03 HCH w/ 120k miles and the IMA light came on today. Odd though as most seem to have either the MAINT REQ and/or CHECK ENG lights come on. Mine has neither. I have not had any issues with the battery, charging, or anything out of the ordinary. My wife is the primary driver of the car and she has recently been laid off from her job so the car has been sitting more than usual. After sitting for a bit, the battery reading would fault out for a second then show the correct reading...the manual said that was normal though. Other than that I cant think of anything that made me go "Huh?" What can I expect when I get the codes read? Cost seems to be astronomical for any of the hybrid parts so Im a bit worried as we are obviously a bit low on money now. How long can it be driven as is? This is the "go-getter" car and intend on driving it till the wheels fall off.

EDIT: Lemon Grove Honda quoted me $2500 for the battery replacement which is much more reasonable than I had expected...still expensive though. Does that sound about right to everyone whom has replaced theirs?

 

In some states the is a 10 year/150,000 miles extend warranty on the IMA battery. Worth checking out if you in CA.

 

Will do thanks for the heads up. I would think if anywhere CA would be the place to have it as they are so emission conscious. I got a letter saying it was covered under a 7yr/100k (when I had just rolled 102k lol)...but thats the only notification Ive received.

 

Yeah CA has it. I was trying to find the services bulletin for you to print out but my google search turned up empty. I think it is TSB# 00-070

 

The $2500 quote isn't bad. But you should check into some things first.
Make sure the problem isn't just an old 12V battery. These cars don't like to sit around undriven either, so try to drive it regularly so the IMA battery doesn't degrade.
Some folks have driven a long time with the IMA light on.

There was a warranty extension due to odometer over-reading issues; that was service bulletin 06-085

Also, read up on the recent HCH settlement which further extended the warranties.

http://www.hchsettlement.com/

 

Talked to the dealer and they brought up the fact that the car had been in an accident and said that it would void any warranty, probably knew from previous service records or something. We will see about all that...Also, speaking of having an old battery, my car has the original battery from 2003 lol...told myself a long time ago to change it but just havent. She starts strong as she always has so I didnt really have a reason to other than to prevent possible thermal runaway. Just for the record, Im always complaining to her to go somewhere and do something just to get the car out of the garage. I have a bike and truck that I need to balance out driving time on.

 

Weird...my wife got in the car the other day and the IMA light wasnt on. Maybe the system just had a fault or something idk. I will stay on edge about it and keep my eye on it.

 

Are you getting worse mileage?

After 8.5 years (but low miles - less than 50K) on my 2004 HCH, the IMA and Engine Malfunction lights both came on, and my MPG went down from ~40 to just over 20. After doing a computer update, the MPG only went up to 27MPG, and the lights came back on. They have to replace the IMA battery. Thank god that settlement extended the warranty another year!