Did a thunderstorm drain my Civic IMA battery?

[B Garvelink]

Imagine: parking a '03 Civic IMA at the movie theatre in fair weather, returning after two hours in a full thunderstorm, to find the IMA battery almost completely empty. (Car feels sluggish). It was fine before.
My question: how can the IMA battery go flat in two hours? Can a thunderstorm, with a lot of lightning, do this?

I'm pretty sure I shut down and locked the car properly. I think it restarted on the IMA, so it must've had some energy left.

Also, after having been empty, the battery seems to need at least 100 miles of normal driving to regain its former strength. Is this normal behavior for a NiMh batpack?

Interestingly, the car is a press demo from the Dutch importer (I'm writing for a Dutch engineering magazine.) An intrigued Honda guy promised to have the car diagnosed.

greetings,
Bart Garvelink

[windmill]

Hey Bart,
Finaly, an other Dutchman on this forum ! Did this problem occur only once during a rainstorm, or also in dry weather ? Are the powerlines below the car not damaged or scratched ?

[Rick Reece]

Bart,
Is it a 5sp or a CVT? I have never heard of this problem with a Civic Hybrid. Have fun, RIck

[Armin]

Maybe this is the first report of a battery recalibration in a Civic?

[coolcat]

Sounds like a recalibration to me. As long as it doesn't start happening all the time it is perfectly normal behavior designed into the system by Honda to properly exercise the pack every now and then.

[Tim Maddux]

Recalibration defined for reference, since we have a new Dutchman on the board:
http://www.insightcentral.net/KB/faq-no ... eroBattery

[B Garvelink]

I've just read the Q and A bit about battery recalibration, thanks to Tim for cueing me. It was probably just that.

The gauge read almost nothing, the IMA was recharging at constant speeds, and it did not give assistance for a few kilometers. As far as I remember, it did not need the auxiliary starter to restart.

But the coincidence is still striking. It happened only once, while the car was parked. The rain and lightning were I guess a freak coincidence.

I honestly can't tell you how often the battery recalibrates itself. I've had the car (a 5sp, Rick) for 8 days and drove 500 kilometers in it. Since november 2003, it had racked up 9745 kms of trainer and press demo duties.

According to the odometer, I got 5,8 liters/100 km over 500 km, = 1 liter/17,2 km = 40,8 mpg U.S.

greetings,

Bart

[Armin]

Originally Posted by B Garvelink

The rain and lightning were I guess a freak coincidence.

There is a small chance that lightening struck close enough to cause a memory corruption in the State-of-Charge gauge (SoC). It would then reset itself to zero to clear the error.

When the battery was recharging, did it go gradually up to full, or did it go smoothly part of the way and then jumpt up to full at the end?

[windmill]

How rare, today I changed oil of my Insight and it went verry well. After a testdrive, refueling the car and after a stop at a ice-salon I restart the car, I had a total death IMA battery, I see this as the so called battery recalibration. It does not have to do with weather, cause it was verry nice now. So a thunderstorm will not be the cause of this Bart !!
The recharge was initiated for 6 bars for the rest of the trip home.

[Arsenic1250]

maybe your car got struck by lightning. and it drained the battery.




------ didnt read all the posts I agree with armin.