So 1.6 miles into my morning commute I noticed the engine idling pretty loudly at the stop light and look down to see it's doing a 3 bar forced regen and I'm not even moving! I also noticed that my SOC went down from 5 bars down to 2! So did the car after warming up the batteries suddenly realized the batteries were really really low? Granted I only drove it to the grocery store over the weekend (3 miles round trip, not even enough to warm up the engine). Needless to say the car felt really sluggish the rest of the way to work but by the time I get in, for some reason it decided to charge the battery up to all 8 bars (and netted me a measily 35mpg when I usually get around 40-45 ).

Anyone else seen this behaviour? No IMA lights came on or anything and the last half mile felt fine (7 mile trip) but I've never seen it get so whacked out before. Will be paying careful attention on the way home...

I would not be overly alarmed by it.

It has happened to a few people already - particularly when the electrical load is unusual. During the summer it will happen when the AC (auto is on) and you're in alot of Stop&Go traffic.
During the colder winter months it will also happen when we have the defroster on with an agressively high warmup temp set. Additonal accessories added to the vehicle will also worsen the battery depletion rate thus increasing the chances of having a nasty forced regen such as the one your describe.

Yes, the IMA system will do what it must to protect the battery SoC. However you can also help reduce such events by taking a more active role in the management of the battery'e SoC - In the end, it is all traced to what we do.

Cheers;

MSantos

Thanks for the reply. I did do a search before posting and of the couple of threads I read all seem to imply getting the dreaded forced regen while moving. Today was the first time I saw it regen at a stop. I don't know why it doesn't do it all the time though, as there have been many occasions where I was forced to creep and have only 5 or so bars that a force regen back to 7 or 8 would be nifty.

Anyway my trip back home was more normal though I think it was still on the battery charging cycle for the first few minutes of it. Just managed to drop it down to 7 bars arriving at home.

John, that's happened to me twice. One time I also was at a stop, and like you, it continued the forced regen after I was rolling again. Acceleration is pretty weak without the IMA battery. Mine occured when the SOC got to 2 or 1 bars. I think the battery management gets a little concerned when you get down to 2 bars and, as MSantos said, does what it must. I try to monitor SOC. If it gets down to 4 bars, I may let the 1-bar regen do its thing longer, and I am more willing to slow down using regen braking to help recharge than I normally would be.

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL

I too try to let it charge up when it gets down to 4 but this morning I pulled out with 5 and ended up with just 2 in just 1.6 miles just driving normally! Last time I lost 3 bars so quickly was when I had to floor it pulling out of Lute Riley onto the service road (not where I bought my car, was dropping off a co-worker picking up his Odyssey). I'm guessing it's due to the cold mornings and the coldness made the computer thought the battery had more charge than it did. Anyways everything seems fine now, also saw a opal-silver HCH2 driving the other way on Audelia right before I had this incident. Driver was on the cell phone so didn't notice me at all. Still on the lookout for you Gumby but all the dark blue Civics I see are the normal ones. The royal blue look almost the same as the magnetic pearl.

Why doesn't anyone like regen braking? I exploit the hell out of it.

Alabaster Silver HcH

We all love regen braking... it's the "forced regen" we don't like. Forced regen happens when you haven't had enough regen braking or coasting regen to keep the battery charged. In this case, instead of braking or gravity, the energy supply used is the ICE... it's put under additional load (and fuel consumption) to charge the battery.

I too have see the 3 bars of forced regen while stopped at a light. I think mine also did the drop from 5 to 2 bars (or 1 - I can't remember) and then stayed in forced regen for a while until the SOC got up to 6 or 7 bars. I will say that my car has been acting a bit strange since then - (maybe 600-700 miles ago). After it did that - the SOC held a much higher than normal charge for a longer period of time that it would have with my typical commute. Not sure what to make of that.

Eric

Did you stop using A/C? Before this regen incident I did have one straight week where the bars wouldn't budge at 7 bars and the only thing I did different was the weather was cooler and I barely used the A/C at all.

Every time I have encountered a forced regen (again except for this incident they've all been moving regens) it has gone ahead and charged it all the way up to 7 or 8 bars and would spend at least a day or two at those levels.