Your Pack rebuild

If I understand your post, you bought a second hand pack for a Honda Civic for spares and fitted the best sticks into your Insight.

The Civic pack, did it contain 20 subpacks or 22 in total?

The first Civic hybrid had 20 making 144 Volts, the next generation Civic had 22 subpacks making 156 volts.


There is also a question about thermocouples on the subpacks, I wish to defer that until I have figured out the exact Civic hybrid model your pack came from

 

There is also a question about thermocouples on the subpacks, I wish to defer that until I have figured out the exact Civic hybrid model your pack came from

The Gen 2 packs have no PTC strips, and instead of three thermistors taped behind shrink tubing on the Civic pack (four on the Insight), there are three sensors that are clipped onto the batteries. While this is a more elegant solution, it is a pain in the neck to thread the wires in 3D through the battery stack.

 

Only the Civic packs up to 2004 will work. The 2005 and newer uses a different connection scheme (no backplane board), and does add an additional set of sticks. The 2005 and newer would require some significant mods, I would use Prius subpacks considering the work involved.

Here is a thread about the topic:
2004 Honda Civic Battery - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum

 

No.

2003-2005 Civics are identical. The 2006+ Civic use the 11 pairs of double sticks. 2005 HAH uses 10 pairs of double sticks. (I don't know about the 2006 and 2007 HAH or the 2010 Insight).

Incidentally, the double sticks appear to be electrically identical to the earlier sticks, but with different endcaps. Both ends of the U-sticks are square, and the connected side is simply welded together.

The interesting thing is that the end plate that they fit into will fit a gen 1 stick's hex end and there is enough play in the other side that you could probably strap a pair of gen 1 sticks together with a connector bar and make them work in place of a U-stick.

 

How is everything running?

You should consider selling the extra packs and you could probably make your money back.

 

I'm the only one that (willingly) buys bad sticks.

 

You're correct concerning the Civic packs. I was going based on another members experience. He had purchased a 2006 pack a few years ago and posted his finding. I hadn't looked at the post in a while and thought it was 2005.

~paste
I got the 2006 Civic pack today. I had a few minutes this evening to tear into it.
The pack is denser, the sticks are in pairs held together with small plastic clips. They use two colors, orange and
green to prevent mix ups by laying in a pack upside down. The pairs don't slide into anything, they are all stacked in
a honeycomb type matrix and the whole pack is clamped together with some long bolts at the corners.
There are 11 pairs in there .
Each stick pair has the high currect screws at one end, one is positive the other negative. The non screw end has a weld
bus across the end with a plastic cap.
There are no temp. sense strips, but there are 4 or so clamp on thermistors in there .
I have not taken apart my 2001 pack yet, so I don't know how much work it will be to retrofit the 2006 cells into the 2001
battery box.
I hope I'm not heading down a dead end with this 06 pack !

Does anyone have a link to pictures of the Insight pack , and what the *ends* of the cell sticks look like ?
I'm afraid that the pair system may be too hard to fit into the old single stick system.
-Les

 

My IMA light just came on. And I am quite poor. I have no way of actually knowing which sticks are bad in the IMA pack. And I was wondering if there is any way to get a complete set of sticks and try the replacing of the sticks myself?

Any previous experience, hints, tips, tricks, and where to go's would be greatly appreciated.

 

You can search around here for general info.

Prices have increased considerably for used packs since the this thread started in 2010.
Have you thought about building a grid charger yourself?
Costs less than $100.

Or buy a built grid charger for around $500.

I'd be happy to talk through some options on the phone.

Where are you located? If near me we can just meet in person.

 

Highly suggest you just get a charger and tack out the pack and do a stick level recal. ~$100 for a charger that can handle charging the sticks. It's really not so hard, and makes a huge difference. Even if you have "bad" cells they can come back to be quite good overall. Then you can figure out the cells that are really bad, and replace those.

 

Im located in California. Though I do have comcast unlimited for the home phone. Im just pretty much at a complete loss. Dude I bought this car from said he had the battery replaced and now I am having IMA issues 350 miles after I bought the damn thing.

 

Ima




Where in California

 

Located in Santa Rosa. Just north of San Francisco.

 

Okay so after quite a bit of reading and learning on how to do some stuff. I have come to the realization that going hybrid just became a bit of a headache. But I have found a grid charger and I was just wondering if anyone has actually bought one from this company that I am about to post if so how did it work for you? did you get it with the discharge option and would you recommend getting one? Or should I just try and make one myself? Though I do have to say that I am not able to solder and a lot of the more technical things that would go along with putting this grid charger together.

Grid Chargers - Hybrid Automotive - Honda & Toyota Grid Chargers

 

Bummer to hear you are having IMA trouble so quickly after buying the car.

I am not far from you, down in San Jose (OK, not really that close either).

Several people on the forum have my chargers, and will probably chime in soon. If you want to read some comments from past eBay customers now, you can click here:
eBay Feedback

I wouldn't recommend buying on eBay though, as I offer an IC.net member discount when purchased direct. Feel free to email me through the website or PM me here for more info

 

I sent you a PM on here. I see no way to mail you without an email address.

 

I consider Jeff's (Hybrid Automotive's) grid charger top notch. My IMA battery is as good as new IMHO. In fact I have a hard time even draining my battery past 2-3 bars now. You should consider a grid charger a must-have if you care about the battery's condition.

 

If the guy had the pack replaced, I'd go back and see if there is some kind of warranty. New packs have a a 1-3 year warranty. And even used ones generally have at least 90 days.

But if there is no warranty, then buying a grid charger is quick and will get you going down the right path.

I personally would want the ability to add a discharger, but if you don't have the money for that option, you can skip it.

 

Okay so I got the idea of calling around to local places that are some what reputable that replace the IMA battery in the car. I know the guy didn't and wouldn't have gone to the dealership since all they do is put in new IMA packs if I am not mistaken?

And so far I have come up with nothing.

This is bad luck #3 that I have come across and I just hope things get better since I really don't think I can handle any more bad luck for the rest of the year.

 

Where to send / sell used battery

Am having a replacement battery istalled. Where should I send the older batteries..probably just one cell failing. ?? Honda Insight 2004

 

Am having a replacement battery istalled. Where should I send the older batteries..probably just one cell failing. ?? Honda Insight 2004

The installer/battery supplier likely requires you surrender your old battery or pay a core charge.

 

I purchased and have been using the Hybrid Revolt universal grid charger since 10/14 which has help my car as I was getting the IMA light. Now two years later I having problem with frequent battery re-calibrations, so I think my battery is going. What is the best way to restore the battery. Do I need to take the battery out and get to the subpack and find the bad ones and recondition or replace bad subpacks. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated and I would like to keep the Insight as long as possible.

 

Have you used it to discharge your pack too?

 

I purchased another battery pack (mine from LKQ motors. [Honda Civic battery packs use the same sub packs.]

barrettblake, if you're still checking this, I'd like to purchase your empty civic pack if you still have it. Sent you PM.

Thanks!