Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

Steve

Thanks and I agree 100%. I have said up front to my dealer that I don't wish to waste his time chasing ghosts and am willing to work with him.

Following his advise and simply reading the e-mail I sent to my dealer to Honda Canada elicited an immediate 'legal slant' reply from Honda Canada......a reasonable person could construe that when told of no IMA assist during hard acceleration, Honda Canada is taking a pre-determined (scripted) course of action to achieve a desired (for Honda Canada) result.

So I think I'll just leave any liaison with Honda Canada in my dealers hands. It is going to be up to me to provide an example of 'a hard fail'.

Thanks

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

Navguy 12, in mid-2010 my 2006 HCH at around 25K was not operating properly. Frequent recals, lower mpg, no IMA at critical moments, etc. I left it with the dealer. They inserted a device to capture performance date and drove it for 3-4 days. The mechanic experienced all that I had but there were no system alarms, thanks to a software "upgrade", which made the symptoms worse.

The service manager waited until he had an on-site meeting with Honda America's regional manager to plead my case. It took some time but finally the IMA battery was replaced gratis. Hopefully your end result will be the same.

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

OK cali, thanks. I'll keep that segway in my tool chest until such time as I may need it. My service manage has said there is something the tech team has told him to check.....but I suspect that I'll hold off bringing it in until the situation degrades such that I fail to get assist 'often'. Right now, it has only happened the two times and I have the time and mileage remaining on the warranty to completely understand what the pre-conditions will be for no IMA assist....

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

Side bar question: in an attempt to see if any 'stored codes' are in my car's system, I attached my trusty OBD II tester to the applicable DTC connection point.

Following the correct OBD II test procedure, I got an 'unable to communicate' code. I tried it a second time with the same result.

A friend let me use his OBD II tester. Same result: "error, unable to communicate".

Now when my software was updated in late summer 2011, I know that the dealer had to use the DTC connection point with the Honda laptop computer plugged in to same to do the software update.

Question: do I have a possible wiring/ground issue, or do these cars require the actual Honda laptop computer plugged into them to read any codes?

Thanks

Mike

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

I have a cheap code reader. It will not read my 2007 HCHII but will read my 2002 Maxima and my daughter's 2006 Honda Pilot.

I think some of the cheaper code readers will not read the HCHII.

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

Jatrammell, thanks.
So, I have heard about the Scan Gauge II, is that the type of unit that will communicate with the '07 systems?

I'm scheduled to bring the car into the dealership on 12 Jan 2012.

With 5 bars showing on the SOC meter, I now sometimes get no idle stop (stop-start) when logically I should. And if I drive in an urban setting for about 20 minutes and then call for full acceleration, I'll get, at most, one second of assist followed by no assist with the gas peddle at the floor merging onto the highway.......

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

Don't know.

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

Update: a copy of my latest e-mail to my dealer

No IMA light yet, but I have to say that the cool weather is really sapping any juice left in the current battery..........

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

Good suggestion, however when this happened to me it was unexpected. The state of charge had suddenly dropped to zero, and when you are frantically flooring the throttle and hoping the cross traffic has better brakes than you as you crawl across lanes from the side street, the last thing you are thinking about is "I wonder if shifting to S will get me out of the way."

I was shocked how sluggishly the car accelerated in that instance. It was exactly as the OP indicated: as if the weight of the car suddenly doubled, or more. This is inexcusable and dangerous. There should be a programmed fail-safe mode that automatically forces high-revs. (Essentially "auto-S mode")

I originally bought my '08 with plans to hand down to my daughter when she was old enough (next year). This potentially lethal malfunction changed those plans.

(I am not a new user, but I have not logged in for a while and my account was inactivated)

Re: My first 'no electrical assist and near miss' adventure
 

Welcome back!