IMA Experience Unfolding
 

My 07HCH has been reliable and good to drive (59K, CVT, NAV). Over the weekend, I hit a speedbump.

• Saturday: IMA, battery and check engine lights go on. After driving it home and trying to restart, lights stayed on. No assist. Car is a sled.
• Monday: Get car to dealer in the evening
• Tuesday: Dealer calls me with good news. The 12V has a bad cell. Will replace that and see if that does the trick. Later that afternoon, a bummer--fix doesn't work, and they've been on the phone with Honda Techline--they're going to change the IMA motor drive
• Wednesday: Good news. Motor drive arrives--it didn't take days as they expected. Bad news. It doesn't do the trick. On the phone with Techline some more and the next thing to try is the 'control module' that takes two days to get in. They asked about getting me a rental during this downtime. No go.
• Thursday: ???
• Friday: Hope the fix goes in

Anyone with a similar experience. What next? What's the over/under on how long I will be without the HCH?

How many parts are there to this IMA system?

Thanks..

Re: IMA Experience Unfolding
 

My recent experience was with the CVT, but if you replaced "IMA Motor Drive" with "Transmission Plate" and "Control Module" with "New CVT" in your post, my story reads very similarly. Kinda makes you wonder how much they (Honda Techline) really know about these cars--I guess there is a lot going on with them though...

Re: IMA Experience Unfolding
 

Truthfully, I can understand and even appreciate doing troubleshooting by narrowing down the causes. Having said that, I am wondering how much of the original IMA is going to be left after all this!

Anyone have similar experiences??

Re: IMA Experience Unfolding
 

kristian -- what is a transmission plate?

Re: IMA Experience Unfolding
 

I don't know, I had never heard that term before and since it didn't fix the problem, I didn't ask them about what it was.

Last Chapter: IMA Experience Unfolding
 

Picked up the HCHII over the weekend. After 5 days in the shop, here's the tally:

(1) 12V battery changed - $130
(1) IMA 'motor drive' - warranty
(1) IMA 'control module' - warranty

Total damage - $130
Warranty to be paid by American Honda - $3940
Total work for the week - $4070

And the result? The car seems to be driving okay. I am a little suspicious so I keep my eye on the guages. So far so good, but I do notice that there are different charge rates happening (I have different levels of charges on the same roads compared to what I originally had). Is this good or bad? I don't know. Monitoring MPGs, too. Most important thing is that I need reliable transportation.

When I asked the dealer if I should worry about the battery pack longevity being affected, he said 'well you have plenty of warranty left.' Which was true--in CA I think I have 10 years/ 150K.

On a positive note, the result seems good (so far). The dealer (Diamond Honda) wasn't as bad as reviews lead me to beleive. In fact, Tony was actually professional, straightforward, and personable.

Lansing

Re: IMA Experience Unfolding
 

Good news. Hope your good for a few years. Thats enough for awhile, I would say. H

Re: Last Chapter: IMA Experience Unfolding
 

I'm glad to hear things sound OK again! Keep updating this thread if you have any future problems with it, but my fingers are crossed that you don't have to!