I just recently bought a 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid about a week ago. I noticed when I first drove the car the battery had 1/3 charge. As I drove it it increased gradually to 1/2 charge in city driving and slow speed highway driving ( I live in NYC :-( ) The battery never fully charged after driving it for two days. Is this normal from a "brand new" vehicle? Shouldn't the battery at least be 2/3 charged or fully charged? The dealer asked if I could pick up the car in 2 days. Could they have changed the battery that was installed from the factory with a used one? I know this sounds devious but I generally don't trust dealerships,especially so their service department. Am I being unreasonable in suspecting that the battery was changed? Is there a way to verify that the battery installed is original? I will add that it has been very cold the past week, under freezing temperatures. Perhaps this is the reason the battery wasn't or doesn't fully charge? Another issue I have is that there is a hum in the audio system whenever the regenerative braking kicks in and intensifies the harder I engage the brakes, as indicated by the green bar on the left of the speedometer that indicates regenerative system activation. Two distinct issues but perhaps they are related somehow? Has anyone experienced the hum in the audio when braking? Thanks.

 

I have a little over 3000 miles on my 2017 Accord Hybrid.

While the car was breaking in, the first 1000 miles, I recognized that the battery would rarely exceed the 50% charge level. I found this a little frustrating because I would catch myself on a hill with a weak battery, and the engine would have to race in order to climb the hill.

After the break in period, I've noticed that the charge level seems to settle in at about 50 to 70%. I believe that this is normal. The battery is never intended to become fully charged. Your car re-captures energy from stopping and you need to have empty capacity in the battery so that can happen. The only way that I know to get the battery fully charged as the climb a tall hill, and lightly brake or use the B gear on the downside of the hill.

My car has no noise in the audio system from regenerative braking. I hope the service center will be able to diagnose it.

I don't know of a way to determine if your battery was changed. I would assume that the receipt would show the battery change under warranty. I would expect the battery to have a serial number but I don't know enough to help you.

 

I don't have the battery issue, but I do have a hum (I don't think it's in the audio system) when breaking. It's a high pitched medium volume electronic sounding sound. Oddly enough I started a thread about it the same day you did on another forum: http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/27...e-braking.html I wonder if it only impacts vehicles produced around the same time? I took it in once and they claimed they didn't hear it / it was normal, but it's driving me pretty crazy so I'm going to take it in again. Other than that I love the car. Did you find a solution for the hum?

 

Quick update. So I experimented a bit more and determined exactly when I hear the sound. It was when I was breaking gently, the engine was off, and the battery was not full and I could see "charge" going to the battery. This lead me to believe it was something in the regen and also allowed me to easily replicate the sound intentionally while driving. Armed with that knowledge, I went back in today to have a tech take a look again.

The tech this time did immediately agree that he could hear the noise but then said it was a typical sound for hybrids and was normal for this vehicle. Although I felt like the sound was coming from the front or through the speakers, he immediately said it was coming from the back area near the high voltage battery. Apparently I may just be sensitive to the hum generate when the high voltage batter is taking charge. He offered, unprompted, to see if there was another hybrid on the lot we could test and there was. In the same conditions the other vehicle also makes the exact same noise.

This did put my mind at ease that there is nothing wrong with my vehicle, and hopefully I can tune the noise out. Also other than this one very minor issue I like everything else about the car, so I'm just going to stop worrying about it.

 

It might make sense to take a test drive in another Accord Hybrid to see if you observe the behavior.

 

We did drive another vehicle, it made the same noise under the same conditions. Since then I've also been in a couple Priuses and heard the same noise. It's something related to the regen braking, and apparently I'm somewhat sensitive to the particular frequency.

 

I finally heard what you are talking about. I was driving earlier today, under light braking, my stereo was on volume level 13, and was in a short pause before the introduction of a new show. The frequency is somewhat high, older people may not hear it.

That is a good observation, I bet that it's been happening all along and I never realized it.

AtlantaRene

 

I also heard a humming while driving at low speeds. I later learned this is a safety feature that plays a sound anytime you are under 17 mph and the vehicle is running off battery. This warns anyone close that the vehicle is in motion considering you don't have the sound of a running motor to warn them. I don't know if this is what you are referring to but I didn't see anyone else mention it. So I thought I would through that at there. You will find this information in the owner's manual.

 

Michael,

Yes, I am aware of that one. I have had people comment on it at the car wash.

The sound I hear is a high pitch whine under regenerative braking. I don’t see it as a problem since I don’t find it annoying, it’s just a behavior of the car.

AtlantaRene

 

Same, the sound I was originally referring to is not the “ufo” speaker generated sound to warn pedestrians. Once I learned the whine was normal I tuned it out for the most part. It’s not particularly annoying except when I initially thought it indicated a problem. I’ve had zero mechanical issues with the car in the 3 years that I’ve owned it.