Guys, today I was stuck in the jam. Normally driving I would have around 6 bars of battery left (Full is 8 bars). So as I get stuck longer, it drops to 5 bars. Then all of a sudden later it drops to 1 bar which shocked me. After that as I move longer, the battery gets charged very fast and back to 6 bars.

Is this a normal thing? Do you guys encounter the same thing also?

I went back home and started revving the car to 3k RPM to charge the battery fully as I remembered that my SA actually said to do it 1 time every month which I actually forgot. It took quite sometime to actually rev from 7 bars to 8 bars. Does this have any relation to why the battery drops from 5 bars to 1 bar in few seconds?

On few occasions i have had exhausted IMA battery (zero bar) due to severe traffic jam but I didnt quite notice whether the battery level drop dramatically within seconds, but I do notice the same thing whereby the battery will easily achieve full charge than normal driving conditions after moving away from the traffic jam.

I know there is a couple of discussion about this condition in the LYN Insight forum thread, perhaps you can get more details from the people there.

Yo man, you actually rev the engine to 3k RPM and the car is stationary? How long did you rev the engine at 3K

while your stuck in jam.. is the car under stop start mode or is the engine running? if is at start stop .. u need to remember all electronics (AC/Radio/etc) will consume the IMA batt energy.. (base on my understanding ) and when you start to move back again is where the car re-charge its IMA batt which happens faster just like you said only at the last 2 bars takes a longer time.. (which is normal)


and for the advice that the SA gave to you.. i think most of us were advice the same.. even my self.. but i was told by my SA practice it once in 3-4 months.. and for me its not a good practice as you are putting stress on the cars engine.. revving at 3-4k just to run a recharge for the IMA.. but i did notice that.. you only need to rev at 3-4 just for the 1st 2-3bars only and the rest you can rev at 2-3k and it will still charge..

One thing to note is that the IMA battery readout is not a real-time readout of the battery capacity. There will also be cases where slow drive or car park driving will deplete the IMA battery much faster, due to low rev ranges (IMA motor only helps at lower rev range to propel the car along). High speed runs actually charges the battery faster due to higher RPM on the stator magnets, thus you won't notice that the battery gets depleted. On the opposite end, the battery gets depleted at low rev ranges as the battery could not get charged back in time (low speed at the stator magnets), plus the constant use of the IMA motor to propel the car at low rev ranges.
For example, for my case, i will fully discharge the battery if I drive around Sunway Piramid's car park (just by searching 2 levels) and the auto-charge function will kick in whenever the car stops rolling (stationary). As long as there is no errors being displayed, the IMA is still functioning fine.
Second thing to note in case you are worried, is that the IMA fan have 2 speeds AFAIK, the high and the very high speed. The very high speed makes you think that there is a vacuum cleaner in your boot, but it disappears once the battery has been cooled down and re-charged.

Lastly, I do not see anywhere in the manual to ask us to fully recharge our IMA battery ourselves by revving the car to 3k rpm stationary, any idea if there's any reference materials besides the mechanic's "say-so"? I have never done it before, and don't plan to do it... it defeats the purpose of having a car if we have to constantly do this (hybrid some more, supposed to save the environment by reducing pollution). The main idea of the IMA is to re-cycle the kinetic energy which is normally lost during driving, thus improving fuel economy, but by revving the car stationary it sort of defeats that purpose. I would suggest instead that you enjoy your car every bit of the way... it is a really fun car to drive.

Thanks for the Info Bro

Yes, it's a known thing . Not sure if its on the manual but as you read CR-Z forums and others. U would probably know that you can charge your IMA battery by revving it to 2-3k RPM. However, it's not recommended to do it frequently. Probably once in every month or even 3-4months.

Thanks for the advice too Yeap, I don't rev it frequently . This is the first time I'm doing it after 3 months actually.

Thanks for the great info it, The reason why I actually rev it is because that it the battery actually dropped from 5 to 1 bar so it does makes me think that this is some kind of the problem where it was mentioned previously by some forum members which is knowledgeable in hybrid stating regarding the battery level of each batteries in the IMA. . Reading some articles or forums had mentioned that Honda's IMA uses 6-8 batteries (the ones that you use in torch light) and there are possibility where the battery level are not equal. One battery might have full batt level and another might have low batt level. Thats the reason why it appears on our display showing the battery has only 1 bar left but in fact there is actually battery inside. As the battery levels of each battery are not equal, it would sent a wrong signal showing the status of the battery is low and therefore, it would disable the use of electric motor although there are still battery left inside. Therefore, I thought of revving the engine (which is the 1st time i ever did after receiving the car 3 months ago) to charge the IMA battery fully hoping that it would balance all the charge level of the batteries inside the IMA. Not sure if it does work to balance the level of each battery but just wanted to give it a try....l'm not sure if you or anyone here could understand what I'm trying to explain though as the knowledge I have for Honda's IMA system is very minimal. Apologise for that though. Another thing I notice is that as you rev the engine to charge the IMA, it actually heats up? Because i can hear the vacuum cleaner sound in my boot which means its trying to cool down the battery. Anyways, thanks for the great info though.

This post has been edited by Area51SE: Feb 1 2013, 01:12 PM

Agreed with what you mentioned here. To rev at 3k duirng idle stage is never mentioned in the manual and by doing so you defeat the purpose of a hybrid car.

+99999999

how does the car drive when the batteries are flat? is it really very hopeless?

Well I guess you didn't quite get what I actually meant, If I do that regularly or just for the sake of charging the battery, yes that really defeats the purpose of a hybrid car. I did mentioned the reason why I actually did that. Please do read the previous post where I replied to Nitrous regarding the Battery level of each battery.

Well, normally when it reaches 1 bar left. IMA assist or even autostop would be disabled. Therefore, thats when the car actually is moving without any assist by the motor. I think it's still okay. You won't feel underpowered just that the pick up is not that fast thats all

Please do share your results later, if it helps improve your CRZ battery charge holding. I am also interested to know too, ever since this "charge-while-stationary" thing came about from Honda SA. I would really like to know if it really helps.
AFAIK, not all battery packs are created equal, thus you will definitely get unequal battery level during normal usage. Small items like the voltage resistance at each contact point and the temperature can play a role to contribute to different battery level inside the IMA battery pack itself. FYI, CRZ have 7 battery packs, each pack contains a number of NiMH cells. With so many variables, I would think the battery levels will be different at the end of the day after driving, thus charging it after the end of your day will probably help re-level the battery packs. However, do note that the battery pack coverts the additional charge to heat if it is being overcharged, thus while waiting for other battery packs to be equalized to the same level, some packs may heat up since they are overcharged. Thus the fan gets really loud while you charge....

Area51SE... i only agree the part that "it defeats the purpose of a hybrid car".. haha..

Got my car today, Alex, kajang, storm silver, mt

Thanks for great info again Bro, seems like you do have great knowledge about how Hybrid really works. Really gained some knowledge by reading your postings / explanations. Will definitely share my result later if it does improve battery charge holding.

I am having the same problem with my 2010 honda civic. each time i start engine it bounds to have one time whereby this rapid discharge n rapid charge happens. it some time started with the sympton where even when the car idle the green charge bar stay n after a while it drops to 2 bars from full bars. the assist stop during this approximately 5 minutes driving and it quickly goes back to full bar and car goes back to normal and it happens one time for each time u start n off the engine. i treats it as DEFECT as we lost IMA while most needed like overtaking. so since my car is still under warrant i complain to HSC while servicing and as usual they just said it has no problem. i complaint to HONDA MALAYSIA and HONDA MALAYSIA instructed the HSC to ask me to send the car for "checking". what they do is download all data related to battery from my car to HONDA MALAYSIA for "analysis". they sent on Monday n when i call HSC they asked me to wait.

Wow, Hopefully you will get an answer from them soon and could solve the problem. Please do keep us updated too on what HSC says about it alright

Bakry - SSM - Damansara



aih, the "tinkle/rattle" coming from the rear left cabin is still there. Sounds like a loose wire/cable or something.
Ting ting..tinkle.. Anyone experiencing this? Like coming from the inside of the plastic covers near the IMA vent

This post has been edited by bakry: Feb 3 2013, 12:13 PM

Yeah. I got that. Already tried removing the tonneau boot cover and it is not that. According to some post in the crzforum (http://www.crzforum.com/forum/general-discussion/9765-does-your-crz-have-many-squeaks-rattles-2.html), it is likely to be the bracket that holds the ima vent. I haven't found time to dismantle the trunk to check, though.

This post has been edited by Aswlee: Feb 3 2013, 03:07 PM

Edit...sorry, double post.

This post has been edited by Aswlee: Feb 3 2013, 02:58 PM

i did read that particular post before and i tried to dismantle..but dont know how. wanna meet up and see if we have the same prob? its annoying! then can TT as well

This post has been edited by bakry: Feb 4 2013, 10:12 AM