Interesting IMA observation

[Hitech]

I have a 2006 CVT Currently it has 250,000 miles, about 5 months ago I started to get re-cals every Monday on my way to work after it was unused over each weekend. Sometimes, on the way home each day it would cease re-gin (SOC pegged out). My drive profile every day is the same, 108 miles to work I drive @60 MPH no hills no traffic and 108 miles home in the evening. I consciously try to avoid assist. I have noticed that if I use a short burst of full assist twice a day (2-3 sec) I no longer get the re-cals or the pegged out SOC (it stays at about 1-2 bars from full). Anyone else notice this behavior?

Still on the original IMA bat.
LTA 60.8 MPG

[gilbertguy]

Your battery cells are getting out of balance and it looks like you are WAY out of warranty! Start saving up money for a Better Battery ($2000) from Hybrid Battery Repair, grid charger would probably give you more time and help to balance out the uneven cells in your pack. Here are some links.

Hybrid-Battery.com
http://99mpg.com/Projectcars/gridcharger/

On a positive note you've saved a ton of money with this car driving that long of a commute. If you had a manual transmission your lifetime MPG would probably be closer to 80 MPG.

[3-Wheeler]

Instead of buying a new battery, how about trying to balance yours.

Take a look at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/threewh...rickleCharging

When the weather warms more, it should be possible to add a trickle charge harness, and then build the less expensive charger that Mike posted the schematic for on his website.

Jim.

[Hitech]

I think you missed the point of my post., Doing what I am doing seems to make the IMA system perform normally with no problems.

[retepsnikrep]

Your recals will just get worse hitech and lead to an IMA light so you need a grid charger to get it balanced and keep the battery going a bit longer. I appreciate your change in driving is reducing the problems at the moment but that won't last long IMHO.

[gilbertguy]

Sorry to say but retepsnikrep is on target with this one. Yes, keep doing what you can to keep the recal's to a minimum but without a grid charger to balance out the cells they will continue to degrade. Now with that said you could run on this battery for 1 month, 6 months, a year......... no body knows for sure? And then even after you get an IMA code you could do manual resets/recharges with the 12V neg battery terminal pull trick and nurse it along for some time to come.

Soooo, keep on doing what you are doing to keep that battery going as long as possible!

[Hitech]

I haven't had a re-cal in a bit over 5 months, as apposed to one a week before.

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Hitech

I think you missed the point of my post., Doing what I am doing seems to make the IMA system perform normally with no problems.

No, I did understand your point, but countered with a recommendation on how to fix the problem long term.

Peter and GilbertGuy not only confirmed the situation, but made suggestions for improvement as well.

Jim.