Upon returning from Maine, emptying out the truck and all, tuesday even in Southern New England it wasn't much warmer, being in the single digits for lows, and I went to fire up the Honda (which doesn't need cardboard blocking the radiator to produce heat) whereupon the batteries were immediately flattened and half the lights on the dashboard lit up and one might say the car lost its spark, at least the hybrid half of it did.
Now the Honda hybrid design of the Insight, doesn't really operate very well as a car when the hybrid bits go on strike. 
The petrol engine continues to run, but there isn't enough juice available in the charging system or in the battery to really start the car repeatedly and recover from short trips. This leaves you with all these lights on the dash board flickering on and off as your driving down the road. You sort of have a choice of which ONE electrical accessory you want to use, headlamps, the radio, or the heater -- you don't have a choice with the Electric Power Steering assist, it operates at low speed sucking the remaining life out of you anemic 12V battery system. So at this point the electrical system warming lamp is coming and going, along with the BRAKE lamp, while the IMA lamp is on steady. Not quite the blue-screen-of-death, but pretty darned close, call it 'LIMP HOME' mode.
What is a hybrid less the electric bits? Junk
Now the really fun part of the Honda Insight - at least to the driver IS the Hybrid system. That electric motor tacked onto the end of the petrol engine provides most of the low-end torque - and all of it that matters to make the car fun to drive. Pull away from the line quick? Slurp juice of the batteries and turn it into torque. Accelerate through the gears? Unless you're delaying shifts until the new gear is over 2500rpm, that electric motor makes the car go-go-go. Two years and 24,000 miles ago, it was not looking well for the car, 
I figured it was out of warranty and brought it to a local mechanic, where they discovered that Honda had increased the warranty to 150,000 miles for portions of the hybrid's electric components. So off to the dealer. The dealer knew part of it was covered, but it looked like when that covered component failed, it allowed the batteries to be over drawn and trashed the remainder of the power subsystem tucked above the rear axle. Fortunately, Honda decided to cover it and replaced the entire unit. The dealer said the charge back for the repair was $6500. to Honda (at their discounted warranty labour rate.) The cost of that repair was pretty much equal to the value of the vehicle.
Fast Forward to Friday Morning: Deja Vu
The temperature's risen above zero F (-17C) from the overnight low of -9F. The Insight cranks and falls back to chugging on the wee starter - not a good sign. The battery level is same as before - that's a good sign, the check-engine light, maybe not so much. I pull off and get to the first stop light and when leaving, nearly stall it - slip the clutch and pull away but without any contribution from the Hybrid bits - the IMA light is on steady and the other lights on the dash start playing games. Crap. Ring up the local dealer and bring it over a bit later. They'll diagnose it for $109. Two and a half hours later they give me a ring back. The good news, it is only a fuse. No ordinary car fuse, this is one of the 100Amp fuses to the battery pack and is about $100. Phew. sigh of relief... now the bad news - it is located at the bottom of the hybrid bits in the rear - everything needs to taken apart to get to it, and it is 5 hours of labour. That makes it a $800. blown fuse. Only a 1/4 to a 1/5th the current value of the car :-) Like Click and Clack say - still cheaper than a couple months of a new care payment. Maybe I can get another 100,000 miles out of this vehicle. Hmmm. wonder if I can stump the chumps with this problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment