[sheepdog 44]

I had the good fortune to get my pack cycled three times a week after my IMA first came on. Thats full topping and discharging. I believe balancing is the key issue. My pack would lose voltage then gain voltage before finally slowly dropping as the pack discharged. I believe the unbalanced state of my pack was the main cause. Over time it deteriorated to greatly reduced capacity, 1/3 useable capacity from full before regen, longer very inefficient force regens, and reduced assist. Balancing the pack just from charging all the cells and discharging to zero without replacing sticks restored its health.

My discharge rate looked like a normal gradual hill. It's been great for 4 months now without a grid charge balancing. Driving from the first grid charge i had a ton of capacity. Once that wore off, my normal capacity improved a lot.

Now i can tell that my battery is running at reduced capacity from a good battery. However, It is behaving itself well. I'm using a good range of my useable capacity, and my regen efficiency is good. (my car never does the force regen where it deletes all your bars and regens to full.)

Long story short, you want the minimum difference of capacity from in sticks from highest to lowest. Also grid charging the whole pack regularly will negate force regens, improving mpg. Since you seem to be a knowledgeable diy guy, i'd suggest building a grid charger for less than $100 in parts.