Hello, and thanks in advance to any replies. I have recently purchased a certified used 07 civic hybrid, around 43,000m on it , I have had it only a few months and had driven in mostly city commute ( displeased with the FE avg. 32mpg, and some other quirks, but thats another topic) anyway I took a trip over the coast range this weekend and I noticed when going up any prolonged hill ,the car seemed to pulse, it wasn't jarring or severe, but definitely noticable. I paid attention the whole trip while hill climbing and noticed that if the battery charge meter was less than half it wouldn't assist , I am aware that this is normal. When it couldn't assist when it normallly would with a full battery is when the pusling happend.If the battery was full the electric motor assisted when it should and the ascent was smooth. My theory is that the computer recognizes that it should tell the electric motor to assist but since the battery is too low it can't , hence the slight hesitation then slight acceleration. Wondering if any of you have had similar symptoms while driving uphill, and if this is considered to be an acceptable annoyance for a hybrid vehicle?

 

I get very little assist on any kind of uphill of slight graded....this didn't used to happen before but i had Honda update the software and it looks like they made some changes to the IMA programming to help preserve the battery life. I asked for them to go back to the 'old' software but they aren't able to do so. Hopefully there will be some solution forthcoming as the drivability of the vehicle is severely compromised.

 

I have also noticed a pronounced "surging" on accelleration a handful of times with my 2008 HCH. The engine RPM doesn't seem to fluctuate, but the power definately does.. It feels as if the electric motor assist is turning on and off during accelleration. Has anyone else noticed this?