Practical experience with a 2004' HCH when I left the interior light on for three days. Overnight was fine the first couple times I did it, but leaving it on for the weekend drained the lead acid motorcycle battery completely a month or two ago. Jump started within seconds of having the jumper cables attached; all the car needed was enough to power the onboard computers to allow it to pull the juice from the IMA battery (which wasn't dead) and start the engine. That and I've read through the entire car's manual a few times.
-13th

 

Folks,

The way conventional lead acid batteries work is that they like to be fully charged. You can leave the dome light on and fully drain it only a few times before your will need to replace it. If you never run it dead, it should last a good long time!

Dobe

 

Brian, I am wondering, how does the car run without IMA. Are you still using the car or have you parked it? My 06 model runs OK without assist. I think I could live without the it? The only problem I can see is, is the engine battery being charged when the assist battery is down?

 

I sell cars at Carmax and find people think their old cars are worth something because they just replaced their transmission or engine. Most of the time you hear this about american cars. I just worked with a customer with a Chrysler Van withover 200,000 miles on it. They thought it would be worth $4000 because it had a rebuild engine and on its 2nd transmission. I always am hearing about new engines and transmission installed on american cars with over 100,000 miles. I guess what I am saying is Honda is still more reliabile than any american made vehicle.


2nd thing..... I really don't believe we are going to see a price break in the batteries unless there are going to be aftermarket companies selling them. Engines and transmissions have been around for a long time and they don't drop price. Unless a aftermarket company makes them. Honda, Toyota and the dealerships are trying to make money.

If you are the only one in town with the battery why drop your price! I wouldn't!


But, after saying all that... I cross my fingers that I don't have a battery problem!!!!!! I have 6 year or 120,000 miles before I have to worry about it!

Jeremy
Birmingham, Alabama

 

jscurrie reminds me of a story I think I may have told here before, but it's worth telling again.

I have an old friend, Louie, who drives an ancient little red Honda, affectionately nicknamed 'Big Red.' He lives out in the wilderness in Washington state and commutes some ridiculous distance like 100 miles to work every day. He also drives back and forth to Chicago and upstate Minnesota several times a year for work. Suffice it to say- he puts a lot of miles on Big Red. He was nearing the half-million mark, when word went around among our friends that when it hit 500,000, Louie was going to finally retire Big Red. A few months later, Louie drives into Chicago, still behind the wheel of Big Red.
"What happened, Louie?" we asked him. "Weren't you going to retire Big Red?"
"Yes, I did," says he. "So far, I like the new tires!"

This, says Louie, is why you should buy a Honda.

 

in 1993, i bought a brand new civic LX, 5 speed. it was my second honda. when we moved to the country in 2001, i bought a subaru forester, and hubby got the civic. i drove the subaru until 2004, when it just about died. i bought a honda CRV, which i traded a year later for my HCH, which i have had for 2 years. the '93? hubby is still driving it. it has somewhere in the high 100,000s for mileage and still goes 80 miles a day. plus......he can get over 40MPG with it. they run forever.......

 

Wow...Re-Tired. That joke is a bad as most of mine The fact that it's a true story though makes it better than most of mine

 

I worked for a company that had several Lincolns and Cadillacs with half a million miles on them. Original engines and transmissions. I drove most of them. Besides feeling like they're old cars, they still drove pretty well. The highest mileage Lincoln that I drove was 670K miles.

 

After almost a year of searching I was able to locate an IMA battery from a 2005 vehicle at Pams Auto online the car had less than 11,000 miles and the cost of the battery with shipping was $ 450.00 , I had received instructions on how to replace the battery on JustAsk.com, a friend and I installed it this morning it took about 2 hours and we took our time, not much more than a
normal battery change yet you need to remove the back seat, make sure the battery discharges, measure the voltage and disconnect in the proper sequence and reconnect the replacement battery in the proper sequence.
The car seems to be running great, IMA light went off immediately upon start up. Honda Dealership charging $ 4000.00 is robbery without a gun at best.

 

Wow! Awesome! Sorry to hear it took nearly a year to track down a suitable replacement. However, really happy to hear the parts were cheap, the install went well, and the car drives as it should once again!