My, my, my regeneration

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NomadMac

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 18, 2013
Messages
163
Location
Marin County
or lack thereof...

I started a new thread, as requested, my regeneration failed again today coming down my hill. This is the second incident.

I was in L and noticed no motor braking. I had to apply the brakes. Still no regen. The regen gauge showed zero during my descent. I believe I shifted into D with the same result.

At the bottom of the hill, I pulled over, power cycled at 12:26 PM the car and regen returned.
 
I agree, this might be a case of having a full battery and trying to stuff more in with regen. You can try charging a little less than full to see if the regen works all the way down the hill. Then charge to full and see if the same thing happens again. Ideally, you should only charge enough to allow you to regen down the hill and reach the bottom with a full battery.

FYI, the Volt will do that too, but the two electric motors can be set to oppose each other and use the regen power as an "engine brake" even though the battery will not allow any of the power to be stored...
 
NomadMac said:
or lack thereof...

I started a new thread, as requested, my regeneration failed again today coming down my hill. This is the second incident.

I was in L and noticed no motor braking. I had to apply the brakes. Still no regen. The regen gauge showed zero during my descent. I believe I shifted into D with the same result.

At the bottom of the hill, I pulled over, power cycled at 12:26 PM the car and regen returned.

Curious have you had any brake issues of late? Any funny sounds/noises/feel?

I've posted a possible regen braking issue thread you may want to check out.

Personally I don't think it's a battery capacity issue...I've gotten my range well above 120 miles on regen. And it was still wanting to regen.
 
I've left the house numerous times with an indicated full charge and it will still add a couple of miles by the time I get to town.
Plus, a power cycle cures the problem. Ambient temperature was in the 70s.

No other braking issues noted or strange sounds.
I drive in Low 99% of the time.
 
NomadMac said:
I've left the house numerous times with an indicated full charge and it will still add a couple of miles by the time I get to town.
Plus, a power cycle cures the problem. Ambient temperature was in the 70s.

No other braking issues noted or strange sounds.
I drive in Low 99% of the time.

Nomad,

Could you do me an enormous favour and look at my thread about the regen braking issue I feel I'm having?

Could you by any chance listen to your vehicle in P or N and tell me if you hear the same sounds as I do as I have recorded on my videos?
 
iletric said:
Either too cold battery/ambient temp or battery was 100% full.
Could be, but I have no Spark EV.

FWIW, the Leaf has single and double circles at the top of its display to indicate the max regen possible and max power output possible. On the Leaf, when you charge to 100%, you'll find the amount of regen is VERY limited at high SoCs (somewhere past ~95% or so) and the display shows you. If you drive in the Leaf's B mode (for more regen) in this state, you'll (not surprisingly) find there's almost no regen. I tend to leave my work at 100% and it's VERY noticeable, and normal...

I've never seen output limits but I don't live in an extreme climate nor have I gotten my battery hot. Multiple DC fast charges/day on a Leaf can get the battery very hot and possibly limit both...
 
nozferatu said:
NomadMac said:
I've left the house numerous times with an indicated full charge and it will still add a couple of miles by the time I get to town.
Plus, a power cycle cures the problem. Ambient temperature was in the 70s.

No other braking issues noted or strange sounds.
I drive in Low 99% of the time.

Nomad,

Could you do me an enormous favour and look at my thread about the regen braking issue I feel I'm having?

Could you by any chance listen to your vehicle in P or N and tell me if you hear the same sounds as I do as I have recorded on my videos?

Nope. Don't recognize those sounds at all in mine. The first one sounds like my MIG welder, though.

Martin
 
NomadMac said:
nozferatu said:
NomadMac said:
I've left the house numerous times with an indicated full charge and it will still add a couple of miles by the time I get to town.
Plus, a power cycle cures the problem. Ambient temperature was in the 70s.

No other braking issues noted or strange sounds.
I drive in Low 99% of the time.

Nomad,

Could you do me an enormous favour and look at my thread about the regen braking issue I feel I'm having?

Could you by any chance listen to your vehicle in P or N and tell me if you hear the same sounds as I do as I have recorded on my videos?

Nope. Don't recognize those sounds at all in mine. The first one sounds like my MIG welder, though.

Martin

Thanks for checking....now I'm really concerned....an arching type sound coming from an EV...:(
 
Okay, it happened again, yesterday, no regeneration and it's definitely related to having a full charge. Still disconcerting and not consistent since it doesn't happen each time I have a full charge.
 
NomadMac said:
Okay, it happened again, yesterday, no regeneration and it's definitely related to having a full charge. Still disconcerting and not consistent since it doesn't happen each time I have a full charge.

I've never had this issue yet..even when stated as fully charged, I can always regen and can add substantial miles to the car in addition to what it was showing when fully charged.
 
Do you charge with a 240V EVSE or the 120V portable cord? I've noticed that the battery seems to get a little fuller when charging with the 120V portable cord. Anytime I use the portable cord, my trip starts with 'no room' for regen left in the battery. When I charge with a wall mounted 240v EVSE, I can usually get a couple downhill miles before temporarily losing regen until there is room in the battery again.
 
8500 miles on the odo, and I experienced the 'no regen' symptom for the first time today. Live near top of a hill and started off fully charged. There has always been room in the battery for a little more charge on the way down to the highway, but today it did not regen, and I had to use the friction brakes on the way down. It drove normally after that, but later, when the range was down several miles, it happened again. I was in D at the time. I dropped it into L and regen kicked in hard.
How common is this problem? It really affects the way the car drives, in a braking situation where misjudging stopping distance can really be dangerous. I would hope Chevy would find out why it happens and issue a software update to correct it.
 
Now that I think of it, one time when I was going down hill with an extremely low battery the regen didn't kick in in D, and I had to switch it to L to get the regen started up again. Not sure why, but it was only temporary.
 
emissionfree said:
Do you charge with a 240V EVSE or the 120V portable cord? I've noticed that the battery seems to get a little fuller when charging with the 120V portable cord. Anytime I use the portable cord, my trip starts with 'no room' for regen left in the battery. When I charge with a wall mounted 240v EVSE, I can usually get a couple downhill miles before temporarily losing regen until there is room in the battery again.

240.
The portable cord has never been out of the trunk.
 
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