[Cuaman]

The IMA system stopped working on my car the other day. It has aorund 125000 miles on it. I still runs ok without the IMA. I called the dealer and he said that the car is running in Safe Mode. It is running like a regular car instead of a hybrid car. Since it is running okay can I drive the car in Safe Mode indefinitely without screwing up the car? Just curious if anyone knew the answer to that.

 

[originalbadbob]

Cuaman,
I don't know tha answer to that, but I am curious about it. It seems that we get the best gas mileage by using the IMA as little as possible, so what kind of mileage could we get if we eliminated the weight of the batteries and do away with the IMA? I guess part of the success would be the charging system so I suppose your electric motor is still functioning as a generator to keep the 12V system alive. One of the replies to a post of mine made reference to that as the charging system. Do you know if it is a controller issue or battery pack?
Thanks and good luck with it.
robert

 

[Rick]

I'd watch the 12 volt battery voltage. It should be at at least 12.7 volts at rest, and probably above 13 while the car is running. If it is within these ranges the IMA is probably still acting as an alternator in which case I would think the car would be ok. If the 12 volt is less than said above then your 12 volt stuff is drawing off of the little battery and I wouldn't plan any long trips. If it is low in the mean time I'd recharge it at every opportunity. Because eventually if the 12 volt dies and there's nothing charging it the car will stall out and you won't be able to restart it.

 

[Aaron Cake]

Been there, done that. Cost me $1100 and three weeks of dealing with the dealer. Thread is still ongoing:

http://www.insightcentral.net/forum/vie ... php?t=2429

 

[joecvt]

I'm also curious about this safe mode...Does your car startup using the
IMA motor as usual or does it now use the starter motor like the ones
on normal cars that you have as a backup?...When you hit the brakes
does the charge meter still work with just no assist when accelerating?

JoeCVT - Just your average CVT owner

 

[Cuaman]

I talked to the service guy again at the Honda dealership. He said that it CAN run in safe mode indefinitely!!!! The service guy is a friend of a friend so he took a look at the car. Four codes popped up!!! He said that was highly unusual so he called someone high up. Belive it or not, they actually replace the battery and the controllers for free!!! I just had to pay for the labor. Man did I get lucky. By the way, when I was driving the car in safe mode, my mileage stayed just about the same, between 55 and 60 mpg.

 

[originalbadbob]

I suspected as much. I think the major mileage success of the Insight is in the way we drive them. It takes energy to charge the batteries, and if the assist would come on early and allow us to keep in lean burn when climbing a hill instead of only when we mash the pedal some I think the efficiency would go way up. That would take a more sophisticated controller to do that though.
Way cool on getting the stuff for free.
Robert

 

[Aaron Cake]

With practice, you can hold assist at the 75MPG mark. However, it's only good for climbing slight grades as you can only achieve about 1/4 assist at this point.

 

[Cuaman]

Joecvt,
I don't know if the the car was using the IMA battery or not to start the car. There was still a charge showing on the IMA battery, but the car was not charging or discharging it. Nothing was working on the IMA part of the car. When I was at a stop light, the car didn't shut off. It just drove like my old 1988 Honda civic.

 

[joecvt]

Now with a new battery, you should be able to go another 125,000 miles.
My only fear about driving it with no IMA would be if the motor acting as
a generator fails to charge the battery...Long term you may get stuck on
the road as Rick mentioned.

JoeCVT - Just your average CVT owner