US IMA warranty 10 year extension UPDATED to all 50 states!

[grnmachine]

Just spoke with my local Honda dealer re. this update/recall. He said "everything's been done that's supposed to be done" to my 2000 Insight. I told him that the car was originally purchased in Colorado, a state listed for this work order, which of course resulted in 5 seconds of total silence. He just repeated that everything's been done line. I swear these dealerships are just annoyed by Insight owners...what have we done to them?!

So, my next step is to call Honda--I'm sure that will be easy as pie! and ask/plead with them to extend my battery warranty. I'll report back.

Thanks as always to you guys for keeping us uninformed folk, informed!

Kyle

[grnmachine]

"This recall is VIN specific. It depends on where your car resides, not where it was purchased. We show all updates having been done to your vehicle. I would guess that whatever part showed a problem, was not used on your car"

Of course most of that doesn't make much common sense.
A) My car was manufactured in 2000, thus whatever part may have had a problem was certainly used on this car if they are also recalling 2001's.
B) She said it was a "heat issue" in regard to those specific states, and that where the car resides NOW is how this recall was determined. I pleaded my case: "But my car lived 80% of its life in Colorado". She apparently didn't want to hear the history of my vehicle's travels. I guess someone at Honda figured that it gets hotter in Colorado than it does in Massachusetts...hmm, maybe they should spend an August here and then one in Aspen! And I'd certainly put up our winter's against any in Colorado for dragging the battery through hell.
C) After conceding all of her points on the recall, I still wondered why the battery warranty extension would not be given to all of us, or at least to those cars purchased in the covered states, but for some reason their VINs did not qualify?

She was polite, but said unless an IMA issue comes up and is officially diagnosed by Honda, my warrantly will not be extended at this time, leaving the door slightly ajar for some future notice I suppose. I'm up for all of us 2000-2001 owners who don't have the magic VINs, signing a petition asking for the warranty extension, and sending it off to Mr. Honda.
Anyone else on board for this? Do we have an attorney amongst us who could draft a nice nudging letter?

I'm not going to worry about this for another 10 months or so, as my Honda Care should cover just about everything until then. I am starting to notice some odd mechanical CLUNK and BLOMP sounds every so often, but I'll address those in my ONE YEAR OWNER ANALYSIS upcoming.

[sputnik]

Originally Posted by sputnik

We sent a respectful letter to American Honda asking that they consider extension of the IMA warranty for all states, as many other states share corresponding/identical topography and ambient conditions to those 7 states currently awarded the extension.

Honda telephoned to say there are no plans to extend the warranty to sweltering hot Alabama nor to any state, other than those designated. As far as customer satisfaction, the approach is puzzling. People tend to resent inequities.

We'll leave it. Honda will do as they see Fit and we're busy. The Insight will always be a great car and Honda support should remain good, no matter what state the vehicle is in. Still, keeping an eye open for the Reflex.

Grnmachine,
Honda has the right to extend their warranty to whomever they wish and AFAIK there's no requirement to extend it to other VINs. It's not based on fairness. The inequity could come back to bite Honda as far as customer satisfaction, even to the extent of owners looking to other manufacturer's for future car purchases. Anyway, a petition probably takes a lot of organization. If all concerned wrote a polite, non-threatening letter to Honda requesting an extension of the warranty to all states, Honda would at least know what's rumbling out there...and cuz they call back those who take the time to write, they would log plenty o time responding.

[LoNOx 1]

I about had a heart attack today when I opened the mailbox and received a letter from Honda.
But it was a customer satisfaction survey from when I called them about the recall for the FIVE STATES ONLY.
I answered the survey honestly.
The rep was very professional, courteous,and knowledgeable, but I was NOT satisfied.
It had a few lines to write in the problem. So I did write that I was not happy with only five states being qualified for the extended warranty. I have a problem with the BCM/battery.
I get a recal almost every 48.6 mile trip to and from work. Sometimes two times. So far, it has not thrown a code of IMA death at 132000 miles.

[fklentz]

I had My 2000 in for the recall a few weeks ago. I'm not sure of what they did do but I'm thinking all they did do was update the software for the IMA system. All I've noticed in the weeks after is that the IMA battery does not provide as much assist as before and the regen time is much quicker, my best guess is that they are trying to extend battery life by not letting the battery work as hard as before.

When driving the battery SOC will drop very quickly when climbing a grade until it shows 3 bars and will stay at 3 bars for a while and still give assist but the assist is not as strong as before. On the regen side it can go from half charge to fully charged in less than a mile, wacky.

[darren539]

I took my 2000 Insight in for the recall a few weeks ago and have driven just over 800 miles since then. I've experienced close to a 20% in mpg (lifetime 61 mpg, currently getting ~50 mpg. I find that the battery takes much longer to fully charge, often it never gets fully charged before being completely depleted. Also, the regenerative braking sometimes doesn't kick in when coasting or applying the brakes unless I step on the accelerator to use some electric power.

I've taken it back to the dealer to diagnose the problem, but they can't replicate the condition and state that everything is ok. Since they don't drive hybrids themselves, I'm sure they have no clue as to what I'm describing.

I live in Southern California and it has been very hot (100+) where I'm at for the past several weeks, so I'm not sure if it is related to that, or if they just botched the service. Is there anything that can be done to cool/vent the battery compartment?

I believe that the battery needs to be reconditioned or replaced, but they aren't willing/able to recommend warranty service for it. Anyone have a similar problem since the recall, or any suggestions on how to get it fixed from corporate? I don't have the recall notice any more, can someone give me the phone number or address for filing a complaint about it not being fixed properly? TIA.

[Insightful Trekker]

Hi darren539,

The best MPG is done with no assist at all

However, in the city drive cycle, should a forced charge become required because of IMA SoC (State of Charge) depletion then the _city_ MPG's will be lower.

As a Californian your IMA battery is warranted 10 years or 150,000 miles now. Until an IMA code of death you _will_ see it gradually becoming weaker with more forced charging. Good luck on getting it covered before it codes.

For higher overall SoC try the headlights on "trick" for several days in a row and let us know hot it works out.

HTH!

[benjarrett]

After having this Service Campaign performed I regret having it done. This forum and others have written about better milage etc. but I find it much more difficult to keep good mpg with the cars desire to go to Assist with just the slight push of the pedal. I could easily obtain 75mpg in stop and go traffic on the way to work and now it's around 68mpg. I could run my AC with minimal impact and now it seems running the AC drops my mpg significantly. I would rather have better mpg than extended battery life. I regret having this change done. Not to mention the major hassle of fighting with the dealership to get the work done. It should not be this difficult!

Originally Posted by darren539

I took my 2000 Insight in for the recall a few weeks ago and have driven just over 800 miles since then. I've experienced close to a 20% in mpg (lifetime 61 mpg, currently getting ~50 mpg.

I'm still on the same tank of gasoline as when the product update recall was performed. The dealer must have let my car idle a lot and/or recharged the IMA battery by running the engine at >3000 rpm, because the gasoline consumption rate for the current tank dropped from ~60 mpg down when I dropped off my car to under 50 rpm when I picked up my car. But in urban driving since the product update, I have been unable to increase my fuel consumption rate above 50 mpg (~60 mpg is normal for my urban driving).

This past weekend, I drove about 40 highway miles and managed to increase the fuel consumption rate to about 53 mpg. But this still seems low, so I wonder whether the product update has resulted in worse fuel consumption. However, it's still to early to tell.

Originally Posted by darren539

Also, the regenerative braking sometimes doesn't kick in when coasting or applying the brakes unless I step on the accelerator to use some electric power.

I have always noticed this behavior on my 2000 Insight. However, since the product update, even if I blip the accelerator, regen frequently won't last but for a couple of seconds if I'm in 3rd gear or above. This may occur only when the SOC is >75%; I haven't been able to do much testing yet.

In my case, the original BCM and MCM were replaced in April, 2005. I noticed that the part number for the BCM in the product update kit is identical to the BCM that was installed in April, 2005, so my Insight has the same BCM model after the product update as it had prior to the product update

Unfortunately, the MCM part number wasn't included on the April, 2005, service order, so I don't know whether a newer MCM was included in the product update. I assume so because of the changed behavior I'm noticing.

Toyota's hybrid system has always tried to maintain the SOC at around 70% unlike the Insight's IMA system which will happily charge the IMA battery to 100% or allow it to discharge completely. So when the SOC of a Toyota hybrid exceeds ~70%, its assist must become more agressive and regen, less agressive. When the SOC drops below ~70%, regen must become more agressive and assist, less agressive. Maybe this product update will result in behavior more similar to Toyota hybrids which apparently haven't had the NiMH battery failure problems that have plagued the Insight. But hopefully, our fuel economy won't suffer as a result (I really can't understand why it would).

I had the updates installed, and all seemed normal for a while, but now I'm discharging battery very quickly, and the recharge is sporadic... it looks like it is not recharging, and then suddenly I'm 5 bars higher.

I drive the same route every day.. .down 1100 foot hill, then 20 miles of milder hills, and then reverse it on the way home - And I've been doing this same commute for all 5 years I've had my 2000 Insight, so I'm perplexed by the changes.

My MPG seems slightly higher though, so I'm not sure if I have a problem here, or just a difference in how it works (but still fine). I have another appointment with dealer Tuesday to check it out, but I'm not sure they know Insights well enough to tell...

Any thoughts?
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