another newbie question
 

All,

I'm sorry for all my newbie questions but here's one that I can't seem to get a good answer on. When you're at lets say 55mph and take your foot off the gas on LEVEL terrain (how much charge does your ima gauge say you're at)? The reason that I ask is that mine is about the same as if I were applying the brake and was wondering if that was normal.

Jayson

Re: another newbie question
 

Jayson, I think I understand what you are asking, but not sure. If you let your foot off the gas at 55, the motor is likely to switch to generating, and your battery will charge. You will see a green bar or two, maybe three. That should be normal, and will feel like you are braking. When the car is decelerating with your foot off the gas and your Fuel Consumption Display (FCD) is at 100 mpg, you will typically see the battery charge. Rather than the motor turning under power, it is acting as a generator. So some of the energy you've built up by getting the car to 55 is now being returned to the battery. This will act like you are braking, since generating takes work.

If you don't want to slow down that quickly, give it just a little touch on the gas peddle and hold it there. You have to be very gentle. You should see the green bars disappear. If you do it gently enough, the FCD will stay at 100 mpg. If you give it just a hint more gas you should be able to see it go to a bar or two, or three of assist. When this happens and your FCD is still at 100 mpg, you are in "EV" mode. There are several good threads that talk about EV mode if you are interested in what it is. Try starting with this one:

https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...-hch.4635.html

Good luck! It takes some understanding and getting used to. Hopefully I got your question right.

Re: another newbie question
 

toast thanks for the reply. I'm asking about how many bars are seen when letting your foot off of the gas pedal because at 55mph if I let my foot off the gas and apply no brake, I see just about full charging on my IMA. I'm just wondering if this is normal. A friend of mine has an 05 HCH and says that he sees 1 or 2 bars, but I'm seeing at least 6. I guess I'm not to worried cuz I'm seeing really good gas mileage but just was curious as to what to expect.

Jayson

Re: another newbie question
 

The faster you're going the more bars you'll see when you take your foot off the pedal. As I recall, I get the full number of bars at 60 MPH or higher. As the car slows down the number of bars is reduced because less energy can be generated at lower speed.

So I think what you're seeing is normal.

Re: another newbie question
 

Sounds perfectly normal to me. Sometimes I will get a few more "Green Bars" when braking vs just letting off the gas, but nearly always half to all the bars. It might also depend on how much charging of the battery is needed. If its fully charged, you may not see as many green bars vs when its half charged.

My battery is typically between half to 3/4 charged at any one time. Very seldom below half and seldom fully charged (could be off a little, don't stare at it all the time). Taking my foot off the gas going down hill will nearly always give me all the green bars, course going back up it switchs to assist, with the white bars. The trick there is to keep the engine rpms low and use combination of "White Bars" (electric assist) and the engine to get you back up the hill. I shoot for around 2k rpm and 3-4 assist bars for most hills. Maybe somebody else has figured out the perfect % for going up hills?

Have fun with your HCH. You will like it a lot...I sure do.

Bob

Re: another newbie question
 

Jayson, sorry for the elementary explanation - I wasn't sure what you knew, so I went basic. I've never driven an HCH I. Are the battery indicators calibrated the same? I think I read in a thread somewhere that they have a different number of bars?

How many bars do you HCH I drivers have, and do you know what each bar represents?