[salm0n]

Hi guys,

Originally I had been viewing posts from this site for help with my IMA battery problem on my Honda Civic Hybrid, and managed to find solutions to that problem here. Since people here generally seem to be quite friendly and helpful I thought I'd try and reach out for some further help here.

Some background: I managed to purchase a replacement battery from Matt at Hybrid ReVolt last April, and swapped it out myself with no problems. I managed to enjoy the IMA-light-free life for several months. However, in January the dreaded check engine and IMA lights switched on again. I thought it was just the cold weather messing with the already old battery, so I reset the lights using the 12V fuse and kept going. The light has since come back on 3/4 separate occasions (with reset) and I'm quite sure the battery is failing again. The battery level drops to near zero when I start the car, and charges to near full in a less than 10min drive.

I've been trying to contact Hybrid ReVolt since late Jan through email, contact forms, and voicemail, but haven't been able to get any response. My battery is still under the warranty provided by them, and I was wondering if anyone else has been able to contact them?

Thanks guys

 

[samwichse]

I can't help you with Hybrid Revolt, but I will say that my IMA's been showing the same behavior (push it too hard, get an IMA light). I've had 3 now, and in cold weather, it's insane how fast I get a negative recal... as in, I can have over 70% SOC on my IMAC&C, floor it at 0-5C, and have a negative recal down to 25% in about 10-12 seconds.

Ron from Hybrid-Battery-Repair has suggested that he wouldn't even use an HCH1 battery for a rebuild because their sticks are all pretty much just used up and not worth anything but recycling. He does sell rebuilt batteries for them though, but I think he just uses NOS/recycled Insight I batteries for that.

I'm personally planning to just go with a BetterBattery when the time comes and my IMA goes to the great recycle bin in the sky.

Sam

 

[salm0n]

Thanks for the advice, Sam. Unfortunately the BetterBattery wasn't available when mine died, so I went with this one. Do you know how long your battery's been doing that for? I'm guessing I don't have that long to go before I need a new one.

And the thing is since this battery is still under warranty, I don't really want to shell out another $1-2k for a new battery, when my car is only worth that much at a dealer trade-in. I dread to say that I might have to go non-hybrid if I can't contact Hybrid ReVolt.

simon

 

[gilbertguy]

I have done buisness with Matt before as he rebuilt my battery also, he is hard to get ahold of sometimes. Last summer my battery had issues under warranty and had trouble getting in touch with him, come to find out he was out of town for a month. He did respond to me but took a few weeks driving with IMA light until he got back and could take the affected battery to rework it. A month with no reply sounds a bit long though?

I now have the Mike D grid charger and will be balancing the cells on my battery at least once a month. My battery is no longer under warranty with Matt as of this month. Hoping the grid charger gets me several years of service from this battery but when it does finally fail will be looking to Ron for a better battery.

 

[Calpod]

Welcome to the forum Salm0n, you should post your location, there are several people here that have Mike's battery charger, you could purchase a harness from him and have one of the forum members charge it for you, it will certainly help, I was getting IMA lights about every 2 weeks and they stopped after charging it every day for a couple of weeks, it's worth a try, you will eventually need a charger.

 

[samwichse]

Hey, mines been giving ima lights occasionally for about 4 months. it has happened 3 times in that period each time i reset it and use my obdiicc to pump extra charge into it... I've been doing that preventively and haven't had one in about a month. sam

 

[Calpod]

Hey, mines been giving ima lights occasionally for about 4 months. it has happened 3 times in that period each time i reset it and use my obdiicc to pump extra charge into it... I've been doing that preventively and haven't had one in about a month. sam

Sam, do you have a grid charger? That took care of my IMA lights on my silver Insight.

 

[samwichse]

I don't have one... and unfortunately, I have no place to plug one in... apartment dweller.

 

[salm0n]

Thanks for all the inputs guys, unfortunately I'm an apartment dweller too (based in Baltimore), so charging it every night would be sort of.. not to favorable an option. @sam you mentioned something about an obdiicc? How does that help with the life of the IMA battery?

 

[samwichse]

In re OBDIIC&C:

I'm not sure it's extending the actual life of the battery, although it may a bit, but it is certainly extending the service life for me.

I use the feature that allows you to set the car's state of charge to 40% (the level where forced charging occurs) each morning, even though the BCM usually says it has about 69-75% charge. Then it pumps extra juice into the battery, and for the rest of the day, it acts like a battery that's in decent shape (I see significantly better regen especially, and hard acceleration doesn't throw an IMA light).

I do this every morning, then once every week or two, I reset down to 40% repeatedly, letting it charge till it does a postive recal to 75%, then resetting to 40% again until the recal happens almost immediately... I figure I'm getting a crappy version of what the grid charge does for you out of that.

Of course, it helps that I have a fair bit of interstate in my commute.

Also, the gauge helps me keep my SOC up by showing how many amps are going in/out of the battery, a much more accurate SOC estimation, and how much the voltage is rising/sagging during regen/assist. By "driving to the gauge," you can do things like... when I've got a lot of regen and my voltage is getting too high, I give it a little throttle blip which brings the rest voltage down quickly, or I can modulate my acceleration based on how far its sagging (I try not to let it go below about 138).

Sam

 

[salm0n]

Hey guys, just to update: I managed to finally get in contact with Matt (apparently he somehow never got some of my earlier messages). He agreed to send a replacement, and I'm waiting on it right now (should come some time next week). Thanks for all the help! And I'll look at all the options you guys listed if the battery dies out of warranty in the future.

simon

 

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

Ron from Hybrid-Battery-Repair has suggested that he wouldn't even use an HCH1 battery for a rebuild because their sticks are all pretty much just used up and not worth anything but recycling. He does sell rebuilt batteries for them though, but I think he just uses NOS/recycled Insight I batteries for that.

We sell BetterBattery sticks in our Civic replacements.

 

[samwichse]

We sell BetterBattery sticks in our Civic replacements.

I meant for the repair service: Hybrid-Battery.com

 

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

I meant for the repair service: Hybrid-Battery.com

Oh, sorry. You said replacements. We once offered pre-built packs with stock cells, but no more.

We use stock cells for repairs. There aren't that many good ones anymore. Our recovery rate is down around 1-2 good sticks per pack as an average. Civic cells are generally worse than Insight cells (because of how the owners drive the cars after the IMA light comes on), but there are many more of them.

 

[cdahl7]

hybrid revolt

I have been trying to contact hybrid revolt for about 2 weeks about a battery repair under warranty and no luck. Have left a dozen messages. My ima is messed up and just killed cars 12v. Have heard a lot of different ideas about running with a bad ima battery but not sure what to do because hr will not get back to me.

 

[Willie Williford]

If you read a "lot of threads" here you will get a general idea of how the IMA system operates. Just because you have an "ill" battery, doesn't mean you are done.
A lot of us dedicated Insighters have run with a messed up battery for many thousands of miles or several years by learning to modify your driving style and understanding the how the system operates. From your post It appears that you have one of Hybrid Revolts rebuilt battery, Have you called Matt, or is it just E mails?
He is usually prompt in returning any telephone calls.

HTH
Willie

 

[cdahl7]

hybrid revolt

Once via website submission and called probably 100x left 8 voicemails. Does he leave shop for weeks on end?

 

[gilbertguy]

I had similiar experiance, Matt was out of town for a few weeks and did get back with me and did perform warranty repair on my battery once he got back. Please add your location to your signiture block, are you in AZ?

 

[cdahl7]

Ok good to know, I'm in Tucson, I guess I just have to be patient. I seem to be able to get by with disconnecting 12v and resetting computer then letting batteries charge up, but ima light and every other light that I possible can think of eventually will come back on. I guess for mean time I will drive very conservative and don't use ac/stereo, to try and prevent ima from kicking inas little as possible, it seems that helps from causing problems... I guess the truly said part is that while I was driving without ima I only list like 3 mpg...

 

[samwichse]

I guess the truly said part is that while I was driving without ima I only list like 3 mpg...

If you're like me, it's because your car spends most of its time charging the battery and barely any assist.

Mine threw an IMA light the other day and disabled itself (my OBDIIC&C is still somewhere between here and England!), and I just tried making my commute without it. I got 54 mpg, whereas the day before under almost identical conditions but without the IMA light, I got 60.

Can't wait till my new battery gets here.

Sam