Insight Without the Hybrid Battery.

[Dinuco]

Anyone know the MPG of the Insight 2 with the hybrid system deactivated because of a faulty battery or IMA failure...?

[cheesie]

id like to know that too, hopefully someone replies to this

[cworley5150]

I would imagine the mileage would be similar to a Fit. Will the car still start if the IMA motor fails? Isn't that what starts the car?

[Bubbablue]

There is a backup starter that runs off that tiny battery thats under the hood. If you look under that air filter assembly, you will see a golden cadmium colored starter motor hiding out under there. Im not sure how well the back up system would work a long term basis. But its there. I am guessing your mileage without IMA would be 35-40 highway and 20-25 city. This would defeat the sole design of the insight if you were to drive it like this as a way to save cash on new batteries or repairing the IMA system. Its like buying an hd television, and refusing to watch anything but vhs tapes on it for its entire life. Kind of a waste.

[mrkcohen]

There is a backup starter that runs off that tiny battery thats under the hood

This is correct. Mine has kicked in 2-3 times in the two years I've had the car, always when it's less than 10 degrees F.

Unfortunately the 12V battery under the hood that fires this starter, and which also runs all the accessories, is charged by the DC-DC converter which is integral to the IMA system. So with the IMA system disabled the 12V battery wouldn't charge and the car would be dead very quickly.

Unless I'm mistaken, short of rigging up an alternator the Insight couldn't be run with the IMA system disabled, if then.

I have been running my 2003 Civic hybrid with weak batteries (the CEL/IMA light always on) for over 70K miles now but it is a standard transmission. From everything I've seen the IMA/CVT combo is prohibitively gutless with weak/faulty IMA batteries, so even if the batteries were just weak the car might be basically un-driveable.

Hopefully I don't find out...

[carniver]

Originally Posted by mrkcohen

I have been running my 2003 Civic hybrid with weak batteries (the CEL/IMA light always on) for over 70K miles now but it is a standard transmission. From everything I've seen the IMA/CVT combo is prohibitively gutless with weak/faulty IMA batteries, so even if the batteries were just weak the car might be basically un-driveable.

Hopefully I don't find out...

It's out of warranty? Why not get it replaced by warranty?

[mrkcohen]

It's out of warranty? Why not get it replaced by warranty?

Oh yeah. Coming up on 240,000 miles it's definitely out of warranty. I tried to get them to replace it at 170K but they didn't want any part of it.

No problem. My Civic owes me absolutely nothing and I'll drive it till it drops and then the Insight becomes the workhorse.

I'm shooting for for 300,000 miles but I need to get through a couple more yearly inspections yet. (It's also throwing a P0420 and the trick is keeping the CEL off long enough to pass inspection)

[Dinuco]

Originally Posted by Bubbablue

Its like buying an hd television, and refusing to watch anything but vhs tapes on it for its entire life. Kind of a waste.

I agree with you...

[Dinuco]

Originally Posted by mrkcohen

Unfortunately the 12V battery under the hood that fires this starter, and which also runs all the accessories, is charged by the DC-DC converter which is integral to the IMA system. So with the IMA system disabled the 12V battery wouldn't charge and the car would be dead very quickly.

So, if the hybrid motor goes wrong, you can't use the car...?

[MN Driver]

With the 1st Gen Insight MT you don't really lose much mileage, just performance, unless you downshift to maintain the same performance. With the IMA disabled I can still get 70MPG in the same driving that would otherwise get 80 or so. In the winter months when I can only get about 65, I struggle to get almost 60mpg. Most of that is because I'm forced to run the engine at a higher speed and idle unless I force it off(no auto-stop).

The 1st Gen you can force the DC-DC to stay enabled. That isn't an option with the Civic hybrids or the 2nd Gen. Unless someone digs up the service manual and shares wiring diagrams of the MCM/BCM connections would someone see if its as simple as the 1st Gen, but I haven't seen them. Basically in the 1st Gen if you unplug the main BCM connection the DC-DC won't shut off but with the 2nd Gen the connector is integrated with the MCM as one connection that you can't unplug because then the IMA motor doesn't operate so the DC-DC cannot work at all since everything IMA is dead in that case.

So in short, you can drive until your 12v battery dies and the CVT will run the gas engine faster to compensate from the lack of electric motor torque which will reduce your MPGs, but probably not as much as you think they will if you allow the RPMs to stay similar by taking a hit on the performance.

Hope this helps!