Does Battery Charge Affect Ride?

[louis'ride]

My RX400H is two months old. After about 1000 miles, I still get ride variations when I try to maintain low speeds around town. (under 40) There are still bucks or lurches that the dealer promised would go away after I had some real miles on the car. The ride is so unpredictable, sometimes it feels like wet sparkplugs, or something that interferes with consistent power. other times, under identical circumstances, it is perfectly fine. Is this really going to go away? Could it have to do with the charge level of the battery? I am totally unmechanical and I do not have the GSP system so my graphics are limited. What do I need to know about how to manage the battery.

My graphics do not show %charge, just when it is operating or recharging, usually when I am coasting.

Anyhow, I love the car, and find myself driving "the long ways" just to stay in it. I just want to get this luching thing to go away,

Thanks

[silvercorvette]

The little display under the speedometer does show your charge, the white part of the picture of the battery grows and shrinks in proportion to the % of charge. You don't or can't manage the battery charge there isn't much you can do to change it because the computer does it all automatically. You may be able to change the charge by a small amount if you pulse and glide but that won't do anything to improve the comfort of your ride.. There were a lot of reports of surging a while back but I thought it was only with older models. My car has none of the problems you spoke of and it was delivered Oct of 06 so I assumed the problem was fixed and only the older ones have a problem. I assume the all the "H" car are sold quickly and move off the lot fast so I doubt your car was an earlier build than mine.

[louis'ride]

The little display under the speedometer does show your charge, the white part of the picture of the battery grows and shrinks in proportion to the % of charge. You don't or can't manage the battery charge there isn't much you can do to change it because the computer does it all automatically. You may be able to change the charge by a small amount if you pulse and glide but that won't do anything to improve the comfort of your ride.. There were a lot of reports of surging a while back but I thought it was only with older models. My car has none of the problems you spoke of and it was delivered Oct of 06 so I assumed the problem was fixed and only the older ones have a problem. I assume the all the "H" car are sold quickly and move off the lot fast so I doubt your car was an earlier build than mine.

You are right about them being sold quickly. Mine was built in March '07. I took delivery (the last one they had) on April 30. Yes, the dealer said there had been problems in '06, and denied any problems with the '07s. They said to bring it back after I had 1000 miles, which I will do. Do you think it is just normal and is actually due to battery strength? I will look again at my display. I thought the white

line shows instanteous mpg.

thanks

[silvercorvette]

I am not near my car but if I remember correctly you can cycle through the display by pushing one of the right side buttons on the steering wheel. One display has a picture of a battery, the amount of power stored in the battery is indicated on the display by how much is white and how much is black. It also has arrows to indicate if power is being drained from the battery or if it is getting power put back into it. The computer is programed to never charge to 100%. I think it ranges from something like 90% to maybe 40%. The people that made the system felt that they could get longer battery life by never charging to 100% and never letting it get close to 0% charge.

Except for a few small glitches my car was perfect the day I got it, I didn't have to wait to drive it a few miles before it drove smoothly. However I have noticed the MPG got better after a few thousand miles, but all cars have better mileage after they break in.

[louis'ride]

I am not near my car but if I remember correctly you can cycle through the display by pushing one of the right side buttons on the steering wheel. One display has a picture of a battery, the amount of power stored in the battery is indicated on the display by how much is white and how much is black. It also has arrows to indicate if power is being drained from the battery or if it is getting power put back into it. The computer is programed to never charge to 100%. I think it ranges from something like 90% to maybe 40%. The people that made the system felt that they could get longer battery life by never charging to 100% and never letting it get close to 0% charge.

Except for a few small glitches my car was perfect the day I got it, I didn't have to wait to drive it a few miles before it drove smoothly. However I have noticed the MPG got better after a few thousand miles, but all cars have better mileage after they break in.

OK, now I know what you meant, the battery icon. I am getting 24mpg. i do drive gently and mindfully, hopefully it will improve. But I am grateful for even the 25% improvemnt over my volvo cross country. I will continue to monitor the surges. I think they are better, maybe subtler. Its just so frustrating when it can't be demonstrated at the dealer.

Thanks for your imput.

[silvercorvette]

I don’t think that saying that I don’t care about the gas mileage is entirely correct but I do kind of feel that way. I have a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee that averages in the mid teens, I get in the low teens in around town stop and go and high teens on the highway no stop and go traffic. And after switching to the RX I would have been happy with anything over 20 MPG. When I drove the RX to TX it only had a couple hundred miles on it and was packed with well over a thousand pounds of stiff and I got over 20 MPG. I now have had my 5,000 oil change and the mileage seems to go up as I put more miles on the car. As I said before After owning the jeep I would have been happy with anything over 20 but I went from 24 to 26 and on my last fill up I got 28 MPG. Even though I am not obsessed with mileage I still am curious to see what this thing can do. Lets face it if you buy a Corvette you want to see how fast it can go and when you get one of these things it is only natural to see how many miles you can squeeze from a gallon of gas. I usually drive in a way that will produce good economy regardless of what type of car I drive but the next time I plan on taking a fairly long ride I want to take on a personal challenge to see what my personal best MPG will be if I drive using every method I know to get maximum economy. I am hoping I can break the 30 MPG barrier and pass it. By the way I have never done a pencil and paper check and have relied solely on the computer of info. I have heard the computer gives reading on the high side so I am curious what the difference will be. Is it possible the computer is more accurate because it measures fuel flow and when you do a pencil and paper check sometimes the automatic pump shut off may click off with different levels of fuel in the tank? I also think that there may be situations where the tank isn’t filled all the way (if you filled up at a pump on an incline there could be an air pocket that won’t allow a true fill up) so I will probably want to do multiple fill ups when I do my little experiment. I’ll report back with my results after I finish my experiment.

I guess you know this already but the place where the hybrid really shines is stop and go around town traffic or situations where you repeatedly stop for a few minutes then move a few feet and continue to do it for a ½ hour or more. When other cars are sitting at a light or stuck in traffic burning gas you are sitting with your engine off. And in bumper to bumper stop and go there are times where you may go great distances with the engine off and use only battery power

Last Nov I left my DX 400H in TX and flew back to NY for Thanksgiving. When I got back to NY I discovered an intruder was in my house. I helped the police capture him but a planned 10 day stay in NY wound up with me staying till Jan 10. When I got back to TX the interior light was dim when I opened the door so there was still some power left in the battery but not enough to start the car. I had a portable jump start battery that I always keep in my cars but I called Lexus roadside because I thought there may have been some special procedure to start the car. The guy that Lexus sent was just a regular gas station guy that didn’t know what a hybrid was and had never heard of a hybrid. And to top it off he didn’t have any way to start my car so he wound up using my cables. The second time I left the car in Texas I used a Deltran battery tender and I am happy to say it worked perfect ally with overcharging the battery. If you think you may not use the car for a while I highly recommend the battery tender

[SOMEONE ELSE'S GOT MY NAME]

Many states have Lemon Laws, modeled after Californias, where if your car has a major item (including lurching) go bad, they get 3 chances to make it right. After that, you get a full refund or new car. Check to see if Mass. has lemon laws, then bring it up with the dealer. You'll be surprised how fast they'll jump. ;)

[louis'ride]

Many states have Lemon Laws, modeled after Californias, where if your car has a major item (including lurching) go bad, they get 3 chances to make it right. After that, you get a full refund or new car. Check to see if Mass. has lemon laws, then bring it up with the dealer. You'll be surprised how fast they'll jump. ;)

Iwill stay on top of it. I insisted they start the record of the complaint when I brought it back at 300 miles. my first concern is having them experience and recognize it. the first time i drove with the

tech, he felt it, the second time he didnt. go figure.

thanks

[louis'ride]

I don’t think that saying that I don’t care about the gas mileage is entirely correct but I do kind of feel that way. I have a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee that averages in the mid teens, I get in the low teens in around town stop and go and high teens on the highway no stop and go traffic. And after switching to the RX I would have been happy with anything over 20 MPG. When I drove the RX to TX it only had a couple hundred miles on it and was packed with well over a thousand pounds of stiff and I got over 20 MPG. I now have had my 5,000 oil change and the mileage seems to go up as I put more miles on the car. As I said before After owning the jeep I would have been happy with anything over 20 but I went from 24 to 26 and on my last fill up I got 28 MPG. Even though I am not obsessed with mileage I still am curious to see what this thing can do. Lets face it if you buy a Corvette you want to see how fast it can go and when you get one of these things it is only natural to see how many miles you can squeeze from a gallon of gas. I usually drive in a way that will produce good economy regardless of what type of car I drive but the next time I plan on taking a fairly long ride I want to take on a personal challenge to see what my personal best MPG will be if I drive using every method I know to get maximum economy. I am hoping I can break the 30 MPG barrier and pass it. By the way I have never done a pencil and paper check and have relied solely on the computer of info. I have heard the computer gives reading on the high side so I am curious what the difference will be. Is it possible the computer is more accurate because it measures fuel flow and when you do a pencil and paper check sometimes the automatic pump shut off may click off with different levels of fuel in the tank? I also think that there may be situations where the tank isn’t filled all the way (if you filled up at a pump on an incline there could be an air pocket that won’t allow a true fill up) so I will probably want to do multiple fill ups when I do my little experiment. I’ll report back with my results after I finish my experiment.

I guess you know this already but the place where the hybrid really shines is stop and go around town traffic or situations where you repeatedly stop for a few minutes then move a few feet and continue to do it for a ½ hour or more. When other cars are sitting at a light or stuck in traffic burning gas you are sitting with your engine off. And in bumper to bumper stop and go there are times where you may go great distances with the engine off and use only battery power

Last Nov I left my DX 400H in TX and flew back to NY for Thanksgiving. When I got back to NY I discovered an intruder was in my house. I helped the police capture him but a planned 10 day stay in NY wound up with me staying till Jan 10. When I got back to TX the interior light was dim when I opened the door so there was still some power left in the battery but not enough to start the car. I had a portable jump start battery that I always keep in my cars but I called Lexus roadside because I thought there may have been some special procedure to start the car. The guy that Lexus sent was just a regular gas station guy that didn’t know what a hybrid was and had never heard of a hybrid. And to top it off he didn’t have any way to start my car so he wound up using my cables. The second time I left the car in Texas I used a Deltran battery tender and I am happy to say it worked perfect ally with overcharging the battery. If you think you may not use the car for a while I highly recommend the battery tender

Yes it is a game. I did calculate milage from the gas pump. one time it was on target. last time the calculation came out over a mile lower. I thought, like you, that the shut off from one gas pump to another might be different, so that you never know if you started on a true full tank.

We shall see...

thanks for your comments.