[cmumford]

I have been a *very* happy Insight owner for about three years. I have a 2000 Manual with only 24,000 miles. My commute is 18 miles round trip. I have always driven it to optimize fuel efficiency. Nothing too strange, but I accellerate very slowly, and when I decellerate I always let the car pull the transmission to maximize regenerative breaking. 98% of my drive is 35 MPH urban driving. From what I've read in this forum having the IMA battery replaced with only 4 years/24K miles is unusual. My dealer service rep said that it was the first one they've ever replaced. So my question is, "is the way I drive this car causing the battery to fail prematurely?" Is my quest for the greatest MPG causing me problems? I've read that Honda designed this car to be driven like a "normal" car, but I doubt I'm driving this car 100% normally. Thoughts?

BTW the dealer cost to replace this battery along with the electronics was $3,1000!!!!

 

[Yves M.]

That is a very good question.

What was your SOC. Was the State of charge pretty even or was it fluctuating much. Was it always low, always full.

Just thoughts. I Think that a steady SOC is better than a fluctuating SOC. And a high SOC is better than a low SOC.
But I figured you have a steady and high SOC which should be great. Maybe a manufacturing defect? A once in a lifetime event.

What where the symptoms and what P codes where given. Any more details on how the pack failed.

Thanks for any details you can provide.

 

[Guillermo]

The internal combustion engine (ICE) and probably the battery should be "exercised" once in a while if it's used gently most of the time.
If you drive 35 MPH 98% of the time, the ICE probably only reaches the lower end of the normal operating temperature and your V-tech is never used. Give your insight a little work out, drive fast and attack those hills for 30 minutes. It will clean out your engine and exercise the battery pack. A highway driven engine is a happy engine.

 

[Calpod]

My commute is 18 miles round trip.

That's a very short commute so you're not likely to get great mileage, describe the terrain, is it flat, are there a lot of traffic lights?

If you want to get really good mileage you have to avoid "Regen", when you regen, you are only capturing part of the energy you already used, it is best to get off the gas a lot sooner (traffic permiting of course) and with your foot lightly on the gas, don't let the IMA charge, and if you get it right, it will not regen, and you will not have to use the brakes.

 

[cmumford]

My commute is 18 miles round trip.

That's a very short commute so you're not likely to get great mileage, describe the terrain, is it flat, are there a lot of traffic lights?

If you want to get really good mileage you have to avoid "Regen", when you regen, you are only capturing part of the energy you already used, it is best to get off the gas a lot sooner (traffic permiting of course) and with your foot lightly on the gas, don't let the IMA charge, and if you get it right, it will not regen, and you will not have to use the brakes.

Actually the highest tank average I've gotten in the summer was 71 mpg - I routinely get 66mpg or more.