Well, I had hoped they'd have fixed this annoyance with the HCH2, but apparently they did not. I had a problem with fairly frequent battery gauge recalibrations on my Insight which eventually ended in my IMA light comming on with a battery module deterioration code and a fresh new IMA pack, BCM and MCM under warranty.

A battery recalibration is where the car senses that the indicated calculated battery state of charge is incorrect and resets itself. Resetting itself consists of the battery gauge dropping to nothing and the car force charging back up to the point where it figures out where it's at and goes back up, or it just stays low until it's recharged. On the Insight it turned it in to a Geo Metro, on the Civic it's not so bad because the CVT just lets the engine raise rpm's higher and the feel of the pedal is about the same, though you don't get any assist until it recharges some so you loose some upper end power.

My HCH2 has been doing this a good bit lately, and it's very much likely all thermal related. We've been setting some record temperatures here in Phoenix the last week, 114 today, the cars dash indicates 119 degrees where it seems to max out at. I've been running the air conditioning at full bore and haven't experienced Auto Stop durring the day in a few months.

I just hope for the sake of the hybrid that this doesn't indicate another early battery pack replacement (the Insight's lasted about 4 years/42,000 miles). I'd hoped they would have figured out a way to correct this annoyance, but apparently they haven't.

 

If it's 114 degrees outside and you're parking in the sun (why don't desert towns provide covered parking?) then your battery life will be less, and recharging will be strange and spotty. Rechargeable batteries don't like the heat, and 114 outside means 150+ inside your car.

If we normally had weather as bad as what we're seeing now in SoCal, I'd get a white, reflective car cover for the car and keep it on whenever I wasn't driving. That will lower the temperature inside your car.

 

Been there, dont that. I had a custom fitted Covercraft tan flannel car cover for my Insight that went on it almost every day in addition to the windshield reflective cover. The ambient temperature in the car, granted, was maybe 10-15 degrees above ambient with this method, but it still didn't quite do it. The pack gave the code of death at 42K miles.

It's done the recalibration twice since my initial post. I actually welcomed it today because it raises the idle rpm's to about 1200 rpm to force charge while sitting there. The reason I welcomed it is because the AC just doesn't cut it at idle speed. I've determined the engine side of the compressor is designed for working ideally at around 1500-3000 rpm, which is about where the car runs at. Then while stopped the electric side of the compressor is supposed to take over and it does a fine job of it, but when it's this hot outside the car will not auto stop to try and save the battery. This only really compounds the problem because at ~800rpm idle speed the engine side of the compressor just doesn't quite do it and the air gets significantly warmer, cool yes but not comfortably cool any more. It's to the point I think I'm going to measure the temperature delta and see if the dealership will take it as a reasonable complaint, though I doubt anything will be done about it.