Battery charge level

5238 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

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Mike Dabrowski 2000

· #20 · Mar 12, 2003

Ecfool said:
On MIZR teh SOC calibrations seemed to really get more frquent just before My battery pack died. I would see a recalibration sometimes 2 times in 45 mile comute. But the biggest concern just prior to or should say reason I took MIZR in for a check up was the IMA light and the CEL coming on. I had complained several times prior to toal failure of battery pack of a IMA light coming on while traversing the "grapevine" section of I-5 but it would go off and stay off once i stopped and restarted the engine with the key. Now i havnt seen recalibration since having the battery module replaced and it seems to hold a steady charge level even better than when MIZR was new.

I would say that your experience would indicate that the SOC calibrations may have more to do with a low capacity battery pack that discharges at a faster rate than the SOC meter expects. This is probably due to a weak cell. The recalibration saves the pack by force charging before the weak cell is reverse charged, but since all cells are in series, the weakest cell will determine the pack capacity.
My 2000 5 speed is at 48K, and I have yet to see a recalibration, so it is hard for me to see how Honda can call them normal.
We have been over this subject at length in the Honda Hybrid group. I would like to know what they found with your old battery pack, when it was returned to Honda.
I still have 3 of the battery pack test connectors if anyone is interested in monitoring the battery sub pack voltages.
Mike

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