Hello, happy HCH owner for 9 years (bought in Mar 2008) now with 94,000 miles on the clock. Started to get the IMA warning light a few weeks ago, but not every day. Then a week ago got the engine malfunction light so took it to the Honda dealer who I bought the car new from (and always serviced with them) for the past 9 years. Car driving fine, and no problems with fuel economy dropping or the battery levels going up and down and IMA has been kicking in as per usual.

Dealership tells me that the IMA Control Module needs to be replaced to fix fault (error codes P1570 and P0A7F) at a cost of £2,100 ($2,700) !! Car out of warranty. But he did say the battery pack was ok, no problem with it so far.

Technician was not too helpful in explaining things and kind of shrugged when I said I don't have any problems with driving, fuel economy, etc. He just said if I don't fix it the car will stop eventually. Since getting this quote yesterday, the warning lights have not come on (but only a day).

I'm based in London, England

Any thoughts?

 

Based on my experience with 12 HCH2 packs (2006-2008), the dealer is wrong.


Your battery is likely failing, but is right at the threshold of acceptable operation.


The Honda service manual for a P1570 is absurdly inaccurate and can lead a dealer to incorrectly diagnose a failed BCM.


These batteries have horrible reliability records (failing 10-15X as frequently as the Prius).


Have you EVER seen your SoC gauge at 2 bars?

 

Thanks for the response. Yes sometimes the charge bars go down to 3 or 2. But come back up quite quickly after.
£2,100 is a lot of money for a IMA Control Module (whatever that is), then I'd need to fork out additionally for new batteries at quite an expense maybe sometime soon!

Any recommendations on what to do now? Thanks

 

I have never seen 2 bars under normal operation. Every time I have ever seen 2 bars, it's because of a negative recalibration - which is a sign of battery deterioration.


I recommend you pull the IPU lit (HV battery cover) and check the voltage tabs.


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