Quote:
Originally Posted by S Keith
7If your red battery light comes on with ignition on, but stays off during driving, the car is charging the battery sufficiently.
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On mine, if the DC-DC charging is not working, I see both the red battery and brake lights come on - somewhat puzzling the first few times you see it. If you have a ScanGauge or similar, you'll also see the system voltage drop below 12 volts. When actually charging, it runs about 14.4 V, cycling between that and 12.x V. The car runs ok down to about 11.5 V or less.
I've seen two things cause this. First, a bad 12V battery, for which the only solution (AFAIK) is to replace it. The original small battery was impossible to find, but one for a Civic (Group 51?) fits in the box just fine. Second cause is a badly unbalanced pack. You'll see it start to happen on hard assist, then just randomly. Usually turning the engine off for a few seconds then back on will get it charging again, and doing a rebalance on the pack makes it go away completely for a couple of years. I think I've been through 3 cycles with mine.