[Tonpilot]

Hi List!

First of all, it's great to have this forum available to us Insight owners/enthusiast!

On my battery charge gauge, I could never seem to get the very top light bar to light up. Is this normal? Is there actually a light bar there? I think there is because when my fuel tank is full, the fuel gauge light bars are all lit up...and if the fuel and batt gauges are mirrors of eachother, then my batt charge gauge does not light up completely. Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Tony

 

[Braxus]

I say it's normal, my SOC rarely is at 100% capacity... and that's comming from a CVT ownder. If you're really concerned about it, you can try to force charge your battery to get a full SOC.

 

[Aaron Cake]

It's normal. The computer tries to keep the battery SOC between 30% and 80% for maximum battery life.

 

[Tim Maddux]

When I lived in a mild climate (southern California) I never saw the top bar on my battery gauge lit. Not once in 2 years of driving the Insight every day.

I saw it light up for the first time in Arizona after totally draining the battery on a big, long hill on I-10.

I have seen my battery report a totally full state many times this nasty winter (New England), especially at <40F temperatures when it doesn't go into idle stop (all winter). I've also noticed much more aggressive CHRG lighting even while cruising on the way to work, on cold days (we've been dipping close to 0F in the mornings) ... maybe trying to warm the battery pack?

It's all interesting, but I like I said it ran just fine for years with the top bar never lighting. I wouldn't be concerned.

 

[Aaron Cake]

I would assume the charge during cruise is to warm the pack. I get the same thing when I start it up in the morning. Even as I accellerate down the street, it is charging.

 

[Armin]

charge during cruise

AAron,

there is some truth to this, the car does charge much more aggressively when the battery is cold. However, it continues to charge during cruise in normal conditions whenever it likes to. The behavior is somewhat erratic. Most people don't know this since this cruise charging is not indicated with the green charge lights.

 

[Guest]

Re: charge during cruise

AAron,

there is some truth to this, the car does charge much more aggressively when the battery is cold. However, it continues to charge during cruise in normal conditions whenever it likes to. The behavior is somewhat erratic. Most people don't know this since this cruise charging is not indicated with the green charge lights.

I have an 03, and it used to be, until a few days ago, that when I was cruising at a constant speed, I would get 3 or 4 bars of charge until the battery was up to about 80%. It is no longer doing that, and I'm having a helluva time keeping a reasonable state of charge. I still get normal assist, and regen braking is working normally, but no cruise trickle charge. Well, every once in a while it will for a little bit. It comes and goes, but mostly goes. At first I thought it might be thermal cutback, but again, assist is normal. Plus, it is getting pretty cool these days, and driving for a while with the windows down in high 60's weather should cool the pack pretty quickly. I only experienced thermal cutback on hot days when my car had been sitting in the sun for a few hours. And thermal cutback affected assist as well.

So, does anyone know what might cause this? I wonder if there isn't a loose conection on a sensor somewhere. This did seem to start after driving for a while on a rough gravel road...