Unexpected Turtle

[JoeS]

The fellow to whom I sold my first i-MiEV has been racking up the miles, maximizing use of his HOV-lane sticker. Recently, he's had a strange issue, randomly occurring:

When at around 4-5 bars and plenty of RR (around 20), the 'Turtle' light starts flickering, and goes away when he puts it into Neutral, yet returns when he goes back into D. Flickering Turtle goes away after charging. No other problems, with full-16 bar charging.

I forgot to pull out CaniOn to do a cell check when i saw him today.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[sandange]

A few questions...
What kind of mileage does he have?.
Does this happen regularly or randomly?
Has he tried other drive modes ( E , B ) when this happens.
Did the car react as if it was in turtle mode ( speed limitations etc) when this happened?
I agree a CaniOn reading would be an eye opener in this situation.

I've had 1 incident where the turtle came on while the Remaining Range showed 1 km left. It was captured on video on a range test Don & I did -
If you would like to see it it starts at 24:55 minutes...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on8_fNSuaSU

 

[jray3]

I've also met the turtle before the last bar blinks out, but never with two or more bars showing... First guess would be it's the first sign of a saggy cell, but I thought that a low voltage cell would trigger a solid turtle until reset by a recharge. The flicker makes me wonder about a cold solder joint, cracked electrical component or other fault in a circuit.
I've twice had intermittent automotive issues (in 1990's Hondas) that were eventually traced to a cracked solder joint after extended annoyance...