I could use some recommendations. 2006 HCH-II, original owner, 117,000 mi, almost exclusive city driving with lots of stoplights. I've been refurbishing the battery pack for about 3 years now with the Prolong charger and discharger every 6 months with a simple full charge in the intermediate 3 month periods. While the refurbishes were very helpful at first, they have become less helpful over the past year and I've now got my first IMA code. So, I guess it's now time for a new pack. I am capable of swapping out the pack myself.

So it looks like there are a couple of options. Bumblebee seems to come highly recommended, but there are others. Some offer only refurbished, some seem to offer new or refurbished.

Can anyone with some experience recommend the best solution? I'm okay with spending $2,000 or more if it means I'll get a good pack that will give me many years of service. The car itself is showing a little rust, but runs flawlessly other than the pack issue.

 

Bumblebee. Period.

 

new w/ 3 year warranty
your profile does not include your state, so shipping cost could be a factor in the total cost (with regard to BB -further away from Oregon, higher the cost.
I just went straight to a shop very close to where I live, bought new w/ 3-year warranty, they installed it. total $1800
If something happens, I drive down the street and resolve it.

did your battery have 11 years/170,100 miles warranty?

 

I'm 100% certain no one builds them like Bumblebee. I have been to their shop and was given a very behind-the-scenes, not-for-public-consumption tour because we collaborate on a few things. They test every single CELL (all 132) and match using CELL data (not stick data). The Chinese sell them in boxes of 20 sticks that are supposedly "matched", but they rarely meet Bumblebee's criteria when you get down to the cell level.

Most just open the box put a voltmeter across the ends, confirm the voltage isn't abnormal and build a pack.

I could very easily compete with them at least on a local level and make good money doing it. Now that I know what they're doing, I can't justify not doing it the same way, nor do I want to invest the time and capital to do it. MUCH easier to just forward a caller to Bumblebee.

Again. Bumblebee. Period.

 

monday morning quarterbacking, last year when you observed depletion, should have went to dealer and replaced the battery under extended warranty?

 

Other than Bumblebee, there are some talks over at the Insight forums about building custom lithium packs, but likely a few years away at least:
https://www.insightcentral.net/forum...t-hv-pack.html
https://www.insightcentral.net/forum...ium-build.html
https://www.insightcentral.net/forum...on-thread.html

If my battery starts to have issues I'll probably hobble on until that comes out. Not that I have anything against Bumblebee, I just think NiMH has had it's day really, there will never be anything that matches the quality of the OEM Panasonic sticks.

 

NiMH is your only option for the anticipated life of the vehicle.

ALL solutions in process are "bolt-on" hacks that will represent substantial liability from any commercial perspective because they rely on work-arounds and spoofing.

Your CVT will likely fail before any of those projects come to viable commercial fruition, and it will NEVER be available for the HCH2. Period. No one is working the HCH2, and only a small amount of the G1 insight work will apply.

 

 

LOL... nice. Loved that movie, but "never" doesn't allow for a chance...