I just learned of the update via someone else posting http://www.jsonline.com/business/100169499.html.

 

well, did my first 400 mile round trip road trip. I filled up with British Polluters E10 93 octane (probably the best gas in our area (un)fortunately, the only gas my camaro will run on with the tune I currently have without pinging), and the car was very well behaved on the highway going to my destination. Had a strong tail wind and was 87 degrees, so I cruised comfortably and easily at 75-80 mph with little assist. Lots of one bar and "invisible" charging going on. Was averaging almost 45 mpg until I hit the hills of Iowa, then I backed off to 73 mph and still maintained 42mpg. Battery charge seemed very well maintained and power seemed very good. Was very happy.

Then I tried to come home today: return trip wasn't so nice. The wind had died down some so I had a slight head wind, and the trip started at 90 and ended at 97 degrees. I had 1/3 of the original BP 93 octane E10 in the car. Only had one of the kids this time, so weight was down, but man it felt like I was towing a boat anchor...tried to keep the speed around 70-74mph, but it was challenging, I was dipping down to 60-65 on the hills I had not problem climbing earlier, and had to keep my foot into it going down the hills. 1 bar recharging was not keeping up with the A/C or the hills this time, and i ended up discharging the battery 3-4 times down to 4 bars and experiencing one crash from 5 to 2 bars suddenly. With the original software I'd never kill the battery as the charge would get more aggressive the more discharged the battery was. Was averaging 33 mpg (not bad, but my rental civic lx last week bested that at 35mpg last week in the heat).

Then I filled up with 87 octane E0 (you can get non ethanol in Iowa, the corn state of all states!), and the car continued to exhibit the same boat anchor feeling until I stopped after another 75 miles, well after I got out of the hills. After restarting the car, it was like it was new again! It was the hottest part of the trip (97) and I still had a slight headwind, but the boat anchor feeling was gone, and the car ran great! Mileage jumped from 33 to 38 by the time I got home, even though I was pushing 75 mph!

Darn peculiar. Not sure if I have some sensor acting up, or what.

For the most part, I'm not sure how the characterize the new software under highway driving though after the variances in this road trip. City driving for me is definitely worse because of the ecu recognizes the greatly diminished capacity of the battery, punishing me severely when I try to get on the interstate, and the continual crashes in hot stop and go traffic. (i don't think in magic pixie dust of a software update is going to magically restore the battery). Highway is up in the air at this point because of the weird variances I am experiencing.

 

Did my update last weekend, and everything is just fine. MPG is up about 2~3 mpg. Battery level seems to stay much higher than before.

All in all, I am happy with the update.

 

Jason, you are describing the behaivor of the car before this last update. I know they are telling you they installed the recall software, I am not sure they did, is there another dealer nearby you can have it checked by...Have you called American Honda? I am just thinking it odd that everyone who has had the recall sofware is seing improvements.
Can you take the car out, stop at the bottom of a hill with the a/c on, accelerate and how does it feel, like you are not going to make it or does is accelerate like a small engine under load?

 

I had the June 10' software updates On my 2007 HCH II last weekend, and I've driven about 250 miles since the update. So far I'm favorably impressed by the very obvious improvements to the IMA system operation. The big differences are:

1. More IMA assist from a dead stop improves the off the line acceleration with better balance between the ICE and IMA.
2. Substantially more regen of battery while cruising or coasting, even while using cruise control.
3.The SOC holds or increases above a minimum of two pips on the SOC meter even when driving up long hills with heavy AC load (reps in low 90s).
4. More likely to enter "EV Glide" mode while cruising on a slight downhill slope on freeway.

Fuel consumption so far is comparable to before the update, but the drivetrain smoothness is noticeably improved. There is always enough battery charge on tap now for those instances when an extra boost of power may be called for - even under conditions that would almost always trigger forced regen with the prior IMA software.

 

My dealer says these updates are working very well for his clients and I think I'm gonna get off the fence and take my car in.
I am hoping my mpg will go up cause I been getting better at driving this car since I got it. from what i read, some people can lose some mpg and others will gain but that depends on what kinda of a driver you are.

Any tips or hints from high mpg drivers who already got this update???

ks

 

Hi Bob, I am describing the behavior AFTER the update. I guess the possibility exists that they did it wrong, but I did call my service advisory last week after I received my letter and he confirmed that I got this particular summer heat fix on my system the second day after they received it from Honda.

Honestly the only change that I can 100% put my finger on for this update versus the TSB 09-058 low power updated is the amount of usable battery power I have access to is vastly diminished, i'd say easily have half of the usable energy of what I had before. I can get to work and have diligently worked up 7 of 8 bars of charge because of a final 120 foot downhill run, and by the time i'm trying to merge again on the highway, I'm back down to 4 bars and no assist before I even get to the ramp. I only have 2 stop lights that I get stopped at before the on ramp and I prevent the car from autostopping (S or L on the tranny at the stop lights) to try to keep the A/C from draining the battery, but the charge just seems to fade away anyways in the heat. If i drive constantly in S mode, i can keep the battery charged for the most part, but then my mileage really does take a huge beating, and I don't think these cars were designed to be driven in S mode all day long and is hard on the steel belt in the CVT.

Ever since post TSB 09-058 update installed last summer, the car has always been very Assist Happy versus the original software on the car. I live in an area with lots of hills (Checked the GPS yesterday and I climb and drop two 100-150 foot hills getting to work in a 5 mile stretch of 65mph interstate, definitely not a battery friendly commute!), and the car will continue assist with 3-5 bars, never backing off the assist and letting the ICE take over when climbing the hill like it did with the original software, at least not until the battery hits the bottom and then i have very little to no assist until its almost fully charged again, making it frustratingly maddening to drive in stop an go traffic in that state. (my boss was riding with me and he was like "what is up with your car!?!?!")

We also have a lot of 45 mph roads around here as well, and those will invoke constant assist as well minor grade hills. If its a major grade hill, the grade-logic in the tranny will kick in and rev up the ICE for the climb, but most of the hills aren't steep enough to invoke that behavior, so it just dumbfoundly assists and assists into oblivion.

If I were doing the calibration, i'd be allowing assist for maybe 10-20 seconds, then start reving the engine up and backing off the assist to force the ICE to take over. My understanding is the CRZ has this calibration built into it on the manuals. One of the reviews that I read of it said that if you are running in "sport mode" and lug it in a taller gear, you will get full assist for only a short amount of time, then the CRZ's ecu will back off the assist, forcing you to down shift if you really need that much power. This makes huge sense to me, as it protects the battery pack from long stretches of draining it under high amperage loads that would deteriorate the pack faster.

All in all, I just keep thinking about my hybrid purchase over and over again and have to wonder: is my car engineered to the rigors of the midwest region that I live in? Can the battery pack really stand up to years of 100+ F degree summers and well below freezing winters that we experience? Can it stand up to the hills I have to climb and coast down, forcing long assists and regens on the battery pack? Can it handle the 65-70MPH interstates that exist in my area and the 45 mph connecting roads that put higher start and stop loads on the battery pack and IMA system?

Maybe this software is the fix, and maybe it just can't cope with the deteriorated condition that my battery pack is in already because of the damage already done by prior software calibrations? I don't know, but I think there's a lot of truth to Teslas comments that the battery packs really need to be more than just air cooled because of the conditions like what I experience.

At this point, i'd really just like to have my car fixed and be like the same great car that I drove for two weeks as a rental before I purchased mine. I'm taking my car back in here soon, but I do have a life outside of transporting my car into the dealership over and over again (my wife, my mom and a close friend all have been in the hospitol in the last two weeks, so I'm just worn out at this point!), plus its another 97+ degree week here again, my black camaro with black interior has no A/C (anybody got some R14 laying around ), so I'm not looking forward to the alternative of driving it while its still hot.

I did call American Honda a couple months ago, and their response was to continue to work with the dealership on the issue. Not very reassuring when the service advisor tells me that Honda gives them little information about the car and how to deal with it. Maybe I should go ahead and call again and continue to escalate.

Sorry for the book, just trying to describe exactly what the behaviors of the car was and is. I did my own ecu tuning on my camaro (brought my mileage up from 16 to 19 mpg combined), but in the end I'm fairly limited in what I can do versus what honda can and does have control of with the hybrid system in their cars, so their behaviors seem to vary much more wildly between "tunes" or software updates.

 

I continue to love this update, but I have an odd report. Today on my long uphill going home, I gained two bars while never being in regen. My gauge showed assist was being used continually. This was not a recal.

 

There must be hidden regen going on, more than before the update? I've seen regen green bars going up steep hill if I shift to S, and have actually gotten into habit of doing this, for peppier (happier) engine on hills, and to avoid draining charge.

 

Hey Orient,
Hows the weather been in your area post update out of curiosity. Also, how do you feel your car is achieving a higher state of charge? Is it through it charging more often while driving? using less assist?

please please describe your experiences! I'm curious what the differences are here between your experience and mine.