[Scott]

I have 16K miles on an 02 CVt and since new, I have never had my battery guage go lower than 3-4 bars after which it quickly recharges to full. Most all the time, it only goes down 2 bars and back to full. I have heard that 5 speeds use more of the IMA than CVT's, but no matter how or where I drive, I have never gone down more than 4 bars. Have any other CVT, or 5speed owners for that matter, noticed this? I wish there were a way to use more of the battery power available.

 

[joecvt]

My CVT does this as well and I have read others in this forum notice the
same thing. Also, mine hardly ever reaches the last bar on the very top.
It's only happend 3 times so far since this last spring. So now here is a
question about the battery....Does it last longer in the CVT because it
does not go through as many discharge / charge cycles or does the
charge cycles make it last longer or does it matter with this type of
battery?.... Sorry to bring up a new question but it may be related
further down the road....(perhaps)

JoeCVT

 

[RWBUENTE]

I had a 2000 five speed that would periodically completly discharge. I for one reason or other traded it at 30,000 miles for a Civic SI. I missed the Insight so I traded for a 2002 CVT. It has never been below half on the battery indicator and due to the CVT adjusting RPM's as needed it very rarely if at all uses more than a third on the assist gauge.

 

[Resist]

If want you want to do is see the battery indicator go all the way down, try letting your car sit for a few weeks.

 

[Scott]

I'm not so interested in seeing the battery indicator go all the way down as I am as to why the assist isn't utilized more. Being that there is almost always a full charge, it seems a waste the IMA doesn't kick in sooner. Too bad there isn't a way to reprogram for more IMA assist.

 

[3509]

I have an 02 CVT, and a commute that includes a 12 mile stretch with a 5500 vertical foot climb, and I get the batteries down to about 1/3 going up - after about 5-6 bars down from full, the motor begins charging the battery. As the batteries get weaker, you have to push the gas pedal down further to stop the charging, and thus harder to get more assist.

On the way down, it gets filled all the way. It takes a long time to get that last bit before charging finally stops - it probably uses a slow finishing charge.

Remember though, the batteries actually decrease MPG. The charging system is not anywhere close to 100% efficient. The purpose of the batteries is to give you acceleration and uphill power that allows the car to have a small gas engine and still be drivable.

Seth

 

[Tim Maddux]

Remember though, the batteries actually decrease MPG. The charging system is not anywhere close to 100% efficient.

The charging system is inefficient, but the efficiency of mechanical brakes in 0%. So, all the charge you recover through regen-braking when you would have otherwise been forced to mechanically brake is going to result in a net MPG improvement.

The tradeoff gets trickier when you talk about hills that you could otherwise have coasted down, or gone up without ASST, accounting for wind resistance losses due to higher speeds from coasting downhill, and the like. For these situations I get the best MPG by trying different behaviors and seeing which behavior returns the most MPG (without forcing me to do something unreasonable, illegal or reckless).