Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

Hello All,

I've been driving my HAH for 3 years and 70K+ miles and have loved every mile of it so far. I've been very lucky in that I have not had any major problems (Knock on wood) so far. It's time for a new timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, etc. as I have passed the 105K mile service limit. I would love to drive the car for another 200K. But I don't want to spend $1,000+ to maintain the engine, only to have to spend another few thousand dollars to replace the IMA battery if it were to fail 6 months later. So my question is, when is does fail is there a way to disable the IMA and drive the car as a regular V6 (poor fuel economy in all unfortunately)?

I did own an actual Honda service manual for the 2005-2006 Accord Hybrids. I looked through it looking for just this answer, but did not find anything that specifically said do this to disable the IMA.

I wonder if it is as simple as pulling the IMA fuses and/or removing the rear seat to flip the On/Off switch on the battery module.

I've considered doing the above as an experiment, but I'm reluctant to do so for the fear of what might go wrong by pulling a fuse.

Has anyone had to do this? Can it be done?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

There is no way to disable IMA without getting DTCs set. And yes, you can drive the car with malfunctioning (to some extend) IMA system.
But if you live in one of CARB states then your IMA components covered for 10 years or 150000 miles (including IMA battery).

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

IMO the IMA on the HAH is so integrated that it might have some interesting and difficult to overcome problems trying to get it out of the system.

On the plus side the HAH uses the IMA battery so lightly that it should last a long time if driven frequently.

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

I tried to find a concrete solution for your problem but I think we cannot afford to remove and take away the IMA on your HAH because if we did then you might notice some problem. They are made for each other so if you disable IMA it won't run smoothly.

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

Update; I did ask the mechanic who worked on my car these questions. He was not %100 certain if you can or cannot disable the IMA system, he did say the IMA battery/system is integral part of the electrical system since the car does not have an alternator. I got the impression that even though the car has a 12V battery and conventional starter, the car still needs an operational IMA to convert/condition/step down the AC power from the IMA motor to 12V DC for the rest of the cars electrical components.

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

I think the IMA acts as the alternator on the vehicle in some way. If you were to disable it you have a lot of troubles. I may be wrong here but someone told me that one time.

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

It is exactly true. HAH does not have a regular alternator. It uses IMA motor as alternator and uses voltage inverter to charge 12V battery.

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

I was wondering if you have any idea if there is any way I can reprogram my key remote with out going too the dealer? Mine won't work for some reason and I called the dealer up and they want $40 - 50 to reprogram it.

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

Have you put a new battery in the remote? I don't think they last forever.

Re: Is it possible to disable the IMA?
 

Both remotes are bad at the same time.