I'd break it.

 

Had another recal driving home, got some angry tailgaters rest of the way home. I realized there are a lot of hills on my commute. I never even knew there were inclines on my commute with my 250hp Subaru.

Hybrid Automotive harnesses installed. The most painful part was probably taking the car seat back in and out. Would have been easier with two people I think. Also I can see why people would just pull their battery out, installing the harness involved way more steps than pulling the battery out would have. However I also see the advantage, as the harness can be reused with little pain even if the battery is swapped in the future.

I found a nifty location to route the harness by unbolting this small L bracket in the trunk and routing the harness under it. Now I can leave the harness in the spare tire well OR tuck it in the corner under my all-weather trunk mat. The tire well could get wet sometimes so I will probably leave it behind the trunk mat.




I was surprised to learn that the ductwork is rather elaborate on that fan, and that it vents to one corner of the trunk.

The dash had 8 bars when I parked the car, and grid charger started at 176v but climbed to 178 within a few minutes. It's been about an hour and it is now 180V.

 

Nice job. Once you do it 2-3 times, it gets really easy. I can completely swap out a pack start-to-finish in barely 20 minutes. Good news is that if the grid charger does you little good, or if the results are short-lived, you've made an investment that will work for your next pack.

The ventilation design requires a good seal all the way around the cover. The fan vents to the trunk creating a vacuum in the IMA cavity. Air comes in from the rear deck vent through the battery pack... and any gaps you have between the cover and the flange. As long as you didn't deform it significantly or create too large a gap where you routed the wires, all should be well.

Your voltage peak will likely be north of 190V.

Steve

 

There is a cylindrical space that is exactly the size of the original main harness, and the new harness had to share that space. All in all the amount of leak/seal should be the same, as there was a TINY gap before with the original harness and now there is a tiny gap because of the new harness. maybe I should have put some weatherstrip/foam on that gap but I think it's just as tight-but-slightly-leaky as before. I kinda wish that the HA harness was a bit flatter in design, but I think it works fine.

After 5 hours of grid charge it was 185V, then I had to drive the car to work. The good news is there was waaaay more assist through the whole commute and therefore much better overall car performance on this morning's drive. I'm sure in part due to the 100% SOC I had leaving my garage but my wild uneducated guess is that the SOC ceiling seen by the BCM is ever so slightly higher.

This temporary boost is *just* enough to get me to the weekend, when I will have time for the whole charge-discharge-charge routine. If this is the boost I can expect from a 5 hour topoff, i'm really looking forward to what a complete treatment can bring.

 

The grid charge bumped your weakest cells by about 30%, so you should see some gain.

I'm not sure what you mean about the "SoC ceiling seen by the BCM is every so slightly higher."

Here's how the BCM works on a macro scale:

For a given discharge current, there is an acceptable pack minimum voltage and 11 minimum subpack voltages. As long as the voltages stay above that minimum, the car will provide assist. For a given charge current, there is an acceptable pack maximum voltage and 11 maximum subpack voltages. As long as the voltages stay below that maximum, the car will continue to regen when able.

Now the details between the minimum and maximum are very muddy. It's not "on/off" but iassist and charge rates vary based on these voltages as well. As you approach the minimum, the car will taper the assist. As you approach the max, the car will taper the regen.

The SoC gauge reports where you are in this range. The process is iterative, and the BCM adjusts to the overall condition of the pack.

What you have achieved is a widening of the range by pumping up your weakest cells. Your weakest subpacks now have 30% more capacity before their voltage hits the minimum. Yes, you've also lost a little capacity on the top end due to taking the strongest subpacks to true 100% SoC, but there is a significant net gain. The usable capacity has been expanded.

Don't be surprised if you don't notice a wild improvement from where you are right now; however, the additional efforts will maximize the available capacity and increase the duration of recal-free operation before another charge/discharge is needed.

Glad to hear you are having positive results. Catching them early is very important, particularly on the 09-11 years or on Honda packs replaced since '09. Cell quality took a nosedive in 09.

 

Mine's a 2006.

I looked carefully at the system as I was installing the harness and it appears to be 100% original. It kinda seems like the seat back has been removed and reinstalled based on the damaged clip I saw at the top anchors of the seatback, but based on the lack of any marks/wear on any of the T30 bolts or any bolts beyond it, it looks like the IMA cover has never been open. So I think I am looking at the original pack from 2006.

By the way I had no idea I would need a T30 bit, although I thought I had read it somewhere before. Luckily I had an impact wrench kit with a T30 bit. I removed the first few bolts with my 18V impact driver but it gave a lot of kick and what appeared to be metal shavings flying around! So I used a hand wrench for the rest.

 

That right... got confused with another thread involving a 2010.

18V Harbor Freight cordless drill and T30 bit make cover removal/installation go fast. Way less damage potential than an impact driver. When installing, I just set to the drill torque to "10" and thread 'em in at full speed after starting by hand.

 

I did a full charge-discharge-charge using the Hybrid Automotive setup, with some questions/discussions occurring on the Insight Central forum:

http://www.insightcentral.net/forums...ion-hchii.html

Results! Overall IMA performance is, subjectively measured, more than 2 times better. Those SOC bars (just 8 blocks on the 2006 Civic) take more assist to drop and more regen to climb.

Tried the 4 mile hill again. Now I run out of assist 3 miles into incline and no recal, and I climbed with significantly higher acceleration. Car did not fully recharge until pretty much at the bottom of the hill.

THANKS everyone!

 

Thanks for the follow-up.

 

Another 50+ miles and impressions:

It was really hot, close to 90F which does not happen often here in Colorado. Because of the altitude (less atmosphere to filter sun) an untinted car can reach 150F in 80F weather here. So I had AC running full blast entire time. I drove as aggressive as possible to test performance, beat everyone off the line at every light and ran the full 75mph (speed limit) on highway. Driving in this manner I did run out of assist a few times--at 4 bars the car refused to provide more assist. Still no recal.

I only averaged 42MPG in these 50 miles but I think that's still healthy given how I was driving.

The only oddity is that the 7th bar of the battery indicator charges/discharges very quickly. It wasn't jumping on its own like when I had the recal, just goes through quickly when regen/assist is lit up. On the other hand the 5th bar takes FOREVER to charge and discharge. All of that seems like the BCM is relearning and/or Honda just made a very inaccurate SOC meter.