HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

Hi,
I just bought a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid with some issues.
The car came with a spare battery, actually the whole rear bench. Previous owner got overwhelmed with the installation after he got the battery.

I'm new to Hybrids, the car shows the IMA light on, the MIL on, and the battery charging light on.
Reading the trouble codes says P1600 and P1559, looks like the NIMH battery really is bad.
The 12V battery is at 10V when the car is running.

Two questions for starters:
Will the 12V battery only charge through the IMA, there is no 12V alternator?

Before I replace the NIMH battery, is there anyway to check if its ok?
Peter

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

P1559 is generally not battery related: Motor commutation sensor A – circuit low input Wiring, motor control module (MCM) programming, MCM, motor commutation sensor, drive plate sensor.

Could be bad wiring from a critter's nibbles or a bad sensor.

1) No alternator. DC-DC converter to charge 12V w/HV. When inop, you usually see a red battery light on the dash. Rev to 2000 rpm and hold for 30 seconds. See if red light goes out, or if you get charging voltage at the 12V. When things get amuck, charging may be limited to about 1500-3500rpm with no charging outside that range.

2) Check 10X voltages to see if any of the cells have failed or if the pack is severely imbalanced:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f...tml#post261753

This will tell you if there are gross problems. Good voltages do not indicate a good pack, they just indicate there are no obvious failures.

Most should be above 15V and all should be within a 0.2V range (preferably closer to a 0.1V range).

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

Thanks, so I inherited more than one problem with the motor sensor. Does not seem to impact the car running.
I'll locate the 10x voltage connector. Nice that I don't have to open the pack.
Since the replacement battery has been sitting around for some time, it might be also deep discharged.
Peter

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

So I checked the connector, the link showed the HCH II, a little bit different, but the voyages were between 7.8V and 9.5V, not so good. What now?
Since the IMA light is on for some month, they might have self discharged. Is there any way for the car to try to charge them?
Next thing I try the 2nd battery I got, but since it was pulled from a salvage car, the cells also might have discharged.
Peter

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

here is the picture of the connector
Peter

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

Sorry. I thought I grabbed the one for HCH1:


http://99mpg.com/Data/Resources/down...erconnects.jpg

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

thanks Keith, that one matches.
still the same, the voltages are between 7.8 and 9.4V.
the spare battery pack is better, between 13.8 and 15.0V. I'll probably try to swap them out.
Peter

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

I assume the car is "cranking" off the 12V starter like a regular car instead of the smooth spin up of the gas engine (no sensation of "cranking")?

Try the following:

Disconnect 12V battery for 30 seconds.
Reconnect 12V.
Start car. See if it will charge the battery. If it doesn't, try again.

The above is something that is safe to do with the IPU lid off.

AFter a few attempts, check the taps again. If you see a rise, it's worth trying it again several more times times. Eventually, you may get over 14.4V per tap, and the car will charge at 4-5A at idle until the gauge reads full. If you get to that point repeat the 12V disconnect/reconnect and idle charge to full a total of 3 times.

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

I changed the HV battery from the very bad to the not so bad, cleared the engine codes (I assume clearing the OBD II codes does the same as disconnecting the 12V battery) and now the 12V battery is charging. One success, now I can at least drive the car.
The IMA light is still comes on after 1 second.
now i read the following engine codes.
P1559, P1570, P1600

Re: HCH-I IMA and charging issues
 

No. OBDII code clearing doesn't do the same as disconnecting the 12V. There are certain things various computers "remember" between drives. The MCM remembers the battery state. By disconnecting the 12V, you wipe all memory. All computers reset to their defaults.

The purpose in this case is to wipe the memory of the battery state for the MCM.

P1570 is new because the discrepancy in the taps is too great.

Please conduct the steps above.