Regen Question
 

There is not too much traffic in here anymore -- but hopefully someone can help.

My '06 escape hybrid (4wd) was in a pretty bad accident. There was a substantial amount of work done to the back of the automobile as well as a new (to me) battery (it came from an '08).

I am the second owner of this car. I drove it 35k or so before this accident. Regen is happening different now than it was before (or I'm crazy). The Tach seems different as well.

1. If I am accelerating, then I stop (just remove pressure from gas -- no brake) while in D I see the charge gauge go down (indicating its charging). It then immediately goes back to the neutral position (not charging or discharging). This is like what happens when your coasting and you shift to L -- except in that scenario it will continue to charge as the car slows down. In this case (in D), the gauge just shows charge, then back to neutral position. This never happened before. Since I am the second owner it is possible that this is normal behavior and the car was not acting normally before. Is this normal?

2. If I drive a constant speed on flat ground and shift in L I see no change in RPMs on the tach. This doesn't seem correct and the behavior is different than before. BUT, If I am slowing and shift to L regen happens like I would expect ("the trick" to drop into EV early).

So -- did they screw something up here? Any ideas what that might be?


I am also not getting as good of mileage as before -- but there are many factors involved. I got new tires, its been terribly cold, etc. I get the feeling that I can't stay in EV as long as I did before --- but this could easily be due to the weather. If I wanted to check out the battery capacity, what parameters would be looking at (using a scangauge)? Also, is there a way to force a recalibration (as I have no idea whether this was done when the battery was replaced)?


I appreciate any responses I can get. Thanks,
Mak

Re: Regen Question
 

So no response yet -- hopefully there is some more traffic on the site tonight.

Simple question ---- Does your FEH charge gauge show "charging" and then back to neutral when your driving in "D" and take your foot off the gas?

--Mak

Re: Regen Question
 

Coasting in "D" above ~6mph should keep the needle on the charge side in most conditions. If your going at say 30mpg coasting down you will see the SGII SoC increase slowly 1/10% at a time. It sounds like shifting to "L" at a steady state speed then letting off the gas pedal your RPM's should be dropping.

Is it possible you got an '09 battery module with '09 programming? There was a big programming change in the '09 FEH.

GaryG

Re: Regen Question
 

Gosh, I would hope the repair shop was smarter than putting Gen 2 programming with a Gen 1 hybrid system!

But I doubt they reprogrammed the CPU; is there that much difference between the actual battery technology?

Re: Regen Question
 

Garyg -- Thank you very much for the response.

I'm sorry -- I wasn't clear.

"Coasting in "D" above ~6mph should keep the needle on the charge side in most conditions."

The Needle drops 1/2 way down into 'charging' and then comes right back up to the neutral position. It does not stay in 'charging' as I coast. You are correct though -- a SGII would help here to determine if I'm still banking charge as I coast.

"It sounds like shifting to "L" at a steady state speed then letting off the gas pedal your RPM's should be dropping."

Maybe I am remembering this wrong from before the accident. In the condition you describe RPMs would drop. I was talking about traveling a constant speed then shifting into "L" and continuing at that speed. Its my recollection that RPMs should be HIGHER while in "L" at speed X than RPMs in "D" at speed the same speed X.

Perhaps the expected behavior for this is different depending on what speed X is.

My feeling is that now if I let off the gas in "D" and coasted to a stop then did the same in "L" there would be no difference how far I would coast. Before the accident "L" had more resistance and I would have stopped sooner. Hopefully that makes sense.

Thx,
Mak

Re: Regen Question
 

I would hope the same.

Re: Regen Question
 

Well, I can report that the RPMs are the same in "L" as in "D" on my 2008, so long as I am not slowing down.

Re: Regen Question
 

Perfect. Thank you for the data point.

What about the first behavior described -- when you are in "D" and take your foot off the gas? How would you describe the reaction of the "charge" v. "assist" gauge?

Re: Regen Question
 

I will have to get back to you on that one. I really don't notice on a daily basis. And I generally put the FEH into "L" when slowing for a stop.

Re: Regen Question
 

would also depend on outside temp and or SOC battery.