infinite loop,

i know what this is. he meant to say simply "driving with cruise control on."

i find that this happens on slight inclines with the cruise control. the cruise control isn't too smart in bringing the car back to cruise speed when it drops 1-2 mph -

1) It blindly applies 4-5 bars of assist to boost the car's speed.
2) on slight inclines, this will speed up the car too much, over the cruise speed
3) then cruise control will apply 4-5 bars of regenerative braking to slow the car down.
4) which slows the car down too much, and then the cycle repeats.

this is just a quirky design regarding the cruise control - it's not smart enough to apply varying degrees of assist or predict small elevation changes ahead.

moral of the story: don't use cruise control on slight inclines, you'll get better mpg with your foot because you can see slight elevation changes ahead and use the "driving with the load" technique to gain better mpg.

in fact, don't use cruise control at all, unless your foot is tired and you have to. I used to use cruise control at 60 mph on the freeway and that netted me around 47-48 mpg - now I drive with the load (slow on the uphills to 52 mph, speed up on downhills to 64 mph) and get around 54-55 mpg. big difference.

 

I know about the bucking due to the regen braking, but I often experience bucking as well. It happens when I'm trying not to use much gas. In other words, my bucking is caused by simply almost stalling because I'm trying to feather the accelerator so lightly.

I've never experienced this before driving a car, but then again, no car's ever told me how much gas I'm getting in real time before.

Sometimes I wonder if this is going to cause long term damage, the always-driving-on-the-verge-of-stalling-out that I do.

 

I may be getting this bucking in my [non-hybrid] 2000 Civic HX with CVT. What it feels like is somewhat like a vibration from a tire out of round or front end out of alignment, but it's not those. It occurs at 1500-2000 rpm when using very light throttle, i.e., when trying to get good gas mileage. I'm told it's a problem in the CVT.
--Walter

 

Appears this was an issue with some '05 and their was a recall for the Engine COntrol Module. The following thread discuss this. Seems a lot of you have not experienced this, so may have been a specific lot or batch of ECM's that needed a tweek

http://www.hybridcars.com/discussion...?thread_id=331

 

i got that letter in the mail and had the recall done. no wonder i've never noticed it. in the letter they sent me, it said 2003-2005 cars were affected.

 

I have 2008 HCH with 12k on it. It intermittently gets into a bucking mode. You can't accelerate though it either. It feels like a manual transmission that has had the clutch released to quickly. One time it started while in cruise around 50 mph. I shut the cruise off to see if I could accelerate though it. I made it into the 70s with out it stopping. It just goes back to normal when it wants to. I think there may me a clutch or solenoid that is hanging up in the transmission or prior to the transmission. I am going to take it into the dealer soon. It is intermittent and mechanical in nature so this will not be a fun one to get them to pin point. It is important to document the complaint with the dealer several times to enusre you don't get shafted if it fails outside of warranty. Any help identifying the problem is greatly appreciated.