Strange thing happened yesterday and today. Driving normally, then stopped for a few minutes. Restarted and all is fine... until a few minutes later the SOC meter instantly drops from 6 bars to ONE. No auto stop and no assist.

Only thing I can think is that it's related to the high temps we suddenly have here (So. Cal). It was 100 degrees both days. Guessing the battery decided to shut down to protect itself. Strange, because I did have the A/C on (rare for me!!) to 80 degrees. Perhaps when the car sat (in the shade) it warmed enough to cause this to happen?

Has anyone in hot climates (Phoenix?) had a similar issue?

I've had the very same thing happen and, now that it's mentioned, after the car sits in the sun for at least 20 min on a 95+ degree day. The auto stop disengages, then the SOC drops to 1 bar within 10-20 sec. I then will ride around with the windows down to cool the battery off and can get a 3-4 bar charge in 10 min or so. How does the battery dump it's charge so easily?

I'm in Sac and it has been over 100 this past week (102, 105, 103, 102, 100). I haven't had this happen to me this week, but it did happen to me once and I posted about a quick SoC discharge that happened to me here: http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/f...bration-14962/ . There are a few other posts about it. No one has really got a straight answer on it.

I had the same problem more or less in June. I actually made the same relation between the temperature and this. Things seams to be ok now.

Pierre M.

I've seen similar behavior, but without the heat. It happens only occasionally and I chalk it up to some sort of a reset but I don't really have a good explanation.

My 06 HCH has done the same thing about 5 times during August. It always recovers, but one time it happened when my wife was pulling out into heavy traffic and the car had no assist. There is never a fault light when it happens.

Well, I can definetely say it isn't necessarily related to the heat. Today it was about 58-60 this morning. I had 6 bars of SoC when I started up the car. I did an AS once or twice. About 5 minutes into the commute I had dropped to 5 bars on the SoC, then I pulled up to a light and stopped, but it didn't go into AS. There were 4 (yes 4) bars on the regen while sitting at the light. It was really strange... I thought the computer had locked up or something so I put it in N and revved the engine quickly, then dropped it back into D. The regen bars dissapeared for about 2 seconds, then came back. About 10-15 seconds later the SoC dropped to 2 bars. So for the next 2-3 miles I was easy on the gas and getting as much regen to charge back up the SoC. I know I had a full charge yesterday after I came down the hill. However I have noticed over the last week or two that when I had 7 SoC bars, I had to fight the car to even get a trickle regen charge to attempt to get the 8th bar (which I never was able to reach until I came down the hill yesterday).

So this is the 3rd or 4th time it's happend to me in in 7,500 miles... weather independent. I have noticed if it happens it is after the car is warmed up and within 5 minutes of starting the car. I guess you can say it's like the mpg not being exactly right at the end of a tank calculation (+/- up to 3mpg). The SoC bars "think" the battery should be at 5 or 6 bars, but the the battery must be sending a warning signal to the computer saying "I'm low, why am I not getting charged" and the computer responds by forcing a regen and recalibrating the SoC.

I haven't noticed it for a while now--probably 3 weeks or better, and we've been driving the car a lot (300+ miles) every weekend lately, mostly in the mountains. That type of driving definitely gives the batteries a work out and frequently fluxuates between full and 2 bars of SoC. Maybe that's like "Brain Age" for the HCH and makes it less likely to need a recalibration...

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.

I have the same thing occasionally. Usually it is a hot day and its also within the first 5 minutes or so of a drive. It started after my B1 service. Never happened during the first year of driving the car.

This happened to me once on the interstate. All of a sudden I had one bar and no assist. By the end of my 15 minute commute, things were back to normal.

No idea what happened. The only other insight I have is that the meter is only an estimate of the batteries actual capacity. So it may have nothing to do with the battery itself.

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/3686.html

http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/4955.html