IMA Battery Charge status
 

I have a couple of questions for the Honda owners. Mine is a 07 Navi with 26,500 miles on it. That common Graphite color. I'm the second owner.

1. Anyone found the codes so we can read the IMA battery charge status on the SGII ?

2. My battery doesn't seem to want to charge above about four bars and most of the time it is content to stay at around three. Is this what most of them do? I've seen 6 only once and that was using regen in a long down hill drive. It went away really quickly and hasn't come back.

I've gone out with it a 3-4 bars and defeated autostop and used regen and still don't seem to be getting the pack to read above 4. :angry:

I have gotten reasonably good mileage since I bought it (34+ combined) so I'm happy but feel like it could be better if I had a higher state of charge so the assit would actually be available more often.

Dealer says it will set a error if the battery is weak. I don't know ?????

Mike

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

I have a 2006 HAH. I do not see 6 bars often. When it happens, as you said it usually happens on a long downhill drive. I mostly see 3-4 bars, and 5 bars off and on. So my observation is same as yours.

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

Took vehicle to the dealer and they found it to be fine. Was told the IMA system on the car would seldom charge above what I was seeing.

They also forced it to 100% just to be sure it was charging. Amont of assist with 100% capacity resulted in a significant difference. It is back at 4 bars again.

Mike

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

Less bars in less places....Tmobile.

Mine's like 4-5 most of the time.

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

There have been several TSBs regarding updates to the software which governs the battery level and recharging "profile". Some of these are specific to particular areas; for example, mountainous states and very hot regions.

My '08 HCH normally varies between 6 and 7 bars and rarely drops below 4 or 5. It will sometimes max out at 8 after coming down a long grade. So far as I know this is the normal behavior. I get very solid "assist" whenever I push on the gas more than lightly. The car is reasonably responsive when I want it to be.

I've read that a weak 12 volt battery can affect the IMA battery charging behavior.

Spend some time researching this topic. I've read a lot of messages regarding this issue which seem to have peaked with the hot summer weather.

Cheers,

Roger

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

Just to clarify, HAH battery meter is different from HCH. Max on HAH is 6 bars.

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

Didn't realize I'd stumbled onto the Accord hybrid forum by mistake. Sorry!

If there are only 6 bars then the comparable numbers would be 4-5 normally and rarely less than 3, which sounds like what is being reported above.

As I mentioned, however, the Civic hybrids have been subject to software updates so it's possible Accords have been also. Likewise, a weak 12 volt battery could also be a source of unusual IMA behaviour in the Accord hybrid too.

Good luck,

Roger

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

3 or 4 bars is normal. I think Honda learned their lesson with the Honda Insight version 1. That car used more of the battery and in some cases the battery needed to be replaced at 80k.

I too would like to see more assist when accelerating but the hybrid pack does work pretty hard starting the engine every time it comes out of auto stop and keeping the accessories going while in auto stop so even if they keep the battery at around 75%, it works pretty well.

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

I see the same. 3-4 bars is normal for me. After a long downhill, or quickly re-gen braking from highway speeds for an exit, I'll see 6 bars. However, once I get six, I'll get lots of assist, even in normal, ECO-light-on driving untill the bars are down to 4. I've never had an issue of not having enough boost when needed for acceleration.

Re: IMA Battery Charge status
 

I think I may have said this before on this forum somewhere. As soon as I'm past 80k miles and our car is out of warranty I would like to experiment with trickle charging the pack either from the grid or from another larger pack.

We have all seen how much assist is given at 5 and 6 bars but on a long sustained speed drive there is generally no assist. So the battery just sits at 3 or 4 bars and really provides no help. If I know I'm not going to be using the regen braking for a while I would like to flick a switch and throw a little juice into the pack (slowly of course so I don't heat them up too much). This way the next time there is a slight incline and I have to push down on the accelerator a bit more the car will use the IMA assist and keep just 3 cylinders popping rather than slip out of eco mode.

My guess, in my situation, I might be able to eek out 3 to 5 more MPG bit at what cost? It might cost as much as $750 to $1200 to do my idea and economically there really is no payback except to say I've got a rocket of a car that can get over 40mpg like the Ford Fusion hybrid.