2000 Insight needs advice

Insighted · 01-23-2012, 01:33 PM

I have 2000 Insight with about 185k on it, and the ac compressor went out. Had the dealer replace it with a used one I found. The first time driving it the engine light and IMA light came on. I will be taking it back to them to diagnose, but am wondering what they could have done to cause this. I am sure they are going to say that it's was completely coincidental that this happened at this time. Some background info. Car had a new battery at around 100k. Car sat for about a week and a half while waiting for the used ac compressor. Hope someone can help, thanks.

Eli · 01-23-2012, 01:47 PM

Welcome to the forums! You've come to the right place.

I agree, they will say that they are unrelated - and it probably is. The only correlation could be that testing the new A/C compressor would have increased engine loads and therefor assist use.

Don't pay the dealership for a "diagnostic". Sitting for a week and a half is most certainly what caused the IMA light. The dealership is just going to tell you that you need a new battery. Tell them to go pound sand. Have Autozone pull the codes for free and post them here. If you are getting assist and regen still, it will be a P1447. If you are not, it will be P1449.

Do you typically drive the car every day? How many miles?

My recommended procedure to buy yourself some time is to perform multiple consecutive system resets.

1) Pull the negative 12V battery cable off
2) Wait 30 seconds
3) Reattach it
4) Start the car, let it idle. The automatic background charge will start
5) Soon, your battery will be full. If the background charge stops once the battery reaches 4 bars, rev to 3500RPM until it is full.
6) Turn off the car and repeat the procedure

Do this 3-6+ times, or until the battery goes to full within 10 seconds of starting it.

This could buy you a day, a week, or months while you figure out which route you want to take.

dls1981dustin · 01-23-2012, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eli

Welcome to the forums! You've come to the right place.

I agree, they will say that they are unrelated - and it probably is. The only correlation could be that testing the new A/C compressor would have increased engine loads and therefor assist use.

Don't pay the dealership for a "diagnostic". Sitting for a week and a half is most certainly what caused the IMA light. The dealership is just going to tell you that you need a new battery. Tell them to go pound sand. Have Autozone pull the codes for free and post them here. If you are getting assist and regen still, it will be a P1447. If you are not, it will be P1449.

Do you typically drive the car every day? How many miles?

My recommended procedure to buy yourself some time is to perform multiple consecutive system resets.

1) Pull the negative 12V battery cable off
2) Wait 30 seconds
3) Reattach it
4) Start the car, let it idle. The automatic background charge will start
5) Soon, your battery will be full. If the background charge stops once the battery reaches 4 bars, rev to 3500RPM until it is full.
6) Turn off the car and repeat the procedure

Do this 3-6+ times, or until the battery goes to full within 10 seconds of starting it.

This could buy you a day, a week, or months while you figure out which route you want to take.

How long can the Insight sit idle before it negitivly affects the IMA battery health? Do you think 1.5 weeks is long enought? My Insight is normally just a "weekend" driver...... But I average about 12k a year on it.

Eli · 01-23-2012, 02:54 PM

It depends on the health of your pack. There are way too many variables to give a definitive answer, that's why the current recommendation is to not let the car sit for more than a few days without grid charging it. If your pack is balanced in regards to self discharge and you follow this recommendation, you have a nice full pack, no harm done.

If it is not, you've avoided a potential IMA light due to some cells being nearer to full charge and some being nearly completely empty.

If you have cells with high discharge rates and let the car sit unused, they will become empty. The next time the car is driven, the cells that do not have a high rate of self discharge will become full first, leaving those cells that were empty behind. When you start using assist again, those cells that were left behind will become exhausted first. If the window gets small enough, the systems will see this and a DTC will be set.

Insighted · 01-23-2012, 03:29 PM

The car generally sits on the weekends and is my daily commuter. It is driven about 120miles a day 5 days a week. I will go to auto zone and get the codes. When they say I need a new battery, I assume you mean the battery pack and not the 12v acc. battery. Also, I am not familiar with grid charging, I will do a search and find out what that entails. I will also try out the procedure you mentioned. When you say buying time, does that possibly mean my battery is on its last legs? Also, can I drive the car in its current state? or should I attempt the battery disconnect first. I will have an easier time if I can get it home (55miles) and do the disconnect from my garage. Oh and thanks for the quick reply.

Eli · 01-23-2012, 03:56 PM

That's good that you drive so much overall, it's unfortunate that the car had to sit.

The IMA light only comes on when a pack is fairly seriously deteriorated in one way or another. So yes, unfortunately it sounds like your pack is getting a bit long in the tooth. It could be a single stick, it could be the whole pack. No way to tell currently without taking the pack apart and testing each stick.

Yes, you should be able to drive the car. The concern is that the DC-DC will be shut down and stop charging your 12V battery. When this happens, the red 12V battery symbol on the dash will illuminate and you have 15-30 minutes left. Some people drive for months with the IMA light on without any trouble, some aren't so lucky - it just depends on how deteriorated your pack is, which like I said is difficult to quantify currently.

Chances are you will be fine.

To extend the life of the battery as much as possible after you get it home, do the reset procedure then avoid using assist as much as possible while allowing as much regen as possible. The Calpod Clutch Switch mod makes it easier to do this.

Insighted · 01-23-2012, 09:55 PM

So I tried the procedure countless times, at first I was keeping count but I lost count of the times I went thru the procedure, no change each time, so I was unable to get it to go to full in under 10 seconds, in fact it seemed to be exactly the same each time. So I am planning on driving it this way and will get the codes hopefully Wednesday. Any other thoughts?

Eli · 01-23-2012, 10:09 PM

Are you saying that the IMA light comes on immediately after a reset?

Insighted · 01-24-2012, 02:12 PM

No all the lights are off and have stayed off since doing the procedure and driving to work today. The car seems fine now, actually the battery seems to be behaving much better than it ever has. I am hoping that it will stay this way.

Eli · 01-24-2012, 03:38 PM

Oh, I see what you mean. Maybe my advice to do it until the car goes full within 10 seconds isn't very sound. This may assume a fairly deteriorated battery. If your battery is right on the edge, it may take it fairly well.

It should eventually do this, but it could take 10+ resets I suppose.

Resetting the systems also erased the codes, so there will be no codes to pull unless it comes back.