[Insightlover2011]

What's the latest Bumblebee battery upgrade that'll give my 2000 Insight more boost?
My car is 15 years old and I'm pretty sure the battery has never ben replaced but has ben properly grid-charged and so far it's happy. But, I do know it's nearing the end of it's life so it will probably need replacement soon.

 

[Rick Reece]

They just replaced mine week. I drove 3400+ miles cross country after the replacement to get home and the new battery performed great. Didn't even manage to drain it once in long climbs. My advise is to find someone in your area that has gotten a new battery and see how much of an impact it has. Its easy to forget over 15 years how much assist was available when new versus what is available now. Grid charging is great for extending the life of the battery but I believe once you get to the point where you are downshifting more than you used to in order to preserve battery capacity then you should be looking for a replacement. Have fun, Rick

 

[Willie Williford]

You are not going to get more boost from the BBB, but you will get the same amount of boost for a whole lot longer than the std Honda battery.

3 years, and roughly 47K miles with mine installed and very hard to completely drain it, even up a 10 mile 6% grade.

A very wise replacement.

HTH
Willie

 

[Insightlover2011]

I think I need to replace mine by end of the year. It started draining quicker than normal today so I put it on the grid charger as soon as I got back home.

 

[Willie Williford]

Have you tried the "Discharge" method. That seems to bring a little more life to the battery, once the std "Charging" routine gets weak..

HTH
Willie

 

[Insightlover2011]

Have not discharged it yet, what's involved with that?

 

[S Keith]

Have not discharged it yet, what's involved with that?

Check out the dischargers on HA's page:

Store - Hybrid Automotive - Honda & Toyota Grid Chargers

It involves traditional grid charging followed by manually discharging the entire pack to progressively lower voltage levels to eliminate voltage depression and effectively reclaim lost capacity.

For my HCH2 packs, I use a 500W halogen down to 120V and then a 40W Tungsten down to 1.8V. 1.8V is purely arbitrary as I just gave up after about 5 hours or so. I don't bother with the progression as I'm impatient, but I'm the odd man out on that one. I've reversed polarity of 544 cells at up to 1A current with only positive results (20-25% increase in stick/pack capacity).

 

[Willie Williford]

Discharging the IMA battery down to practically "nuttin" then charging back it up to max cap.

Using something like this'




HTH
Willie

 

[Insightlover2011]

While driving around town yesterday, my assist didn't kick on for a couple of miles. I felt the power, but the lights didn't show it. Then after one of my stops, it continued working. Everything else worked like the charging and like I said, I felt the power from the assist, but the lights didn't indicate assist.
This only happened for a few miles, and then worked the rest of the day. Any ideas?

 

[Willie Williford]

The IMA system had a "hiccup". I've seen that action several times over the years.

Just a Wild *** guess.

Willie.

 

[00saabist]

Willie, your work is very impressive, and btw thanks for the e-mail pics. It was a pleasure meeting you at Scott's bbq. jim

 

[Eli]

We're still offering the same product we always have.

You will get more boost compared to an old, dying battery - but Willie is right in the sense that the car's maximum power output is hard wired at ~12kW.

Whether you can achieve that and for how long depends on your battery.

 

[Lucky]

Battery Pack to NZ

My Direct email must have gone to spam.

How much to get a G1 insight battery pack to Wellington NZ? Shipping is likely to be a big factor so an option for one way with no return pack would be good.

Using a trickle charger at the moment about every two weeks but I need to bite the bullet eventually and need to start saving.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Eli]

Probably cost prohibitive on a whole pack, and we need your old one back.

I'd estimate that shipping on a DIY kit would be around $250.

 

[nakona1]

used fuel pump assembly

were you the guys who knew of used fuel pump assemblies for $60. also a manual engine oil pan for an 01? thanks

 

[jrenault]

is grid charge / discharging recommended with bumblebee packs or are they fine without it?

thanks

 

[Kingm2]

are these still available ?

 

[Eli]

are these still available ?

Batteries, you mean? Of course.

As far as grid charging.. that's a tough one. It helps some people, others it may not help so much. There are a lot of variables, difficult to recommend 'one size fits all'. If you have one, you may as well use it though. Still recommend every ~3-6mo.