IMA light/1447 and car runs better? WTF?

[gsfent]

OK, my new battery pack (about 18 months or so and maybe 7000-8000 miles ago) is getting worse and worse about holding a charge. it depletes quicker and quicker so it is hard to maintain half SOC in my 10 or so mile trip to work.

A couple of days ago, while the SOC is about 3 bars, the IMA light pops on while cruising on the highway. Within 30 seconds or so, the SOC jumps to 20 bars. I punch up my SCII and sure enough, code 1447 pops up (not cleared, everything still there).

Here is the mystery. The car is actually running better and assist and regen seem to be working just fine! I find the SOC will hold much better, even using some on acceleration. It will occassionally dwindle to about 3-4 bars, then once it gets close to halfway, it will go back to 20 bars and hang close for a while, acting pretty normal, dropping to 19 or 18. At 20 bars, it does not show regen.

Even more interesting, the car has much more pep. Feels like I have turned off the AC! Easier to hold lean burn and mpg up somewhat, I am assuming because I don't need quite as much throttle to hold speed.

I am still under the orignal 10/157,500 warranty, so I will probably roll into the dealer on Saturday and let them take a look. Almost too bad, I was thinking when the warranty ran out, I could get the "Better Battery" pack and get some improved performance. Can I get Honda to buy me out of the remainder of my battery warranty? LOL

Any insight (no pun intended) as to why the car runs better with a 1447 battery code??

Regards,
Jerry

[gilbertguy]

I've had the 1447 on my pack and everything still works. Indicates the battery is going bad but not enough to fail yet. When it happened to mine I did not notice any better performance? If it is under warranty I'd take it back and they should give you a new battery, I'd defer having to buy a battery out of your own pocket as long as possible.

[gsfent]

Originally Posted by gilbertguy

I've had the 1447 on my pack and everything still works. Indicates the battery is going bad but not enough to fail yet. When it happened to mine I did not notice any better performance? If it is under warranty I'd take it back and they should give you a new battery, I'd defer having to buy a battery out of your own pocket as long as possible.

I plan on taking it in this weekend, the surprise was the car seemed to be running better with a bad pack, and the pack seemed to deplete slower, the opposite of what we expect with a bad pack.

Regards,
Jerry

[wwwtractor]

I had the P1449 and my 2001 was delivered on 10/19/2001 so I am now almost 3 months out of the 10 year warranty. I started getting recalibrations around the time of warranty expiration but I thought it was normal behavior as I had been driving very gently to try to get longest pack time possible.

I am waiting on the dealer to get with Honda to tell me how much they will pay on the estimated $3000 battery pack replacement. I got one new pack at 80,000 and this one has only lasted 40,000 as I have about 120,000 miles on the car now.

Meanwhile, I bought an ELM bluetooth OBD2 transmitter and was wondering what the best program might be for monitoring the Honda Insight 2001 CVT. I have tried several but I thought I might ask others what they have found useful.

I also bought a ground cable and hooked it from the 12 volt battery ground on the frame to the engine block and after a short trip the code has not been thrown again. I had read something about the ground cable causing problems somewhere so I thought I would give it a try. I plan to check the battery pack fan as well to make sure it is operating correctly. What are the chances that an external booster fan would help with a longer battery pack life?

Scanner:
Soliport
ELM327 Bluetooth OBDII OBD2 Diagnostic Scanner,
ELM327 wireless OBD 2 Scan tool check Engine Light CAR CODE READER

Phone:
Samsung Galaxy SCH-I500 Android 2.3.5

[Eli]

As for the original post..

Assist/regen is allowed with P1447. The car running better is just placebo. The reason the state of charge gauge is lasting longer is because less assist is being allowed, giving the illusion that it's lasting longer.

As for wwwtractor's post...

Those are just generic OBDII readers. They'll all display the same information, so it doesn't really matter what program you use...whichever is most aesthetically pleasing or easy to use.

I recommend the OBDIIC&C Gauge, designed and built by people here on the forums specifically for the Insight. Of course, it's not fancy enough to interface with your phone, but it can read IMA data and do other novel things that generic OBDII scanners can't.