Looks like I'm in the 6 months to 1 year category. I can get down to just a bar or two below half on the gauge before I get a recal. Of course, I only take it down that far about every 6 months or so.
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Silver '00 MT
90.2 LMPG
80+ psi in RE92's for the past 2 years without incident
Calpod switch
Warm air mod
Grill block
EPS fuse removed
FAS/fuel injector interrupt circuit
grid charger
OBDII C&C gauge
It really, really depends on how you drive the car. In your case, I bet you have years left.
When I bought Insight #1 in 2007, I would get a negative recal about 2/3rds up from the bottom(~6 bars or so). Slowly over time that got higher and higher, until in 2010 the IMA light came on and it was replaced under warranty. I thought the warranty replacement pack was wonderful until I started to get into all the advanced instrumentation and found it was only giving me perhaps 75-80% of what it should be.
I think the reason the original battery lasted me that long was because I learned early on how to keep the pack charged, and I only used it sparingly overall. I knew the recal point before I even knew what a recal was, so I avoided it.
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Bumblebee Batteries, LLC - Helping your hybrid get from point A to point Bee!
In the context of buying a used Insight and trying to get a sense of how good the battery is, I think the easiest thing to do is:
1) find a long hill, preferably on a highway,
2) hold assist for as long as you can,
3) keep an eye on the state of charge bar gauge (orange bars, "BATT" icon) and note how low it gets before assist gives up and the bars start to plummet.
Most used cars for sale will probably have the state of charge gauge near the top (and the seller will say 'the battery is great - the bars are always near full!' - not true). The battery condition is roughly, loosely proportional to how much assist you get before the orange state of charge bars start to plummet during your long-hill assist routine.
For example, if you start your hill climb-with-assist with the SoC gauge at the 19th bar and you can drop the gauge to half way before the bars start to plummet and assist is locked out, then you have about 50% capacity, give or take. If you can only get a couple bars down before the gauge starts to plummet and assist is locked out, then you have maybe 10%. Basically, the farther down you can drop the gauge, incrementally, without having assist locked out and without having bars plummeting to 1 or 2, the more capacity you have, the better the battery is...
If you get an IMA warning light during this routine, I believe that's even worse...
Cool, thanks! How do you make the car hold assist? Sorry...I haven't even sat in an Insight, let alone driven one, so I'm not familiar with driving techniques yet.
When you're going up a hill, especially at highway speeds, in 5th gear, the tough load on the gas engine will ensure that even moderate gas pedal pressure will also induce electric assist. So basically, keep it in 5th gear and hold down the gas pedal. You'll see once you try it... Even a modest incline on the freeway is all that's needed, though with too shallow an incline you'll start to gain too much speed and need to let off. At that point you can just shift to neutral or press in the clutch and coast in order to avoid regen charge, and then, when you slow down enough, you can push assist again to drain the battery some more...
I thought for sure my battery was shot, since it drains to empty after just 1 mile of stop-and-go city traffic, but the Honda dealer claimed "It's good". Who knows when a battery finally wears-out.
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OWN: 61mpg Insight (greenercars.org score: 57)
both blue and silver,
and a 45mpg BeetleTDI (score: 47).
I thought for sure my battery was shot, since it drains to empty after just 1 mile of stop-and-go city traffic, but the Honda dealer claimed "It's good". Who knows when a battery finally wears-out.
A Honda dealership wouldn't know a good battery if it came up and tapped them on the shoulder holding a sign that said "IMA GOOD BATTERY".
Their criteria for good and bad battery is going to be whether the IMA light is on or not. Even the Honda Diagnostic Software doesn't give any indication of battery health, which is somewhat odd when you think about it.
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Bumblebee Batteries, LLC - Helping your hybrid get from point A to point Bee!
Sorry, I had to change my underware as I laughed soo hard I pee-ed all over myself.
I am guessing the charger/discharger cycer thing Mike DB2K would be an indicator. Its my experience batteries loose their capacity over time and when its insignificant to carry the load or desired run time you replace it.
Typically its when the battery under the hood wont supply enough power to start a traditional car in a hot or cold day. Otherwise when their hybrid starts to deliver poor mpg or its doing more regening than assisting.
A Honda dealership wouldn't know a good battery if it came up and tapped them on the shoulder holding a sign that said "IMA GOOD BATTERY".
Wow! If we ever start a "BEST INSIGHT JOKES" list, this will have to be near the top.
__________________ Silver 2001 Insight 5spd - #0160
264+K miles
(Has some bruises, needs some stuff...but I still love it.) Citrus w/ A/C - #2083
270+K miles
(Still needs some stuff...but I already love it.)
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Who knows when a battery finally wears-out.
