Greetings, all. This is my very first post here. My name is Chris, and I live in Oklahoma City. I will update the profile information later.

I have a 2008 HCH with only 50,000 miles on it. I have had this car for two years now, since it had 18,000 miles on it. I bought it in California, but it was originally owned in New Mexico. I suspect that the difficulty I am experiencing with it is the reason the previous owner sold it. So much for introductions, following, is the problem:

The level of charge will go from about half-way (normal level) to one or two bars for no reason. It doesn't seem to matter whether I am on the highway, on city streets, or stopped. When this happens, it causes the car to go into the recovery mode for about 2 minutes, until I get back to three or four bars of charge. Sometimes, it will show that the battery is fully charged after about 2 more minutes, with no additional charging occurring. This used to only happen in the hottest part of the Summer (when the air temperature got more than 100° for months at a time, and I assumed that the heat killed the battery or that the air conditioner was taking more then its share of the voltage. I took it to the dealer and told them this, and they did the system flash (which killed the mileage) did replace the battery (amazing, I know), which resolved the issue for about three months. During that time my warranty on the car expired. Now, it happens almost every day, regardless of the season or outside temperature.

My question is, what else could it be? I have done extensive searching on this problem on this and other sites, and it seems like this problem is just my car? I am not sure what else to check. The battery lost all of its charge while parked a few weeks ago, not enough power to power anything in the car, because I left an inside light on overnight. I hoped that this would have reset the system.

When it goes into the recovery mode, and I don't notice it, it is dangerous if I am pulling-out into traffic and expecting more power.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

What you're describing is a recalibration. It happens when the IMA battery is deteriorating. The computer assumes the battery has a certain level of charge, based on how much charge it's taken from and added to the battery. It does this vicariously, based on what theoretically should happen.

If the computer makes requests for assist and the battery falls short, it may decide it needs to recalibrate it's perception of the battery capacity. It locks out auto-stop, force charges the battery and limits assist.

In my experience with a similarly ailing battery, it will force-charge the battery up to about 4 blips, then hang there, hang there, and then quickly shoot up to full charge.

IMO that shoot up is BS, it's basically charged the best it can, then declaring that the new "full" battery.

 

Thank you for your response.

Now, I need to check with the dealer, and see if they gave me a new battery, as they claim, or a refurbished or reconditioned battery when they replaced it last year.

When looking at the battery, is there a way to tell if it is new or rebuilt? I didn't see any obvious markings when it was being installed.

Thank you again for all of your insight on this worrisome subject.