Sudden battery drop

[phasornc]

My battery have recently dropped in range. I'm getting on 10 or 11 miles. This happened overnight. I had been getting a full 15.5 miles or so.

The weird thing is the suddenness and the way in which the range dropped. First of all, after a full charge I've only been seeing 13.8 or sometimes 14.1 on my range meter (it used to show 15.8 or 16.1). Then when I start driving, after about 3/4 of a mile the range meter will sudden lose about 1.5 miles. Usually it will drop about 1/10 of a mile per second. Then when it reaches 10.5 or so the sudden drop quit and the car performs normal, but with less range. I drive about 11 miles to work and up till 2 weeks ago I always had about 3 miles left over when I got there (then I'd charge at work, and generally never use gas).

I noticed this drop started happening after I got 2 new tire and an alignment in front. The car now has Michelin Premier A/S on all tires. Previously my front tires were two miss matched Goodyear and Michelin low rolling resistance tire. The also use to squeal all the time during low speed turned. Now the car handles perfectly, but I'm getting this range problem.

Any ideas? And now that they Clarity is out I'm hoping on of the Clarity dealers around here may have the necessary training to fix the problem, but right now my dealer is useless (think Gomer Pyle "Gooooolly I ain't done seen one a dem before"). Btw I'm in Miami, my car came from New Jersey. I've had it for 15 months. It has about 45K miles.

 

[Cobra]

Did temperature drop a lot? I think it's been cold this season even in Florida. When temperature drops and you run the heat, the MPG estimate drops a fair amount. Then the car will show you a lower range based on the new MPG estimate. (Electric efficiency estimate really, but similar to MPG.)

 

[phasornc]

No this has nothing to do with a temperature drop. It happened overnight. And besides I was getting 16.1 Miles when fully charges. Now the display only says 14.2 or similar. And like I said after driving for a little while I lose about another mile in range over the course of tenth of a mile. Basically I'm down to an actual 11-12 mile on a charge. And it happened overnight?

 

[BillyMo]

I bought my 2014 PHEV last yr after it came off 3 yr lease. In very good condition. I expected more but only got 12 mis range after a full charge. So I lived w/that and then over the winter in N CA [occassionaly temps just above freezing] I noticed the range dropped to 8 or less mis range. BTW I was not using the electric heat in the car which drops batt quickly. The range was pretty much accurate as to mis traveled. Now that it has warmed up a bit [day time temps near 70] range has gone up slightly to around 9 mis. Took to local Honda dlr and was told they do not have a way to test batteries per se. They can chk the 'system' which i done using a code reader. I said no thx as it was not free.
How common is this - loss of range? If I just stop charging and use hybrid mode, will battery last a long time or is it at 5 yrs old, on the way out? Warranty is several yrs., but does that only come into play if the batteries fail as oppose to losing capacity?

 

[Jamphev]

Depends upon the temperature.... warmer more miles (up to 17.4 on the computer ) and maybe 13-15 in the colder months.

 

[BillyMo]

Yes temp matters but I have never gotten more than 12 on full charge and in 2018 summer it shows max of 10 mis but that drops faster than actual mileage. On less than 5 yr old car only getting actual 8-9 mis per charge. Discussed with Honda and they say Sorry, unless batt cpl dies early warranty is of no value whatsoever! An EV shop wants $3k + to installed a Rebuilt battery but makes no promise of how many EV mis I will get and estimates around 15 - certainly not worth the cost.