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I left work today and dropped from 4 bars to 2 on my way out of the parking lot. This has been fairly typical after the car has been sitting in the parking lot. I shifted to S and coasted as much as possible for about a mile and it went up to 3 bars. I went over a hill and shifted to neutral and shut off the engine and coasted for about 1/2 mile. When I started the car again, I was at 4 bars. Not sure how I was charging with the engine off, but I'll take it.

After another 3/4 of a mile or so, I come to a stop light and I'm still at 4 bars. I go into auto-stop and I'm at the stop light for maybe 60 seconds. Right before I let off the brakes to come out of auto-stop, the gauge goes from 4 bars straight to 8!

The gauge really seems off these days.. I'm not sure if it's ever going to be straight with me again. :)

Have you got that latest software update? We have, and have noticed similar jumps, where state-of-charge stays low, say 4~5 bars, then jumps, even to full. Think it will be needing a "service pack", like Windows.

Have you got that latest software update? We have, and have noticed similar jumps, where state-of-charge stays low, say 4~5 bars, then jumps, even to full. Think it will be needing a "service pack", like Windows.

Yeah, I just got it a couple weeks ago.. I didn't notice this happening before that, but I only had it 2-3 weeks before I got the update, so I could be wrong I guess.

I left work today and dropped from 4 bars to 2 on my way out of the parking lot. This has been fairly typical after the car has been sitting in the parking lot. I shifted to S and coasted as much as possible for about a mile and it went up to 3 bars. I went over a hill and shifted to neutral and shut off the engine and coasted for about 1/2 mile. When I started the car again, I was at 4 bars. Not sure how I was charging with the engine off, but I'll take it.

After another 3/4 of a mile or so, I come to a stop light and I'm still at 4 bars. I go into auto-stop and I'm at the stop light for maybe 60 seconds. Right before I let off the brakes to come out of auto-stop, the gauge goes from 4 bars straight to 8!

The gauge really seems off these days.. I'm not sure if it's ever going to be straight with me again. :)
This was not a change in the actual charge state of the battery, it was a re-calibration in progress. The computer was evaluating temperature and voltage of the battery pack while in auto-stop, and adjusting its estimate of the SOC.

Jon

This was not a change in the actual charge state of the battery, it was a re-calibration in progress. The computer was evaluating temperature and voltage of the battery pack while in auto-stop, and adjusting its estimate of the SOC.


Absolutely true.

Again, I would like to remind those of us who got the update that these updates take time to produce the effect they were designed to accomplish. Some folks will experience a faster "recovery" while others will have to wait quite a while longer and unless a subset of cells has indeed been damaged beyond the possibility of slow daily reconditioning, the process may take many, many weeks to achieve its goals.

In my case, it has been almost a month and a half since I experienced a recalibration and sudden jumps to 8 bars of SoC have been absolute no-shows. Another HCH-II (a 2008 model) in my area who's husband is a member on this forum is reporting almost same results except it has taken a little longer for her to see an improvement.
From what I see in terms of feedback, there are some cases that even follow the old say very closely: "It will get worse before it gets any better", but even for many of these "worst cases", it will certainly get better but not before taking some time.

Lastly, to aid/speed up the "recovery" process I would kindly encourage owners of these cars to even pitch in a little help whenever possible in terms of managing their car's SoC.
For instance, if you cannot easily prevent the SoC from dropping below 5 bars by just decelerating slowly or kicking the ICE into high LOD's at steady state, then try the old IMA trick of turning ON the low beams for a short while during your commutes.


Cheers;

MSantos

Again, I would like to remind those of us who got the update that these updates take time to produce the effect they were designed to accomplish. Some folks will experience a faster "recovery" while others will have to wait quite a while longer and unless a subset of cells has indeed been damaged beyond the possibility of slow daily reconditioning, the process may take many, many weeks to achieve its goals.


Interesting.. I've read a hell of a lot of messages on this and the Green Hybrid forums, and I hadn't read this before. I must be doing a lot of skimming. :) I'm excited to see the progress being made.. (get well, batteries!) I truly love this car! It's fun to drive, and with the great FE, I can actually take relaxing drives in the country without wasting too much gas. :)

Hi Msantos, so you are saying that by giving the packs a bit more "relaxed" operating conditions, recovery is actually possible (as opposed to just more accurate SOC being displayed)? I am not familiar with the particular chemistry of these NiMH, but will certainly take it :)