2003 HCH went in okay, came out dead.
 

I was searching around for a replacement battery and came across this forum. Something fishy (in my opinion) happened and I thought I would run it past some people who may know more than I (I barely know enough about standard cars, let alone a hybrid).

So, The IMA light comes on, around 85000 miles. Everything is working as normal in the car, the ima is charging and it is assisting. We think the battery is under warranty so we take it in to the dealer just to see if we can get a freebie, low and behold, we are past the time (9 year warranty, it is year 10 for the car). Fine we say, it is working okay now, we'll just keep going til it actually dies. We hop in and the IMA gauges are dead. No charge, no assist, nothing. The sales guy tells us that he had to do some computer upgrades to it, standard firmware updates I would believe and now the whole thing is dead.

I'm usually not a cynical guy, but car dealerships and the like always make me weary. How is it we drive it in and it was still functioning and then we get it back and hop in it AT THE DEALERSHIP and it is not working. What could cause that? Could they have intentionally tampered with it? Is there someway to safely charge the IMA to see if it will come back to life? We will probably just bite the bullet and order a new one and do it ourselves, just looking for an outside opinion. Thanks.

Re: 2003 HCH went in okay, came out dead.
 

I'm wondering if they turned off the IMA switch (large switch located behind the back seat) as this fellow did:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...e-light-28481/

...except they kept it off.

Does the car still start, and if so, does it start with the regular starter? You would hear the normal starter sound as opposed to the quiet start that the IMA battery usually does.

Re: 2003 HCH went in okay, came out dead.
 

Well I found the switch, it is in the on position, unfortunately. As for your questions, the car did start, but now it doesn't, the regular battery is drained immediately and the car stalls out. It uses the louder, standard starter motor when starting, not the quiet one from the IMA. Thank you for the tips.