First a little background

HCH I, CVT, 2003

Battery Pack was replaced around 95,000 Miles. Note: there was never a battery problem. Turned out to be a bad relay. But it was all under warranty and I got a free battery so I never complained.

Present Day:

My car has been running great and I’m now at 160k Miles. The other night the 12Volt Battery Light came on and then the car died. If this had been a regular car I would have sworn it was the alternator. If you charge the 12V battery the car will run for a little while and then die.

Here is the crazy part though. There are no check engine lights nor has the IMA light came on. So I take that to mean the battery pack is just fine. In addition the pack is not that old.

Any thoughts? I have a buddy who is a former Honda Mechanic. Him and a buddy of his who still works at Honda took a look at it. Their conclusion is that I should replace/rebuild the battery but they fully admit that the problem has them stumped.

The next step is taking it to the Honda dealership….But frankly they are not too good with hybrids. They already replace the battery pack once when it was not a problem. I’m trying to educate myself a little before paying them a visit.

Jacob

 

Have you tried replacing your 12V battery?
Don't forget to write down your radio code if you do so.

 

Replaced the battery several months ago becasue of an unrealted problem. Just to be sure I took the battery to autozone and it checked out OK.

 

The HCH doesn't have an alternator. The 12V battery is charged via the IMA system with a DC-DC converter. I'm not an expert but this old thread explains it somewhat and you can Google for further info.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...ifespan-16762/

You mentioned the 12V battery was replaced recently. If you did it yourself did you check the cables? I mention this because I recently had to change the negative cable in my 2003 HCH because it was badly frayed (almost broken) near where it connects to the transmission housing. You might want to check that before going to the dealer.

Good luck...

 

I'll check the battery cables today. Didn't think about that one.

I suspect its the DC to DC converter based on articles explaining how the IMA system. works. My service tech buddies "claim" that the DC to DC converte is part of the battery pack and that the dealership just replaces the whole pack rather than replacing any components. If you get online you can buy the DC to DC converter BUT its 800 bucks. Thats a little high to randomly replace.

Anyone had similar problems? Anyone had a DC to Converter replaced rather than simply having the whole pack replaced?

Also anyone know what the warrenty is on a honda replacement battery pack? It would be awesome if you got another 80k!

Thanks

 

Update:

We checked the battery cables and they are ok. But on a more interesting note my mechanic found a guy willing to sell us a DC Converter for less than 500. Here is the best part.....If the converter does not fix the problem they guy will let us return the part.

I also found out that Honda Replaced Battery packs have a 36k/3year warranty. No good for me...But maybe that info will help out someone else.

I'll post the results when the part comes in.....

 

Hey Everyone

Its been a while but I wanted to post an update. We tried the new DC to DC converter and it DID NOT fix the problem.

The guy who sold us the DC to DC converter says he can rebuild the battery for 1400 and will warrenty the the battery. BUT will not promise that it fixes the car.

What bothers me is that there is no IMA light or engine failure code.

SO I have two questions. Has anyone ever had a bad IMA battery but had no indication via IMA light, engine liht, etc?

Second question does any have any recomendations for a battery rebuilder cheaper than 1400?

Thanks
Jacob

 

Have you tried asking over at:

http://www.hybrid-battery-repair.com/hch/index.html

Maybe he'd have some ideas regarding your situation.
Does the car throw any diagnostic error codes? That could help narrow down what the problem is.

 

Hello Everyone!

So my car is still sitting dead in the driveway. Honda pretty much just wants to start randomly replacing stuff. It really bothers me that they want to replace the battery BUT none of the rebuild palces will touch it unless you are actually getting an IMA light which I am not.

Any advice is much apprciated. I'm considerign turning my HCH into a giagantic fish bowl at this point.

Jacob

 

my advice (off the record) is to replace that hybrid system with a conventional SI drivetrain and Harness/ECU(hello front clip) then be done with it ^^