HCH at the dealer for service
 

Dropped my car off at the dealer I bought it from tonight. Because I have an open case with Honda Motor of America the service manager agreed to wave all diagnostic fees and provide a loaner civic.

I am hoping they will acknowledge that a Catalytic Converter on a 2007 with only 113,000 miles on it should not be going out.

They also are going to look at the IMA Battery. The car has recently been using the conventional starter as opposed to the electric starter. The IMA Battery will also show 6 to 7 bars and within five minutes of driving it will drop to 2 bars causing a forced recal.

I noticed the TSB-07-036 addressed a similar issue on the previous version HCH. What are the chances of this being the case for my HCH?

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

Regarding the TSB, I think that the HCH I that TSB-07-036 addressed (the ULEV version) and the HCH II are so different with respect to their emissions system that it's probably not the same issue.

Good luck though.

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

Welcome to HCH2 hell. No matter what happens now, fixed or not, your FE is never going to be the same.

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

True that, I put a set of Si rims on my car and now I get -5mpg, almost everything you do to these cars after they leave the showroom seems to drop the FE a bit.. it all adds up over time and you are left with a 30 mpg underpowered econobox….. I aim to change things in the near future, I am planning on offering a battery cell-level replacement for people in this predicament. I hope to be able to save people money and help myself make a decent living off of Honda's design flaw, I figure enough of these HCHI+II's with NIMH franken-packs were sold that a service like this might be necessary. BTW I am a 10+ year experienced auto electronics tech with an Electronics Engineering background.

I hope to have my service up and running sometime in 2011. I will definitely advertise it when I do. Btw I am based in the Southern California North County San Diego region.

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

I've thought about trying to do the same to my own car. You know it just takes a bad cell or two to slowly drain the other cells. If you had a way to identify and replace the faulty cells, the battery should be repairable without forcing users to upgrade to the crappy firmware that cripples the IMA system.

Have you opened up your battery already? I'm curious to know how Honda designed it to keep people like you and me from doing what we are talking about.

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

There are people on this site that have repaired HCH2 packs. Check some of the old threads. H

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

I plan on doing just that in the very near future(next month or 2) just so I can individually test each of my cells and replace any of them that aren't up to par. I have quite a few battery load testers and if i don't have one that will work, then I will just have to make or buy one that suits the purpose.

My IMA system is working very well right now so there is no other reason to do this than a little reverse engineering fun and as a preventative maintenance measure.

I will report what I find and how difficult it was after I do it.

And to Harold…. I know and have read some of the threads already, I will keep researching it for a while before I break mine open.

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

I never received a call from the dealership or honda motor of america regarding the diagnostics of my HCH. I took it upon myself to call the dealership yesterday morning. I talked with the technician that worked on my car and he claimed both the cat and IMA battery were bad. He said he was able to pull a IMA Battery Deterioration Code? If he was able to pull a deterioration code would the IMA Light come up on the dash? Could this so call software update that I got in August cause the system not to display the IMA light? I still have not received a courtesy call from the service manager regarding my case with honda. I have a feeling this case is going to get ugly.

I am also thinking that the software update had a lot if not all to do with the issues I am having. The software update made the gasoline engine work harder which in return would be more stress on the emissions system which then would be why my cat is bad.

New cost of cat is around $900 part and $200 labor.
New IMA battery rough estimate $4000?

This car is a 2007 with 113k, having to drop that kind of money out of pocket is absurd! I don't even own the car it is still be financed! Has anyone opened a lawsuit with http://chimicles.com/case/honda-hybrid ?

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

I have no reason to sue as mine is behaving… but this must be a real nightmare for those who fall through the cracks and end up paying for what Honda should pay for in my opinion.

Re: HCH at the dealer for service
 

I have looked into all of the sites that offer replacements and rebuilds, I believe Lion is the way to go and if my pack goes first, then that's what will be put in to replace it.