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zimbop · #6 (**permalink**) 09-23-2005, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brian taylor

This can't be the way it's suppose to work....or is it? I have about 3K miles on my HCH. It's very common for the 'bar graph', that indicates the assist battery charge level, to only show two of those little blocks lit-up. Sometimes none of the blocks are lit-up. Other times, one moment the assist battery appears to be fully charged only to be drained the next moment. Most of time that bar graph is less than 50% of the full.

Very often the other graph shows the battery is CHARGING while my foot is on the gas....rather than assisting. Could this be why my MPG sucks? Seems to me that charging, when I expect it to be assisting, is forcing the engine to work harder for the sake of charging. On top of THAT...when the assist battery is very low, it does not always indicate a 'charge' when I'm slowing and/or braking.

I called a guy at Honda. He was not very interested in talking about it.

Three times....for a blink of an eye....the red warning light has popped....the light shaped like a battery. This would seem to indicate an issue. The owners mannual is not helpful on this topic.

Thoughts?
thanks,
b.

IS it possible you're confused about what the graphs mean? On the top of the meter dial (at the 10-2 o'clock position) is the "Assist" graph - on the right is the amount of assist the battery is providing to your drivetrain - on the left the amount of energy the drivetrain is putting back in the battery. It is not a charge level, but rather the amount of power the batteries are providing to the drivetrain or getting back from it. When that graph peaks right it means the batteries are being heavily used to help propel the car. When that graph is blank or only a few bars lit it means it is providing little or no assist to the engine, when it peaks to the left it means the drivetrain is putting a lot of energy back into the batteries. Thus the graph can go all over the map as your driving conditions change.

The "Charge level" graph on the right side of the meter dial (the 2-4 o'clock position) details the amount of charge currently stored in the batteries. This graph should change much more gradually as the batteries charge and discharge over the miles.

It sometimes has to charge the battery while driving if you have used some assist and haven't decellerated recently to recharge the batteries. The system only lets them discharge so far before it decides to use the engine to recharge if you don't recharge by decelleration. So it may sometimes register that it's charging the battery even if you're accellerating.

I hope that helps. It looked like maybe you just misinterpreted the graphs. If I am wrong please forgive me, I don't mean tell you things you already know.