Hit & Run :(

[nursemike]

Originally Posted by epictempo

Your answer was most accurate. The injured I2 has been in the shop since July 3rd and the tech said the fan to cool down the IMA system was damaged; So this fender bender may turn out to cost a pretty penny. My perspective is changing on hybrids, I now feel that they're too fragile; especially coming from my "beat 'em up" FIT.

I can see why you might feel that way. Having owned 2 Honda hybrids, I look at the situation as more "dumb luck" (or lack thereof), so to speak. I haven't been under the fender of the I2 yet from the outside, but the area where my HCH's fan exits is very small, smaller in size than a shoe box. Striking that actual area where the exhaust exits would be tough, but damaging it would be fairly easy if struck in the proper place.

That's a real pain for you. I would be curious to know if the IMA battery and control modules were actually damaged or if the thermal shut down managed to protect them. Hopefully, a large repair bill for the IMA sytem can be avoided.

[OuttaSight]

Sorry to hear your woes...

I'm dreading my first supermarket dent. I don't know what these monkeys get up to in car parks but my Accord had a new dent in it just before it went to its grave while at a supermarket that could only have been caused by someone hitting the upper part of the front wing with a ball hammer (something small, smooth and round but hard). It wasn't the usual line shaped "ding" that you get on the side of the car by someone flinging their door open against your car.

I also hate it when I deliberately park on the far side of a car park to avoid such damage and some doughnut drives all the way across what might be a quite empty car park and parks right next to me (leaving a 6 inch gap next to my drivers door) when there's free spaces all around me.

Last one was in a motorway service last week when we were eating some sandwiches in the car and I had the drivers door open and there was an empty space and then another car in the next space. The owner of that car was loading up and had her door open as well. There were loads of other free spaces near by but some idiot in a BMW 320 insisted on jamming his car into the space between us (forcing both of us to close our doors and step out of his way). Happily, in his focussed attempt to deliberately annoy the both of us he didn't notice the raised kerb at the end of the space and crashed his front skirt on it with a satisfying grinding noise that he then had to repeat when later reversing out of the space before stopping for no readily apparent reason in the middle of the road (blocking all the traffic trying to get out of the service station) while he went to look for a lost relative (or his brain).

I feel like Arnie from "Kindergarten Cop" when he parks outside some dubious apartment and starts to go in when a swarm of people from the 'hood start to look at his car and he walks back, producing a big gun and states "I love my car...".

I presume the IMA battery will protect itself from overheating if it senses the fan not rotating. It's the same with computer CPU fans that have RPM sensors built in so that the motherboard knows if the fan is running slow (from a blockage) and so throttles down the CPU to stop it frying.

The problem that worries me is when a crash causes a catastrophic short in the pack which can cause it to explode. It's in a sort of armoured box, set into the forward centre area of the trunk to give it a fighting chance (in the same way that gas tanks aren't mounted at the extremities of a chassis).

The ABS light can even be something as weird as a brake bulb being out. I had a Prelude and that had 4 brake bulbs and if any one of them was out the ABS check light AND the bulb check light would come on!

[nursemike]

At the firehouse I work at, we took the back of my I2 apart last week to examine the pack and the layout for just such reasons. Fortunately, in the top right of the battery cover there is a small panel about the size of a pack of cards bolted on. That is where the cutoff switch is for the IMA battery. There is also what appears to be a small circuit breaker inside. According to Honda and Toyota, the battery will not leak or explode in a collision, even a major one, though a fuel-fed car fire could be a different ball game. Essentially, if the collision is large enough to cause a major compromise in the IMA battery, you probably won't be around to worry about it anyway.
Yes, the car did go back together without a problem, we didn't get too crazy. I mention this b/c some departments may want to cut the high voltage lines. If you're in an accident where this happens and are able to show them where the cutoff switch is on the IMA battery, it's safer and easier for them and much less expensive for you if the 12 volt battery is disconnected and the cutoff switch is simply thrown on the IMA battery. My Lt. took some pics, I'll try to get them if I can and post them.

In examining the duct work and so forth, I can easily see how the OPs seemingly small hit & run in just the right place ended up causing the damage it did. It's such a small area to hit, but has the potential to cause so much damage internally.

[nursemike]

OS,

I also have an odd, round dent right in the middle of my hood. It's under the clearbra, so I'm not quite sure how to pop it out. The shape implies a small, round hammer, a golf ball, something like that though we haven't parked near any driving ranges since we got her.