How many recals is too many?

1747 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Motty82, Sep 24, 2003

jeffp

Discussion Starter · Sep 23, 2003

I have a 2000 Insight with about 50K miles on it. All in all, I'm *very* happy with it, but I am having frequent recal events. I live at the top of a 2,000 foot hill and commute into work at almost sea level daily. At the moment, I get a recal about every three days or so. Sometimes more often, sometimes less, but every 3 days is about the average. These recals happen (as you might expect) when climbing the hill. I never have any on flat ground or going downhill -- only on the climb,
and then usually near or at the top.

Before I found this site I took the car to my dealer. They clearly had no clue what to do about it, and returned the vehicle to me unchanged with instructions to monitor it. How useful.

I'm guessing that a drive up a steep hill at 50 MPH or more is a bit hard on the batteries and I may have worn mine down faster than some others. What I don't know is how bad things have to get before Honda will replace them. They checked the system out and found no stored codes in any of the monitoring systems. Thus, they told me to keep driving it. The problem is that all those recals are hard on mileage. I have to downshift to maintain speed on the hill, and that eats gas. At it's peak my lifetime mileage was 61.1, but is down to 60.3 thanks to a combo of the recals and new tires.

Any advice on how bad this has to get befire it will be fixed -- or what to tell my dealer in order to get this fixed now -- would be appreciated.

--jeffp

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Mitch53

· #2 · Sep 23, 2003

Hey Jeff - You might wanna go here >> http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hon ... /messages/

and do some reading on this subject. There are scads of posts with your problem. It's become a hot topic of late, and many owners have taken action to tip the scales twords us owners.

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jeffp

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 23, 2003

Just to be clear -- after having read a few posts in the yahoo forum you mention -- my "recal" is a follows:

Driving along, battery charge level falls (over time) to about 50%, give or take, according to the meter on the dash. At this point, the recal hits, and over 20 seconds or so, the meter drops to showing only one bar's worth of charge in the battery. I have to downshift to maintain speed on the hill as the battery assist has gone away. Oddly, the charge/assist meter can sometimes read that it is charging the battery while the battery level meter is dropping. Once the battery charge meter hits empty, then things resume as normal, and recharging takes place.

Is this the proper definition of "recal" or is there more to it? I see notes about IMA cutting out and check engine lights coming on. I see none of that, and want to be sure I am using the terms properly.

A wrinkle: on rare occasions ( 2 or 3 so far) regenerative braking isn't as effective after a recal. By that I mean that I cannot get all the "charging" lights to come on when I apply the brakes, regardless of what gear I am in, coasting down a hill, etc. If I let the car sit for a few hours, it's fine and regenerative braking works properly again. Anyone know what's up with that, and is it part of the recal or something else?

Sorry to be the newby to the forum.

--jeffp

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Mitch53

· #4 · Sep 23, 2003

From your description, sounds like it....... take a look at this video....

http://homepage.mac.com/mtndrew1/iMovieTheater18.html

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Motty82

· #5 · Sep 24, 2003

I notice the same thing about the charge being limited after a recal of the State Of Charge gauge. I understand it to be the system reacting to the heat accumulation and therefore cutting back on the amount of charge at all times while forcing the charge back to full.

~Martin
Recycled
2000 5 Spd

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