.

 

I believe you can remove those PTC resistors and put in 20 ohm resistors.

Sounds like yours must be shorting to high voltage. See thread:

http://www.insightcentral.net/forums...-strips-4.html

 

It ended up being one of the NTC thermistors. I replaced it with a generic amazon 10k piece and cleared the codes. So far, so good. It's crazy the difference that a strong battery can make. It's been a long time since I've heard a second gear scratch.

 

LOL... I'm assuming this is a manual... I can't imagine a CVT chirping a tire

Good on you. Glad you sorted it. It might be helpful to others to link the product itself and/or give the part number.

Steve

 

Yes, it's a manual. It was a generic pack of 10K Ohm NTC thermistors off amazon, no specified manufacturer. I could link, but it would be dead in a month. The only thing of importance here is that it doesn't take an OE Honda part to replace the sensor(s).