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Hybrid Vehicles Honda Insight Honda Insight Hybrid Battery Pack Questions
66 messages, Last post on May 29, 2009 at 3:00 AM
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I have a 2002 Insight 5-speed manual transmission model and this past week for the first time my IMA indicator light came on, followed by my engine light. I didn't know what it meant and panicked that the car would blow leaving me stranded 8 miles from home without my cell phone in hand!! LOL - overactive imagination. Anyway, as I've been poking on the internet to find out the reasons for this, I've learned more about the IMA battery failure than I cared to know. I lost my job last August and no way can I afford two or three grand for a new battery pack. I'm not aware of any warranty like you all have been talking about -- as far as I know the only warranty on my car was the 6-year or 60,000-miler which expired in February 2008. (I currently have somewhere between 66k and 72k miles total, don't recall the exact number on the odometer.) Can someone give me the proper linguistic conjuration to use when visiting the dealer to ensure that I, too, get treated well with a loaner and a replacement for free? I don't do the human interface thing very well and no matter how I try I seem to give off the "go ahead and frack me over" signal. (Or else it's just old-school gender bias against girls? hehehe) Well I can't afford to be fracked over right now, being unemployed and tight on money, so if someone could PLEASE clue me in to the right "magick words" to say to get them to listen to me and give me the same royal carpet treatment so many of you have enjoyed, it would be lovely. Thanks.
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Replying to: 02insightowner (Mar 12, 2009 11:53 am)
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I don't know how many people are out there claiming to "rebuild" Insight battery modules but I would never make the assumption that I could simply replace a few bad cells and expect the module of 120 cells, that are already aged and stressed by the weaker cells, will last for any length of time. What I do is replace ALL of the cells with NEW product that is warranted by the manufacturer for one year from date of purchase. The new cells are rated for 10 ah, an improvement over the 6.5 ah rated stock cells. Your 90 day warranty is probably a safe bet. Dealers in our area are quoting between $4000 and $5000 to replace an old and failing battery module in an Insight. I can do it for half of that, and less if it's an outright exchange. |
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What people should keep in mind about NiMh battery life is that, although there is some testing to suggest that these batteries can last for 30 years, that testing was done in a lab, in a controlled environment. The actual specs for NiMh cells tend to settle on "cycles" and not time. Even that is skewed because a complete charge/discharge cycle is almost never occurring in a hybrid car. The good news is that, unlike the NiCads in your old flashlight, the NiMH battery technology is much more forgiving of partial charge/discharge cycles and is way better suited for the application. There is no "memory" affect. What real life is showing us all is that, with new technology, trailblazers like Honda have to sometimes pick a position based on a lot of reasons and strategy, and take some risk with their warranty offers. The expanded, ten year warranty, helped ease the pain of the reality that we are experiencing. My personal take on all of this is simple. First; Nothing lasts forever and there are 120 opportunities for failure in a Honda Insight battery pack. A "rejuvenated" cell isn't a "new" cell and you can't undo the age and cycles that the, not yet failed, cells in the pack have been through. For my money, I will opt for new products when offered at a decent price. The warranty of three years that I see bandied about is probably reasonable at this point. Some of these cars are still doing OK seven years down the road, although many have had battery issues long before that, so it sounds like a reasonable risk on both our parts (Honda and the Owners) to settle on that type of warranty.
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I'm in Southern California and my car is way out of warranty. When I was getting prices from the dealers for replacement of my failing IMA battery pack, I was being quoted between $4000 and $5000 for the new pack. One dealer gave me, in writing, a quote showing their cost to be $3800, just for the battery pack alone. That was before they applied a mark-up for labor to do the job. But I have been told by, perhaps a not to reputable source, that Honda dealers in New York have been quoting $2400? Has anyone else seen any "real" quotes on this from dealers in their area?
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Replying to: imahelp (Mar 18, 2009 9:34 am) Majestic Honda (RI) quoted me $2000 (battery) + $465 (shipping of the battery from American Honda to them) + $330 (3 hours labor). Total: $2800. Honda of Princeton (Princeton, NJ) quoted me $2485 and said that I could bring the car in when the battery arrived and that I could wait as they installed it. I then called South Bay Honda (near San Francisco) and they quoted me $2800 for the battery (with the shipping) and $1100 labor for a total of $3900. This is obviously price-gouging as they can't seriously be charging $360 per hour labor. The service tech claimed that their cost for the battery was $2450. I will try to call some more west-coast dealers tomorrow to get some additional pricing. |
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