Small battery dead

[Ehetleos]

We decided to take a ride up the mountains yesterday to play with the snow. On our way back both kids fell asleep in the car sitting on their children seats. Parked in our parkway, carried the younger up in the house, gets down to the car to carry the older lad and i cannot see anything no more as it is already pretty dark. So i turn on both driver's and passenger's reading lights and the central cabin light. I manage to free the son from his seat, manage to lift him (18kgr, still sleeping) and put him in my arms, cover him with a small blanklet, and as i am struggling with car keys, house keys, blanket, child and a carrier bag with things i hear a woman shouting: Fire! Help!
My neighbour's house is on fire, the whole family in underclothes running out of the burning house...
I rush up the house, put the son and things down, dial the fire brigade phone number then rush down to help.
With this and that the lights inside the Insight remain on all night long, forgotten...
Next morning all dead, IMA battery as well...
After some minutes of cursing and throwing things all over the place, i managed to calm down, open the engine cover, remove the small battery and rush to my local dealer to see if completely dead. After 4hrs of charging it was in decent condition to be put back in the car's engine compartment.
Yet, the IMA battery appeared completely dead at first, took it a good 5 minutes at 3000rpm (stickshift at P) in order to appear fully charged. Then i thought of driving around the block a couple of times to make sure all OK. More or less all pretty much the same as before, did another force regen to be on the safe side. I also needed the radio code which i found after searching in the docs i keep at home.
Yet... the sign of a completely empty IMA battery is not something i am familiar with. Might be just my inpression but after driving about a bit, i think it drops its charge a lot sooner than before, going sooner in regen.
Anyone else with experience in IMA behaviour after swaping the small battery? Any info would help a lot.
Cheers beforehand.

[Jayemtee]

I think that you will be fine. It sounds like everything worked as it should. Did the sound of that first sound different, as it should have been the small 12V spinning a high rpm starter instead of the IMA battery swinging a huge motor.

If you are not getting any fault codes, it sounds like success. And it sounds like you have a good 12v battery, which isn't all that common.

...and I hope your neighbours are okay.

[Ehetleos]

Originally Posted by Jayemtee

Did the sound of that first sound different, as it should have been the small 12V spinning a high rpm starter instead of the IMA battery swinging a huge motor.

Copy that. Got the standard clicky-clicky-clicky sound from the starter using the 12V battery and the engine was brought back to life.

Originally Posted by Jayemtee

And it sounds like you have a good 12v battery, which isn't all that common.

Originally Posted by Jayemtee

...and I hope your neighbours are okay.

Yes, all well (thank goodness)


Cheers Jayemtee, be well man

[Cobb]

Glad everything worked out? You should get the battery tested still or hook it to a battery charger. Its likely your ima system is charging the battery. Typically killing a battery like that damages it beyond repair.


Sent from my Autoguide iPod touch app

[Ehetleos]

Originally Posted by Cobb

Glad everything worked out? You should get the battery tested still or hook it to a battery charger. Its likely your ima system is charging the battery. Typically killing a battery like that damages it beyond repair.

Exactly my concerns, dear friend. But my local dealer tested the Yuasa battery both before and after the charge and it's output is that of a healthy unit.
Will see how it goes...
Cheers!

[JvdBosch]

I had a similar experience (without the fire though). Girlfriend accidently left the interior light on and after 3 days the battery was completely flat. Luckily I had a jumpstarter, so when I had to go somewhere a few days later I just jumpstarted it and left.

The IMA battery cannot drain as easily as some people think. And when it is 'drained', i.e. 0 bars, it just means that there is no charge left in the bandwith the car is using. So revving the engine to 3000rpm to charge it is probably more detremental to the engine than it is beneficiary to the IMA battery. I just assume the Japanese programmers who programmed the battery software took into account all factors, so I just drive the car without worrying about the battery. So far achieving 47MPG.

By the way, the manual says that after a flat 12V battery the IMA battery indicator will be off. After driving for half an hour it should indicate the correct charge.

[Uriel]

Interestingly, I had my best ever mileage for a motorway trip just after jumpstarting after a flat battery.

[firsthonda]

Originally Posted by Uriel

Interestingly, I had my best ever mileage for a motorway trip just after jumpstarting after a flat battery.

Why do you think that is? There was a thread I started a while back about a larger or stronger 12 V battery and MPG but many people were against the idea

[roger2]

Originally Posted by Ehetleos

Exactly my concerns, dear friend. But my local dealer tested the Yuasa battery both before and after the Car Accessories charge and it's output is that of a healthy unit.
Will see how it goes...
Cheers!

Cheers Ehetleos you have solve the problem.

[Uriel]

Originally Posted by firsthonda

Why do you think that is? There was a thread I started a while back about a larger or stronger 12 V battery and MPG but many people were against the idea

Honestly - I think it was mainly the conditions. Traffic meant a big chunk of the journey was 40-60mph without ever getting really slow. The weather was fairly warm and dry with no wind but without being hot enough to really cause the aircon to kick in.

The battery thing may well just be coincidence.