Hi all. I am enjoying my 2005 civic hybrid 5 speed that I purchased earlier this week. There is one issue that I am either not understanding the concept of, or would like to try and fix.

It was explained to me (by a few people) that the ideal way to drive this car is to allow the battery to fully charge, then fully discharge, and repeat. They said it would prolong the life of the battery.

With this being said, what I am noticing is if I am maintaining speed, coasting, and even if I am lightly accelerating at times, the battery will at times lightly be CHARGING?! Even if what I was told above is not true, I am equating a state of charging with resistance, which I don't want during these times.

So, what I am picturing is either a switch to disable the ability for the battery to charge until it is drained, or a button on the shift level to push and/or hold during the times stated above.

Is there anywhere to stop the signal that tells the system to charge?

Overall both the auto shut off and assist seem like they are designed too passively (underutilized), and the charge is overly aggressive (excluding braking).

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
D

 

So, after driving my normal route, which is roughly 65 miles total, and essentially ignoring the state of charge of the battery, it is staying in a range of 3/4 to fully charged.

After doing a little more research, many are saying that it is NOT good to fully cycle the battery. After asking the individuals who advised me that I mentioned above, they said that the reason the batteries go bad is because the cells go out of sync. People have disassembled a battery and done rounds of fully charging/discharging each cell to "re-calibrate" them and bring them back into sync. Therefore, if one drives in cycles of fully charging and discharging, then it will keeps the cells in sync and prolong the life of the battery.

If I ran three scenarios and looked at the results in 8 years: ignoring the state of charge, attempting (realistically) to keep the battery as fully charged as possible, and making it go through cycles from fully charged to some given point, say 25 percent, I believe all three are going to yield different results.

Can someone who is knowledgeable in this please comment or refer me to credible sources?

thanks,
D

 

If you are coasting and it is flat you can put slight pressure on the gas pedal. It was never clear to me though if there is a range in which the recharge stops but gas flow to the motor does not increase.

Otherwise you need an aftermarket device like this:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46015

retepsnikrep could tell you more.

 

No one else has info on the battery charge cycling?

I think a kill switch that killed the engine through the auto idle shut off (so that bump starting is not necessary) would be ideal. Does anyone know if there is a way to tap into this?

I think that device you mentioned looks cool, but I am not sure if I want to get that crazy with this. I am afraid I might mess something up having that much control of the ima. Even a switch to stop it from charging seems like a little too much at the moment after thinking about it more. If I cannot do the kill switch through the auto idle shut off then I think I will just get a toggle switch and have one button kill and one start.