Looking for functioning 1st gen IMA battery or Help with mine - So Cal
I'm super new here because I recently purchased a Honda Insight 2001 (automatic) from a private seller which theoretically was completely fixed up and running perfectly. It was passed smog two months ago and drove perfectly in the test drive, no lights came on, so I had no reason to think anything of it.
On the drive home, an hour after I purchased it and signed the papers, the ima battery stopped working all together (no ima light, just the check engine light). The car still runs but it doesn't have a lot of power and the gas millage is... well, not what it should be.
The ima battery won't hold a charge at all, even after the Honda dealer tried to force a charge into the battery. Driving the car just a few yards after this made the ima battery turn off once again (is it possibly because they didn't do it correctly or let the battery rest post charging or...?). I'm not sure if this can be somewhat fixed with a grid charger or by replacing all the individual cells?
To be completely transparent, I don't know much about cars other than what I've researched over the past few days -but I'm happy to learn! I really really want to save this cute little car but I'm scared about doing it on my own seeing as how I know so little and a hybrid can be so dangerous to mess with.
The easiest solution is to see if I can buy someone's used IMA battery if it's still functioning decently or even has a few thousand miles left on it.
The less easy solution, but something I'm completely open to, is turning to somewhere here for guidance in working on the car to implant a harness and grid charger to the ima battery. I saw all sorts of tutorials about recharging and balancing old cells but... since I've never worked on a car before, I'm really concerned about safety. That and accidentally destroying the car that is still running really well, even with a dead hybrid battery.
I live in So Cal (San Diego) and am willing to travel around for the battery or assistance as the case may be.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far. I really appreciate all the help I can get.
On the drive home, an hour after I purchased it and signed the papers, the ima battery stopped working all together (no ima light, just the check engine light). The car still runs but it doesn't have a lot of power and the gas millage is... well, not what it should be.
The ima battery won't hold a charge at all, even after the Honda dealer tried to force a charge into the battery. Driving the car just a few yards after this made the ima battery turn off once again (is it possibly because they didn't do it correctly or let the battery rest post charging or...?). I'm not sure if this can be somewhat fixed with a grid charger or by replacing all the individual cells?
To be completely transparent, I don't know much about cars other than what I've researched over the past few days -but I'm happy to learn! I really really want to save this cute little car but I'm scared about doing it on my own seeing as how I know so little and a hybrid can be so dangerous to mess with.
The easiest solution is to see if I can buy someone's used IMA battery if it's still functioning decently or even has a few thousand miles left on it.
The less easy solution, but something I'm completely open to, is turning to somewhere here for guidance in working on the car to implant a harness and grid charger to the ima battery. I saw all sorts of tutorials about recharging and balancing old cells but... since I've never worked on a car before, I'm really concerned about safety. That and accidentally destroying the car that is still running really well, even with a dead hybrid battery.
I live in So Cal (San Diego) and am willing to travel around for the battery or assistance as the case may be.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far. I really appreciate all the help I can get.
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