That is just wierd, maybe if you are going out of town, you might take the car to another dealer in another town and tell them what is going on/have them check it out.

 

Here's my list of battery fallouts and crashes (spreadsheet gathered from similiar photos taken, not comprehensive of all the fallouts since it involves grapping my phone and turning on the camera while driving. Update was installed on July 27th. I am missing a picture of a fallout (not a crash) as i was merging on the highway after getting the car from the dealership. I wrote it off as the ecu adapting to the new firmware. Taking it back in today, SA swears I have the new firmware. My totally deads are now prolific, although with the new firmware I don't ever see zero bars prior, but i'm taking a sudden drop from 4+ bars to 1 bar as totally dead post firmware update.

date mileage Description
June 2, 2010 61,236
July 7, 2010 62,211
July 7, 2010 62,212 totally dead
July 14, 2010 62,387 dies
July 14, 2010 62,394 suddenly totally full
July 15, 2010 62,407
July 15, 2010 62,432 dead again, same day
July 19, 2010 62,562
July 20, 2010 62,633
July 20, 2010 62,665
July 22, 2010 62,701
July 23, 2010 62,774 totally dead
July 28, 2010 62,975 almost totally dead
July 28, 2010 62,983 suddenly totally full
July 28, 2010 62,992
July 30, 2010 63,052
August 1, 2010 63,117
August 2, 2010 63,146 totally dead
August 7, 2010 63,224 totally dead
August 7, 2010 63,227 still charging while parked
August 8, 2010 63,514 totally dead
August 12, 2010 63,881
August 12, 2010 63,922 totally dead
August 12, 2010 63,950
August 13, 2010 63,970 totally dead

 

Ok. the dealer applied the updates to my car yesterday.

I can see already a lot of changes. wow.

we went for a drive to my in-laws this morning and the MPG is higher (6+mpg) and it is charging more at the same time????? anyways; so far I like it. I am a happy camper.

too bad some are not having the same results. maybe the updates were not applied the right way?

ks

 

Jason, my take:

First off, keep in mind "totally dead" and "totally full" is just what the computer is telling you. Any time the computer loses track of the IMA Battery's state-of-charge, it's going to recalibrate, and one of the symptoms of that is to display very low or zero bars. That does not mean the battery is actually dead. It just means that the computer does not trust it's perception of the state of charge.

That said, frequent recalibrations are very likely signs of a less than 100% healthy battery: it means the battery is tending to not live up to the computer's expectations.

FWIW, we had one this am. I'm not sure of our frequency, I'd guess 2~3 per week, it might be more, I'm not the "principal driver", LOL. I'm still thinking to get the new software update: my dealership is saying they will have it in about 2 weeks.

 

Really i don't know whats going on,

I've bought a honda civic hybrid 2006 last week, imported from florida, the car condition is very good, i don't see any problem with it, but, only one thing, the IMA check engine and the Check engine lamp are on!

im afraid that driving with these lamps on will harm the car, what can i do!, update software, what if this action will effect the car in negative way

after checking it by the computer the error says "Low battery"!!, even the IMA battery sometimes is full, and the car do recharge and do use the assistant!, and the car computer didnt get any errors regarding the engine

then?!, change the batteries!!, i think it will cost much, the car didnt reach the 80 thousan miles it should be under the warrenty!

how can i use the warrenty if the car is outside the US!

 

What country are you in? Didn't you notice (and question) the seller about the warning lamps when you bought the car?

 

Had my 2007 HCH with 3800 software updated a week ago. I am extremely unhappy with the results. MPG dropped from 41 to 35.5 (put over 500 miles on it since update). Update shifted the burden of powering the vehicle more to the small gas motor. Power assist works much less frequently and will stop assisting abruptly and sometimes when you need it the most. Obviously, Honda is trying to extend the life of the inadequate battery setup until it's out of warranty so we have to pay for new batteries that may not be any better.

 

hi all,

the disparate results with the software are indeed confusing. I suggested on a CleanMPG thread that this might be due to different model years, but knowledgeable responders noted that the basic hybrid technology on the HCHII has not changed. The differences do not clearly seem to reflect how old the cars are, either-- though I suppose it COULD depend on how worn the IMA battery was before the upgrade. Do we see such a trend?

Alternatively, could the difference depend on whether the previous update was performed on the car (the 09-058)? Did anyone get the new software upgrade without the previous update?

Philip

 

Putting my battery engineering hat on, I'd say it all depends on the condition of the battery when the update is applied. (And which updates were installed, since that too affects battery use patterns)
If it already has seen enough damage to affect its usable capacity, the update will make that a lot more obvious by shifting more load to the gas engine. If on the other hand the pack is healthy, the changes will be a lot less visible, since the extremes are not approached as often. Just my thinking, as I myself try to decide whether to go in for an update. Considering that I have not seen too many issues up to this point, I might. We shall see

 

thanks for the input, reagle; for what it's worth, I've been reading comments from a lot of less-than-happy campers over on the CleanMPG discussion threads addressing this issue, so I'm kinda torn. I was NOT at all happy with what the 09-058 update did to my car's performance, which had been behaving without a glitch.

e.g.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33918
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33041

Philip