My Theorey on how to PROVE battery deterioration.
Active Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 124
From: Farmington, CT
Re: My Theorey on how to PROVE battery deterioration.
My car does not use IMA assist more than 5 seconds in the row no matter what battery charge level it has. Is it some sort of protection or battery safe-mode operation? I have this feature after my original transmission was replaced.
Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 48
Re: My Theorey on how to PROVE battery deterioration.
Ok, on a *recent* attempt to fullfill my end of the warrenty contract my vehicle was tampered with at the dealership. When I recieved it back their were NO codes, NO check engine light, NO ima light and EVERYTHING seemed to be working like it usually. Regular assist, Regual charge, normal millage. It was claimed the tow truck driver disconnected the battery (yeah right)
With 1500km left on the warrnety i realized I may have seriously been screwed once again. 3 days of driving and like i said above, everything was working.
From all the posts a few months back about scan guage i had returned my regualr OBD2 scanner and picked one up and was using it as an info/code scanner.
With PC hardware, to test for failure you do a stress test. Run prime 95, Memtest 86+ ETC so what would be a "Stress test" for the IMA system to show fault in a deteriorated pack?
What I did was drove my insight under full accelleration SHIFTING early (almost to the point of stall) so that full assist would be achieved for the maximum amount of time, with the least amount of speed. I did this on a fairly large hill with an open straight away above.
Now here is where it gets interesting. The insight accelerated like normal all the way through the gears, but right near the peak of the hill something strange happened. The scanguage show a drop from the steady 13.9V 12v system monitor to 12.1V, then, seconds later the Assist guage CUT in half, and then completly disappeared and went offline. The voltage then jumped back up to 13.9V and I experienced what seemed to be a "Normal" recall, but at the end of it the IMA light and check engine light came back on.
This mixed in with the "Testimonials" of failures one the insight by people driving once a week (which i did to recieve the codes initially) brings me to the theorey that to show a failure your insight has to be put into a stress zone, Either Full battery discharge, or minimal battery charge.
It would be interesting if the people who have high millage insights, who perseave battery problems to put their millage aside for one day and try and reproduce what I did and confirm my theory. If we can come up with a standard for how stress test your pack yourself, it may be extremly benificial to other owners
With 1500km left on the warrnety i realized I may have seriously been screwed once again. 3 days of driving and like i said above, everything was working.
From all the posts a few months back about scan guage i had returned my regualr OBD2 scanner and picked one up and was using it as an info/code scanner.
With PC hardware, to test for failure you do a stress test. Run prime 95, Memtest 86+ ETC so what would be a "Stress test" for the IMA system to show fault in a deteriorated pack?
What I did was drove my insight under full accelleration SHIFTING early (almost to the point of stall) so that full assist would be achieved for the maximum amount of time, with the least amount of speed. I did this on a fairly large hill with an open straight away above.
Now here is where it gets interesting. The insight accelerated like normal all the way through the gears, but right near the peak of the hill something strange happened. The scanguage show a drop from the steady 13.9V 12v system monitor to 12.1V, then, seconds later the Assist guage CUT in half, and then completly disappeared and went offline. The voltage then jumped back up to 13.9V and I experienced what seemed to be a "Normal" recall, but at the end of it the IMA light and check engine light came back on.
This mixed in with the "Testimonials" of failures one the insight by people driving once a week (which i did to recieve the codes initially) brings me to the theorey that to show a failure your insight has to be put into a stress zone, Either Full battery discharge, or minimal battery charge.
It would be interesting if the people who have high millage insights, who perseave battery problems to put their millage aside for one day and try and reproduce what I did and confirm my theory. If we can come up with a standard for how stress test your pack yourself, it may be extremly benificial to other owners
When your recal happened, the car started a forced charge to test the HV battery (that's what a recal is). That snapped the car into "I have to charge the battery because I can't feed it from the HV battery that doesn't currently exist"
Hybrid and Ethanol Expert
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 3,616
From: All over the Central U.S.
Re: My Theorey on how to PROVE battery deterioration.
When my 2000 MT IMA pack gets really low ( like zero to 3 bars ) it will frequently turn off the DC/DC converter.
I see voltage go from 13.9v ( DC/DC on ) to 11.9 and falling ( DC/DC off ) in an instant. And back up to 13.9 when the IMA is healthy enough to turn the DC/DC converter back on.
Once in a while I get P1445 and the IMA light, but it goes away when the IMA has time to recharge.
I see voltage go from 13.9v ( DC/DC on ) to 11.9 and falling ( DC/DC off ) in an instant. And back up to 13.9 when the IMA is healthy enough to turn the DC/DC converter back on.
Once in a while I get P1445 and the IMA light, but it goes away when the IMA has time to recharge.
Thread
Topic Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Curated Content Editor
Journalism & The Media
0
Apr 21, 2014 09:41 AM
highflyer_i469
Honda Civic Hybrid
11
Aug 11, 2007 02:06 PM
