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Honda just sent out a message stating that I need to get the battery management software for my HCH-II updated. However a lot of people have indicated that the update guts the hybrid functions of the car in order to baby the battery even more that it currently does.

People are indicating that autostop no longer functions with less than 4 bars of charge. Assist during acceleration stops completely after a couple of seconds. (You get a 1 or 2 second pulse of assist, and then that's it).
Forced charging occurs whenever the charge drops below four bars.

Has anyone here with an HCH-II gotten the software update? Has it hurt your mileage? Some of the more cynical posters have said that this is an attempt by honda to nurse defective battery packs along until they are outside their warranty period rather than replacing them.

The changes people have claimed all sound *really* bad, and make me leery of getting the update.

Mine is in today for the IMA "update" and further investigation of the CVT. I'm not entirely sure if I'll like the updates either. It sounds like the car will attain some of the aspects of my I2, such as limited auto-stop at lights (sometimes as short at 15 sec.) and more aggressive regen. However, others who've had the update have reported on this forum that the SoC stays in the middle much longer, which would be a welcome change if it allows for consistent assist when needed or inhibits IMA recals somehow.

My wife's been driving the '06 HCH II for several months now into the city and she's kind of annoyed at the daily recals, even with sun shade in place and windows cracked 1-2 inches with weathertech vent visors. Heck, the IMA even crashed on me today in 75-degree weather within 2 minutes of leaving a cool garage (OAT reading was 68 degrees as I was pulling out). A/C set to 78-80F, no A/C with windows down, the one thing that's consistent is that it's died in just about every different circumstance except below-zero this winter.

At least if the IMA battery dies down the road I can make the argument that I've had every SW update done promptly. I'm crossing my fingers with the reflash they're doing today but hey, can the IMA performance get much worse?

I was just wondering if you'd had enough time to evaluate the software update yet. How has it affected your MPG?

I drove the HCH II to work today, 46 mi round trip. This am the IMA maintained a 6-7 bar charge at least 90% of the time.

I left the windows cracked slightly all day. When I left at 1945, with ambient temp at 78F, I followed my usual routine of windows down in town and up on the higher psl portions of the trip with the fan on (no need for ac today). The SoC stayed at 5 bars, occasionally moving up to 6 and hovering down to 4 for several miles. Auto stop continued to function.

My SoC didn't behave the way others have, staying extremely high most of the time. My mileage was 45-46 mpg, slightly better than it's been with the repeated IMA crashes. That's the one notably better thing--no IMA recals. My assist still was more than willing to give high levels of assist even at 4 bars, quite the opposite of what I expected. For now, I'll say the jury's out. IMA operation is definitely no worse though I'm just not sure how much "better" the sw update has made the vehicle at this point. I'll get to drive it to work this weekend so I hope to have more solid feedback in a few days.

Sounds like promising initial improvements! Here's hoping it continues to impress you. :)

People are indicating that autostop no longer functions with less than 4 bars of charge. Assist during acceleration stops completely after a couple of seconds. (You get a 1 or 2 second pulse of assist, and then that's it).
Forced charging occurs whenever the charge drops below four bars.


That's the way mine has behaved since I got some software updates last year. Except the assist part. I'm still on the fence on whether or not to get this new set.

Greenrider, just as an experiment, try turning your headlights on when you turn your car on and drive with them on for about 5 - 10 mins. There was a time when I could start the car w/ 7 bars of SoC and then 5 mins later: battery recal. Since I've been turning my headlights on for the first few minutes, somehow I'm avoiding them.

My logic behind this is by turning on the headlights, the IMA system limits the amount of assist so that it has extra power for the headlights. This also gives the monitoring system time to warm up and better gauge where the SoC is. I find this is true when using the A/C too. If I drive around for few minutes and then turn on the A/C, no battery recal. If I turn the A/C on as soon as I turn the car on, Bam!, battery recal.

Battery recals, for me, only seem to happen shortly after I turn the car on and drive the first few minutes, but since I've implemented turning on the headlights, I rarely have one now (and I used to get them once or twice a day).

Hope this helps....

Jess

Jess, does your car have DRL? H

It sure does Harold!

Here a news article, and there's a link to a (scanned) pdf of the notice:

http://www.jsonline.com/business/100169499.html

The link sent me to article on shutting down lemonade stand?

Fixed the link ;)

Funny, it's weird to see the HCHII in the news. It's the one hybrid that seems to remain in the shadows from any publicity.

Jess

Mine is in today for the IMA "update" and further investigation of the CVT. I'm not entirely sure if I'll like the updates either. It sounds like the car will attain some of the aspects of my I2, such as limited auto-stop at lights (sometimes as short at 15 sec.) and more aggressive regen. However, others who've had the update have reported on this forum that the SoC stays in the middle much longer, which would be a welcome change if it allows for consistent assist when needed or inhibits IMA recals somehow.


Hiya Greenrider. Just wondering how your Civic is doing after a month with the new software. I still haven't gotten it (figure I'd do it on the next oil change if I do it at all). I planned to keep my civic until it fell apart, but if the software update kills performance, I may be forced to purchase a new vehicle sooner. :(

Dave

Hiya Greenrider. Just wondering how your Civic is doing after a month with the new software. I still haven't gotten it (figure I'd do it on the next oil change if I do it at all). I planned to keep my civic until it fell apart, but if the software update kills performance, I may be forced to purchase a new vehicle sooner. :(

Dave

Sorry for the delay. I've had mixed results. The IMA crashes have kept to 2 bars at the lowest, but the recharge cycles seen to take forever to raise the SoC with it hovering around 4 bars much of the time. Sudden jumps to entirely full are common, as are drops.

What I did notice on my 350 mile trip with the HCH II this week in slight hills and relatively flat midwestern interstate was that keeping the A/C at 74-75 degrees, even with cruise at times, and 70 mph speeds, the SoC stayed at 7-8 bars much of the time, only occasionally dropping to 6 bars. Much greater fluctuation in SoC w/o A/C use. So, highway performance with wise A/C use does yield improved IMA function. I considered dumping the car as well but with so many excellent new choices coming to market in the next 2-3 years I'd like the HCH II to last until '12 or '13 without an IMA repair if possible.

What I'm curious about is whether the issue is failing cells or simply out of balance battery sticks. Perhaps grid charging the IMA battery until all cells are charged to maximum capacity will help cure the rapid drops in SoC? This seems to have worked well for Insight owners, I'm just reluctant to fiddle too much until the IMA is out of warranty.

Things I'm noticing with more driving, post update:

1 Recals continue to happen, maybe 0~1 per trip, starting with 2 bars of charge showing. I wouldn't say more or less. I'm not the principal driver: it seems whenever I take over, if we're going on a decent length weekend drive, there's a good chance of one recal.

2. State of charge can linger a long time around 4~5 bars, then suddenly jump to full.

3. Really weird, and a new one for me: rolling to a red light with maybe 4 bars state-of-charge, even touching the brakes, we get no regen (green bars). This when just coming out of a recal.

When the battery is full in my Insight it will refuse to regen -- perhaps you are seeing this?

When the battery is full in my Insight it will refuse to regen -- perhaps you are seeing this?

No, that's the weird thing: only 4~5 bars of charge showing, unless: there's something bogus with the state-of-charge display, post-update.

This was just one instance, I neglected to mention.

I noticed because the car seemed very free-wheeling, and extra brake effort was needed, per when braking with full charge.

Mendel, I've experienced that too, when braking, coming out of a recal, but it's because it was already done recalibrating. Although it showed only 4 or 5 bars at the time, in fact is was 8, which showed up as soon as I came to a complete stop.

* Side bar: I read all this business w/ SoC's magically jumping from a low SoC to full, during or after a recal, but I think it's because the recalibration happens faster than the monitoring system can monitor. So there is a delay in the SoC that is displayed.

I'm glad you guys are posting your experiences w/ this new update. It's convincing me all the more to not go through with it. (Knock on wood), I love the way my car operates.

Jess

I'm glad you guys are posting your experiences w/ this new update. It's convincing me all the more to not go through with it. (Knock on wood), I love the way my car operates.

Yeah, right on!... Hey wait a minute: I got the update...

You know: I would get it, in the hopes that it is going to protect/condition the battery. All-in-all, there's not a big difference in behaviour, just a few odd anomolies, that we'll likely not be noticing in a month or two. I do think it's prime purpose is to slightly reduce IMA battery consumption.