As always, I appreciate the help.
I checked, there are at least two Honda dealers in my area besides the one that wants to charge $133 for evaluation. One says they'll do it for free. I have one more to call. I think my current dealer is going to get a bit of feedback from me...

I used my OBDII reader and app. It says No Trouble Codes. Also have the attached screen...

----and the latest news: called that third dealer, says they'd charge $80 to hook it up to their computer to determine the condition of the battery, but to qualify for the 9 year warranty replacement, I'd have to have a clear fault code, meaning my trouble light would be on, which it's not....yet. I guess I need to drive the car pretty hard the next couple of weeks while I lead up to 9 years of owning the car.

 

If you don't have a CEL, you generally won't get codes unless they're pending or historical.


Again, dealers can absolutely, positively look at the IMA system and give you a hard value on your battery health (HCH2).

 

Thanks, S Keith...you are, as usual, our guru.

Not that I know what a CEL is, but I think I'm just going to schedule a service visit to the dealer that doesn't charge for the diagnostic. (Of course, they're the longer drive, have to go from Portland up to Vancouver, WA...!).

As I said, if push comes to shove, I'll be visiting Bumblebee. One option I have is to pay them to do an "intelligent recondition," which is spendy, but provides a prorated credit toward a new battery back. Another is to just go for a new battery from them.

 

CEL = Check Engine Light.


If you go the Bumblebee route, I highly recommend you just buy a new pack. I installed one recently in a customer's car, and it's performing flawlessly. Peace of mind for 3 years.

 

I'm not so sure about not comprising IMA function. Many complaints out there from HCH1/2 drivers that want the old fw back.

With the current firmware, there is a lot less boost. I see that when starting from a stop- it used to be that you would get full bars of boost for a lot longer. Now, you get a quick pulse and that's it for IMA assistance.

Nothing comes for free in engineering-land. (Disclaimer: I work with software, firmware, and hardware for a living.) The fw was, imo, a quick panicky release in response to all the battery problems out there. The apparent goals were:

- Do not light IMA trouble lamp until much later than before. Basically, let the dying batteries deteriorate into the ground. Kick the can down the road. It took two years of crap performance and many daily regens before I saw the lMA lamp again.
- Limit use of IMA system. Thereby "saving" the battery, by using it a lot less. But this means a less powerful car by definition.
- Limit use of IMA based on air temperature

 

I owned 2X HCH2. One was pre-patch. I didn't notice any decrease in mileage. With conservative (add 2 minutes of driving to a 26 minute commute - mostly city streets) driving, I was able to get 51-52mpg post-patch. Regular driving with the traffic flow was 44-46mpg. Driving like an idiot was 40-42mpg. Again, all post-patch. It's current owner is still getting 41-42mpg with a recalibrating battery (2/day).


The second HCH2 was purchased after the update and had >200K miles on it. It just wasn't as tight as the one we owned for 70K miles, and I could never get >50mpg on the same commute. It was always a few mpg behind.


"Apparent" goals are speculation. imo is by definition, opinion. Given that these issues had been apparent (to Honda) for a couple years by the time the patch came out, describing it as quick and panicky is a position hard to support. You can be sure that as soon as they saw the massive warranty spike in 08-09, they were heavily investigating the issue all while denying there's a problem to the public. That's how it works.


I have probably a couple hundred hours of LOGGED Prius drive data. It looks a certain way. Watching the battery behavior during HDS connected HCH2 drives looks exactly the same compensating for the smaller system. This is data, not speculation or opinion. If there was a way to capture and extract the HCH2 drive data, I would have.


The BCM is limited to 100A load and 50A regen. Always has been. I routinely saw both at the expected times and for durations indistinguishable from the Prius behavior.


Honda's battery management was sub-par... until the patch.

 

---
Alas....I may talk some more to my own dealer, the ones who want $133, but essentially all the other dealers are telling me that they can run the HDS, but if there's no stored trouble code (OBDII, I presume) and no trouble light on, warranty replacement is not going to happen, as Honda won't spring for it.

Anyone have any information to the contrary? [Of course, I know that one week after my 9-year warranty expires, the IMA light will finally come on...]

ck

 

There is the occasional tale of a replacement w/o IMA light due to excessive recalibrations and horrible mileage. You'd need to document that and likely get Honda corporate involved.

 

Hi, I have a 2007 Honda Accord Hybrid and I got my check engine and IMA light on last week. I showed it to a honda dealer and got it diagnosed. I was told that my IMA battery needs replacement and quoted me some $3100 for replacing it.

The technician also told me that if you dont want to replace the battery, you can continue driving the car but since the check engine light is on, the car wont pass the vehicle inspection.

So I got my car back and thought that I will find some good deals on Hybrid battery and would replace sometime later. However today when I tried to start my car few days back, the car wouldn't start. I got it jump started and it started fine. But today my car again did not start and even jump start didn't help.

Can anyone suggest me if what is the problem? Is it because of Hybrid battery or some problem with starter? Does hybrid battery assist in charging the car?

Thanks much for your help and support.

 

I am much less expert than many on this forum, such as S Keith. However, it does sound like you have a dead battery.

If my not-quite-yet-dead IMA battery isn't covered under the 9-year warranty, I would get a new battery from these folks. People on this forum have said good things about them, and saving nearly $1000 is a nice thing:

https://bumblebeebatteries.com/strai...y-replacement/