Check engine light and IMA light

cjr · 12-05-2011, 07:22 PM

Hey fellas, I have a 2000 Insight, this evening my wife came home and said that the IMA light came on, and then a little later the check engine light came on. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but I'm sort of clueless where to even start with this issue.

I don't have any codes yet, so I'm starting in the dark. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

**Eli** · 12-05-2011, 07:50 PM

Start with pulling the codes.

Probably P1449 and P1600.

Willie Williford · 12-05-2011, 09:07 PM

Location please so we can determine if terrain or weather is also the culprit.
How about a P1449(73) and a P1645?
What's the state of the IMA battery?
waiting more info.

Willie

cjr · 12-06-2011, 08:46 AM

I'll start with getting the codes pulled. Thanks!

Silver2001 · 10-08-2012, 12:21 AM

Hi, this is an old thread but I just read it. My car did something similar this week. Does anyone have any suggestions?

My IMA light came on, assist and regen functioning. Then a few days later the check engine light lit up and assist and regen stopped. The IMA still starts the engine.

It gets hot here, 108 degree summers. The car is parked in the shade all summer, except maybe the five times I forgot.

Based on jumpering the ODBII connector and counting light flashes from the dash IMA light, Code P1447 (77 flash code) and P1449 (78 flash code) showed up. There seemed to be one code in front of these two codes that was not repeated: one really long flash, five long, seven short. Either 57 or 67?

Does anyone have any suggestions, especially from experience?

**Waynetc** · 10-08-2012, 12:35 PM

I've had the same problem for a bit over a year. The ima battery is probably shot.

Grid charging may or may not help (in my case - nope)

AFAIK the engine check light comes because of a borderline catalytic or sensor.

Try the spark plug mod for the sensor on the catalytic. 5 bucks to do that.

Good luck...

fyin · 10-11-2012, 12:03 AM

I had same problem last few weeks, just start the engine then the IMA light came on, I attended has some problem of my car, so I drove it out and park in road side, try to turned off the engine and restart to fix it, oh... the car didn't start. I call my friend to ask for help. He taught me to use bypass batt to restart it again fr other car batt. finally success.
the garage mechanic told me that the 12V batt was weak and its supply the power for the computer and lot of electrical things so need to change a new one to keep it in good condition.
after that my insight fixed this problem and easy to start.

So the Insight owner need to check the 12V batt first as well, if has same problem......

Silver2001 · 11-13-2012, 07:11 PM

Thank you guys for the comments. The grid charger parts came in, need to build/install.

Despite having no assist and no auto-stop, the car has been driving fine. IMA battery still used to start the engine. Gas mileage is around 57mpg consistently. Any harm done driving this way without assist?

**Rush** · 11-14-2012, 12:42 AM

Wow! Silver2001, Waynetc, and fyin - those battery packs are dropping like flies.... good business for Eli and Mike!

How many others are there that don't know about Insightcentral?

Mario · 11-14-2012, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver2001

Thank you guys for the comments. The grid charger parts came in, need to build/install.

Despite having no assist and no auto-stop, the car has been driving fine. IMA battery still used to start the engine. Gas mileage is around 57mpg consistently. Any harm done driving this way without assist?

Not besides having decreased acceleration, which could be dangerous in some situations. As long as you have enough battery to start the car, you should be fine.