Battery charge level

5231 Views 19 Replies 11 Participants Last post by Mike Dabrowski 2000, Mar 12, 2003

Motty82

Discussion Starter · Mar 2, 2003

Hi fellow Insight owners,
I am curious if anybody has noticed what I have been noticing about the battery state of charge meter in the 2000 5 speed Insight.
I bought mine used @ 23,000 miles and have driven it 1000 miles thus far.

I notice that the meter shows charge draining really fast under half to full acceleration as well as when climbing hills. For instance, the meter is near full and after a half to one mile of acceleration later the charge indicator shows half charge or even 1/4th charge.

On a similar note, I feel as if something is off kilter on the way the accelerator pedal is functioning. It is almost difficult durring cruising to not allow power to be used from the battery to assist. On the other hand, full acceleration use of the battery/motor seems not to give all that much power for accelerating.

I appreciate any comments on this subject.
Thanks,
Martin
2000 Silver 5 spd

Save

1 - 2 of 20 Posts

Armin

· #3 · Mar 3, 2003

Motty82 said:
I notice that the meter shows charge draining really fast under half to full acceleration as well as when climbing hills. For instance, the meter is near full and after a half to one mile of acceleration later the charge indicator shows half charge or even 1/4th charge.

Martin,

I believe you have experienced what is called a recalibration of the batteries Sate-of-Charge gauge, or "recal" for short. There have been many discussions on the two yahoo groups. Honda declares this to be normal. Assist will be limited after a recal, until the battery had time to charge somewhat.

Motty82 said:
On a similar note, I feel as if something is off kilter on the way the accelerator pedal is functioning. It is almost difficult durring cruising to not allow power to be used from the battery to assist. On the other hand, full acceleration use of the battery/motor seems not to give all that much power for accelerating.

Does this happen with the IMA gauge showing full assist (all orange bars lit?) There are numerous reasons, why the car would limit assist. A recent recal event is one of them. Another one is too low or too high temperature. Usually, this would be reflected on the gauge by not lighting all bars.

Armin
Y3085
MYBRID

Save

Armin

· #8 · Mar 5, 2003

Re: Response to input

Motty82 said:
I beleive I have had only one RECAL event. During this event the charge level gauge went all the way down to 0% and possibly even turned off (reset/restarted) for a fraction of a second then showed 100%. The other times that my gauge shows low, it recharges during the remainder of my trip.

I think you got it the wrong way around. What you describe as the "other times" is the real recal event. The gauge drops swiftly, but not instantly to one bar or zero bars. Then it recharges during normal driving. The first event you describe is not something I have seen before.

Motty82 said:
Armin,
It depends on how hard I press down on the accelerator pedal as to the number of bars lit showing assist level. Most of the time when I want hard assist from the electric motor, the assist meter shows all bars lit or almost all bars lit. From time to time I also only press down hard enough for 50% assist to show.

This sounds like normal behavior. What is the problem?

Save

1 - 2 of 20 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month