The IMA light on my 2000 went on, and the code came back as P1449 - battery deterioration. The car has only 61,000 miles, but the warranty was cancelled due to an accident over a year ago (front end stuff). I bought it used with a prior salvage title. It's been running fine for a year.
Anyway - the dealer is saying around $5000. That seems excessive. I'm looking for a salvage battery, but if there is none, I'm a pokey driver, and will go without the assist if I have to.

But - I see on several other threads that people have negotiated with Honda to pay at least something for out-of-warranty battery replacements. Who do you talk to? The service mgr at my local dealer is not interested in negotiating. (I don't think they see very many Insights - I had to tell the guy that the usual warranty was 80K.)

 

I'd attempt going over the dealer's head.

 

5k is definately not worth it. You already seem to know you can run without a traction battery if you own a Honda (unlike HSD based systems). You might be out of luck with Honda due to that whole accident/salvage business. Still it couldn't hurt to ask....

 

eventually it may also stop charging the 12 volt battery. keep an eye out for that.

 

I'm a new ower, but before buying my used 2001, I called HondaCare and they told me that the battery is under warranty until 2011 or 150K regardless of change of ownership. You might give corparate a ring and ask how to make a claim for a battery! Good luck, Robert

 

Robert I'm guessing you live in a "clean" state. There are a few states where hybrids have MUCH better warranties than the other "non-clean" states.

Do you live in:

California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island or Vermont?

 

I'm starting with a different dealership - the one in LaCrosse (about 3 hours away) does a lot of hybrids. My local dealer is pretty clueless - when I asked if the diagnostic code could distinguish between a true battery failure and failure of one of the modules or even the wiring, they had to find ONE tech who could answer the question. And the answer was no - when they get the code, they just replace the whole module. He told me they're not even "allowed" to open it up, so he's never seen the parts inside. I know the LaCrosse guy has, because he's brought the components to the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair to show them.

Do you have a customer service number or name at Honda America?

Since the car is actually driving just fine, I am suspecting that the battery is actually OK, but there may be a wiring problem that is causing the dashboard to not register it. But fixing that would require more than just reading a code and replacing a module that may or may not be a problem.

Dash is reading full battery with no change (not likely in 20 degree weather) and no display for charge or assist. Yet, I'm getting OK acceleration, not the response I get when the battery is genuinely low.

 

If the battery is out, the IMA light will appear on the dash, the charge/assist bars will be out

 

[quote=fittonro;116104]...they told me that the battery is under warranty until 2011 or 150K regardless of change of ownership.

That 150K was extended for mostly warm states where they had a large number of battery failures. Minnesota is not on the list.
But my warranty was cancelled for an accident, not for mileage anyway. Otherwise, I'd still be covered under the 80K rule.

 

Would it read the battery charge level? Or would that light be out or read full?