[zorro17]

Hi, I have aproblem with the DC to DC converter. The IMA light has been on in my car for a while, so I have been running on the gas engine with no problems, until a couple of days ago when the battery light, the Brake light and the check engine light came on. When I started the car I noticed that its done with the starter not with the IMA, so from reading previous post I learned that the 12V battery is charged with the DC to DC converter.
Well it seems that its not charging the 12V battery as the car died yesterday and have to get the battery recharged to be able to run the car.
What help can you guys give me as to how to check the DC to Dc converter or, is there a fuse I should check?.
By the way I am replacing all the batterie sticks with some refurbished ones from Hybrid revolt, but not sure if I should charge them and recharge them a few times before I do this, or just replace them and charge them with the grid charger. They sat in a box for a year.
Any help I can get from you guys is greatly appreciated.

 

[retepsnikrep]

There is nothing wrong with the dc-dc converter or fuses.
Your ima battery is now so bad that it cannot work the system correctly so you dc-dc shuts down.

You need to replace your sticks asap if that's your plan, or cycle your current pack to see if it will revive. (You may have left it a bit late for your current pack.)

Cycle the whole pack a couple of times using a simple grid charger and simple load.
This will take several days but may bring the old pack back to life.
Masses of info on here about this stuff.

If that doesn't work then rebuild the pack using your new sticks and again cycle the whole thing a couple of times before using it in the car.

 

[Balto]

Alternatively, try this.

Pull number #16 fuse under the dash for 1-2 minutes.
Put fuse back in.
Start car and immediately rev the engine to 3-3.5k rpm and hold it until it stops charging the battery.
If the brake light and battery light persist, repeat above instructions.

The problem here is, the IMA battery has self discharged so low, it's not clicking the relay to activate the DC-DC converter. I had this problem when I bought my CVT, the previous owner let the car sit for so long it had self discharged probably to flat. Just do the above instructions and let me know what happens.

 

[dnmun]

more likely it is so far outa balance that the BCM will not charge it further because charging it appears to the BCM as damaging to the sticks which are at high voltage already, which it is.

i took my IMA pack out first thing when i got my car and reconditioned it before i even tried to drive it. mine was in the same condition as yours. IMA shut off, 12V battery not charging and illuminated, with IMA and CEL both on.

when you get the battery out then you can rewire it to allow you to work on it on the bench so you can evaluate the capacity of each stick and then you can recondition the pack and decide if you need to replace individual sticks that are too far outa balance or buy a new pack.

 

[zorro17]

Thank you so much for yur help. I will be tryin the recomendation from Balto and let you know.
I do believe that the battery pack is way to depleted, so I do need to recondition the batteries. I bought a battery charger/discharger and will start the process this weekend. My question to you guys is: Once I charge and discharge the sticks three times and select those stick that hold better, should I put them back in the pack charged or discharged? I asked because I will plug them to my grid charger.

I really apreciate all your guys help. I was at a loss yesterday and now I have a better picture of what to do. Thank you

 

[dnmun]

you will know nothing about your battery from grid charging it. you have to get the battery out on the bench and test it by monitoring the stick voltages as the battery is discharged into a dummy load through a watt meter so you can measure individual stick capacities.

knowing individual stick capacity is the biggest thing to learn about your pack, and then you wanna know how the internal resistance of each stick compares to the others in the pack. then the last thing to learn is self discharge rate but that takes a long time to determine so just finding the sticks with low capacity and hi internal resistance are the two big things you do by getting the pack out onto the bench.

 

[3-Wheeler]

Or, if you don't want to monkey with the HV pack right now, you can perform the IMA disable, and follow instructions which can be found below....

http://www.insightcentral.net/forum...ys-info-can-found-here-please-read-first.html

Jim.

 

[Gadget01]

I had the same indications a few months ago when my IMA pack went bad. I pulled the pack since hauling around dead weight with an underpowered car is honestly not very safe, at least not in Oklahoma City.

In order for the DC converter to function, it needs the power input from the motor/generator. Rather than post all those details in redundant fashion, just search for IMA bypass. It's not a difficult process.

I've been running my car this way for several months without any problems and I'm still able to get fuel econ averages in the 50's, in town. When time allows, I will do some stick-level testing to isolate/remove/replace the bad ones and have a hybrid again.

 

[zorro17]

Ok, I did the IMA bypass and the car is running fine. The battery light and brake light have been off and the car runs fine. My goal now is to work on the battery sticks and find the best 20. I have seen several sites on how to do this but since you guys are pretty good at it. Can you send me a good link either here or in Youtube?.
A friend of mine recomend me that to start I should get a load tester. after the first charge, conect it to the the load tester, and measure the voltage difference in five seconds. This procedure will give me the Internal resistance.
Thank you all for your help.

 

[Gadget01]

This video gives some Insight into battery stick reconditioning:

https://youtu.be/N57Y14dbUJQ

 

[S Keith]

Ok, I did the IMA bypass and the car is running fine. The battery light and brake light have been off and the car runs fine. My goal now is to work on the battery sticks and find the best 20. I have seen several sites on how to do this but since you guys are pretty good at it. Can you send me a good link either here or in Youtube?.
A friend of mine recomend me that to start I should get a load tester. after the first charge, conect it to the the load tester, and measure the voltage difference in five seconds. This procedure will give me the Internal resistance.
Thank you all for your help.

IMHO, save yourself the wasted man-days of your life... pursue pack grid charge and discharge before you ever pursue stick conditioning.

 

[Mountain driver]

If you're interested in such things as pack disassembly & working at the stick level, you can pick up some info from posts above and the several folk who enjoy that. Many have had great success at weeding out the bad sticks and matching up some good ones.

Someone like me who is not so skilled prefers the 'whole pack' method. I nursed a couple years and many miles (15k or so) out of an ailing pack with grid charging/ discharging. I use the equipment for general 'pack maintenance' now.

 

[Bunny Crow]

I have the same issue...

There is nothing wrong with the dc-dc converter or fuses.
Your ima battery is now so bad that it cannot work the system correctly so you dc-dc shuts down.

So does this mean that the DC/DC Converter needs to be replaced? Or is it still okay and just saying "there is a Problem"?

 

[samwichse]

The DC -DC is fine. Your IMA battery needs to be replaced, grid charged, or disconnected from the BCM.

 

[Bunny Crow]

The DC -DC is fine. Your IMA battery needs to be replaced, grid charged, or disconnected from the BCM.

Whew!! I knew the IMA needs to be replaced (it's got over 200k miles on it and is my second one), but didn't know I should have disconnected it until today...better late than never, right? I'm just glad I haven't done irreparable damage to the DC-DC converter.

 

[business213458]

12v Battery not charging. Battery symbol on and word "BRAKE" is

12v Battery not charging. Battery symbol on and word "BRAKE" is on instrument cluster.

So after reading this I am questioning if I simply need to charge and recharge my IMA battery. I did some tests with the following manual and the tests indicated that I needed to replace the DC-DC converter. I will include the photos of the diagnostic procedure for the better of all insight users.




#Battery#ChargingProblems#12VoltBatteryNotCharging

 

[S Keith]

Can't read sideways.

Check all 3 ground straps. If they haven't been replaced, they are likely due:

http://www.insightcentral.net/forums/honda-insight-forum-1st-gen-discussion/21558-ground-straps.html

 

[business213458]

Why can't I post more than 5 photo's? Fml haha come'on!

 

[business213458]

Here are the last of the photos for the diagnostics.

 

[business213458]

Actually this is the last photo.