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.

You're right, that is not normal at all. Battery warning light means something serious is wrong. Those rapid charge swings are not normal either. It is really hard to get the battery under 30% charge level normally, and it takes a while to go from full charge to 30%.

If the dealer won't help, then call honda USA, honda corporate tends to be pretty good about trying to keep their customers happy.

Do you have an MT? Is this happening on flat roads? And how fast are you accelerating?

Yes, I have the MT....mostly city driving but for every up-hill I have a down-hill.
I do not nurse the car but I'm not trying to do 0-60 in six seconds, either.

If you have a mt and you put it in neutral for the down hills it won't charge. Not sure if it will charge or not in gear but with the clutch in.

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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.

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Thanks for your help. One of the posts pointed out what I was doing wrong. My driving habit (for years) has been to take the car of out gear and glide for maybe 100 to 300 yards before coming to a stop or hitting the gas again.

Well, that's fine every car but this one. Now that I've come to realize that the HCH will only recharge the assist battery with the car in gear, it's made all the difference.

I'm maintaining a good charge and my MPG is improving....cause the assist battery is helping more often rather than always recovering.

GREAT it's solved. I haven't heard anyone go public with that problem before but have a sneaking idea that you weren't the only to have that problem and that may have been ONE (read: not only) of the reasons that Honda dropped the MT in favor of the CVT.

'00 Insight "Wazabi" -75,000+ miles
'03 Toyota Matrix - 81,000+ miles
'03 HCH-CVT-OSBM-41,000+ miles (retired 04-10-06)
"I'm very secure with my little Insight, no Prius envy here."

I was saddened to hear that Honda dropped the MT. I'm still on my first tank of gas in my just-purchases 2003 HCH MT. It only took me one or two stops to figure out that the batteries only charged while the car was in gear with the clutch engaged. I certainly hope that the MT wasn't dropped for this reason alone. I find the MT much more enjoyable to drive as it gives me something to do. For me the MT is just plain more fun!

Shawn

I agree....no MT would have been a deal-breaker for me.