Funny, I never thought about the "Samba" with the car in metric. With mine (in the stupid US measurement system), it will drop to zero mpg, even though I know that I am in glide and not using gas (I can see the avg. mpg increasing). If I tap the throttle enough to break out of glide, it will rise up to the 75mpg on the iFCD.

Mine does the Samba at least once a week--sometimes every drive. It generally seems to happen when the engine is JUST warm enough to enter glide, but still relatively cold. Since the Samba is a whole lot more beneign than the battery recalibration, I hardly notice it anymore.

 

I get that samba thing 2 to 3 times per drive every day. I don't think that it is just because the car isn't warm, it happens every morning in the same place (a slight downhill slope) about 25 minutes into my drive.

I assumed this is normal behavior...is this something that I should be concerned about?

 

That's interesting that it happens 25 minutes into your drive--that kinda shoots my theory about engine temp.

I was thinking about it at lunch today (when my iFCD started dancing), that it always Sambas when I drive down a certain hill by my office. My whole commute is either going up or down a hill though, so I don't know what is specific about that hill, other than the car is always cool when I hit it.

I am not worried about the samba much. It is widely considered to be a recalibration (of some sort), but there has been another theory that it might be a divide by zero error of some sort in the ECU programing.

 

I will watch this a little more closely and make some notes on when it happens, but I think that it may only happen on downslopes. There is always one spot on the way home (about 15 minutes into my drive) where it does this as well.

 

It only happens when I'm in glide, which usually only happens on downslopes for me. I've never seen the samba on the few occasions when I glide up a hill (like coasting to a red light). Is it possible that the spot where it happens for you is the first time you enter glide mode on your commute?

This thread is getting a little off topic though--maybe we should continue the samba discussions on another thread...

 

Yes I was on a down slope as well and the car was at operating temp. With Killometers things are backwards? Its funny ,I never heard of this before, this samba thing.H

 

Is this Samba thing an HCH-2 feature? I only ask because I have never seen it on my HCH. I have seen the battery recalc but never the samba on the iFcd.

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention when the ifcd was pegged at max.[metric], the rpm was at 2000. This is why I noticed the samba.H

 

I live in Albuquerque where the driving environment includes constant sloping hills and relatively high (up to mid-90s) afternoon temps. I see the battery SOC reach max (8 bars) following a drive from my home in the foothills to the downtown area in the valley just 14 miles to the west. Conversely the SOC can and often does drop all the way down to 1 or even no bars during the return uphill drive back home.

I just recently tried driving with the CVT tranny in the "S" mode instead of "D" on my uphill drives. I can tell you the battery SOC hangs on much better when I drive it in "S", and the AC seems to cool better at the slightly higher engine RPMs in the "S" mode. On the other hand I estimate penalty in fuel economy is about 5% or 2 - 3 MPG.

I just submitted another post about this "CVT in S Mode". What I wonder is whether driving in "S" is better for those of us who drive in hilly or sloping areas, and/or in areas where ambient temps are higher with correspondingly higher AC usage.

If you give this a try (run with CVT in "S" mode), please let me know whether you experience any improvement in performance (battery charge, AC cooling).

 

I have had my 2007 HCHII for 1yr 2months now with almost 19,000 miles on it and i've averaged 48mpg so far in that time. I have experienced the SoC rapid discharge at least 10 times now and I just consider it a normal thing when it happens, though the first time it scared the crap out of me! I live in the Sacramento, CA area where it can get very warm (102+) and pretty cold (30-35). I keep my SoC around 5-6 bars most of the time unless I'm going into the hills/mountains (1,000ft to 4,700ft climbs) when I drain the SoC down to 1 bar, or if I can coast a lot through town and bring it up to 7 or 8 bars. I never use the A/C unless the family is in the car (which is really rare), i just use the blower as all I need is air blowing on me, hot or cold, to keep me comfortable.

I have never had the SoC drain happen on the open road/highways. It mainly happens when sitting at a light in AutoStop with 5 bars on the SoC. While sitting for a 1-2 minutes at a light, the car comes out of AutoStop without me taking my foot off the brake. 2 green bars show up and the engine feels like it's running very rough. The SoC over the next 20 seconds drops from 5 bars to 1 bar. From that point I just get up to speed and work on charging up the battery over the next 2-3 miles. While it has happened mainly on warm days (90+), it has happened on cool days as well. It also has happened 5 minutes into my ride, and 20 minutes as well. As I said I rarely use the A/C, but it has happened once with the A/C on, the other times it was off. So temp/time/engine status are never consistent when it happens. I have never kept track of the mileage on the car when it happened, so I can't say if it happens every 1,500 miles like clockwork or not.

As for the iFC samba, it happens everyday to me when I have my foot steady on the accelerator, usually between 40-45mph, where the iFC drops to 0. It doesn't bother me at all and I try to keep it there as long as possible. Any fluctuation of my foot on the accelerator (or taking my foot off it to slow down) will break the samba and bring the iFC back up to 75-100mpg.

Hope this info helps some of you decide whether it's "normal" or unusual. I consider both things normal at this point and as long as my mpg stays consistent and the car doesn't run differently, then I have no problems with it.