Scared For My Second Battery

[zapper_89]

I have lurked long enough..... Time to be more hands on.

I purchased my first insight in December '10. One of the reason I bought it was the battery had been replaced by Honda in mid '09. However, only a few short months later I got an IMA light which was promptly followed by complete failure. I assume that this was due to the owner never driving it after the 2nd battery.

Luckily Honda of America was gracious enough to give me a battery at cost ($1250), since I was lied to by the Virginia Fairfax Honda that it had a 3 year 36,000 mile warranty.

Now I am having a bit of deja vu. I just bought a second '01 insight with 342,000 miles on it. It is already on its 3rd battery, but the last one came from Hybrid-Battery-Repair about a year ago. I believe the previous owner was pretty hard on the battery. It was almost drained when I got it. And it was constantly on forced regen.

Now that I have had it for about a month, I have charged the battery to be near full (Is this best for a battery?). However, I noticed that the battery was much less powerful than my newish Honda battery. I was not worried that it dropped in power faster. But earlier this week the battery "realized" it was not "full." Now the battery is stuck at half charged, and will not go to full. It is on forced regen but it is not charging.

I am afraid that this is the beginning of the death for this battery. I know that Honda can "rebalance" the pack; but I do not know what this means and how much it costs. I also know that grid chargers are very effective, is this what I need?

I have seen Mike Dabrowski's page on Grid Chargers. I will more than likely purchase one in the future.

[Eli]

First, welcome. We like hands on, and need all members we can get!

Second, I would like to think that I've started a trend here! It seems like most Insight enthusiasts are buying them up in droves. I'm going to have to pick up #4 soon to keep up! Congrats on your purchase.

Honda cannot balance the pack and would probably stare at you wide eyed if you asked for such a thing. But yes, I highly recommend a grid charger. They should be seen as preventative maintenance.

I've heard about batteries getting "stuck" at half SoC and such, but I've never encountered anything like that myself. If the battery is being charged, the system WILL eventually realize that it is full. It can't just keep charging it indefinitely.

Realize that even if the SoC gauge says the battery is full, it is not. The car will only charge a battery to about 80% SoC and discharge to 20% SoC. That is where the grid charger comes into play; it is indeed good to fully charge a battery.

My suggestion in this case is to do a re-learn. Pull the negative battery cable, wait for 30 seconds, replace it, start the car and let it idle. It should be charging at this point. Wait until it stops the background charge, then go drive around, trying to limit the use of assist, until the SoC gauge is full.

Try and watch the SoC gauge during this entire process, and note if it linearly charges to 20 bars or if it suddenly jumps from say 15 bars to 20 bars. That's called a positive recal, and is an indicator of the overall health of your battery. Let us know how it turns out.

[zapper_89]

Thanks for the tip. I've seen this trick mentioned but I wasn't sure exactly how to do it and what to look for.

Only question is with the "Pull the negative battery cable." Are you just referring to the 12v battery? Anything I need to be particularly careful about, so as not to kill myself? I will attempt it tomorrow.

Do you know if there is anyone roughly in this area whose grid charger I could barrow? I live right off the 80/90 toll road in northern Indiana. I would happily pay for the use. I am just nervous about waiting a couple months to get one built for me.

[Eli]

Yes, sorry, I meant the 12V battery negative cable. Nothing to worry about there, no danger. Just don't drink the liquid inside.

All this is doing is re-setting your computers. The BCM will input a small charge (about 6A) into your battery and try to determine where it's at.

I should add more to my previous post. The SoC gauge may very well go to the top after sitting and idling/charging for a short while. That's OK. What you should do once the pack reaches full.. is drain it again, then charge it up again. Try and note any behavior while you're doing this. Obviously this takes some time, and is much easier out on ~45-55mph country type roads with not very much traffic.

This should give you a good idea of the condition of your battery. What you're looking for are sudden, large changes in the SoC gauge - either going to empty and losing assist, or going to full and losing regen.

I can't think of anyone from IN off the top of my head, but I'm sure they'll chime in if they see this thread!

[zapper_89]

Crisis Averted!

I work a midnight shift restocking at Target for a second job, so on the way to work the battery dropped to two bars. On the ride home, it slowly climbed up to near full. I guess the battery did a positive (?) recal on its own.

Do you suggest I still perform a manual one? It only jumped 4-5 bars at the end, is that a good sign? Should I be worried that it has done 2 recals in about a week or do you think it was just resolving the failed recal?

Thanks for the help, I've been sick with dread for awhile now.

[Eli]

That's not too bad overall, but the battery will benefit from a grid charge and some more cycling I bet.

You'll probably also find that it does a negative recal around the same spot, only on the lower end - ~5 bars from empty.

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

Originally Posted by zapper_89

Crisis Averted!

I work a midnight shift restocking at Target for a second job, so on the way to work the battery dropped to two bars. On the ride home, it slowly climbed up to near full. I guess the battery did a positive (?) recal on its own.

Do you suggest I still perform a manual one? It only jumped 4-5 bars at the end, is that a good sign? Should I be worried that it has done 2 recals in about a week or do you think it was just resolving the failed recal?

Contact us via email or phone for a grid charger. I either need the email from Dan or a photo of the battery to show it's one of ours (you've got to open the lid anyway to install it).

You need a grid charger ASAP.