Prius (2004-09) :: Hybrid Batteries Reads In Blue 3 - 4 Bars Down
Jul 9, 2012
I just bought a 2009 Prius from a dealer and the last 2 weeks I have noticed the hybrid batteries reads in the blue 3-4 bars down most of the time even after driving for awhile it goes up to the 2nd bar down (green) then when I drive for a couple of minutes it goes right back down. I also notice that I am NEVER using just hybrid motor power .The gas engine is constantly showing and the only time the power returns to the battery is when I take my foot off the gas completely or hitting the brakes.
When I am at a stop if I don't hold the brake down hard the hybrid motor shows running until I press further down on the brake pedal. I can't seem to get the car to a glide so I can less power to maintain speed and it seems like the CVT is in B mode. Also at higher speeds trying to pass it feels like the cvt is slipping.
I try to use a feather touch on the gas but can't see to find a point where the car will not use gas power constantly. I drove my boss's 07 and his gets like 4-5 mpgs better than my 09. His car has 130k and mine only has 95. His car can run and glide on hybrid motor and the gas engine is not constantly powering the vehicle like mine does. I get only 38-39 mpgs he gets like 44. We both drive about the same time on the road.
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2004 Car has 106,800 miles and for the last several weeks, when I'm stuck in traffic, like trying to get into the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel, the battery seems to go from 7 blue bars to two pink bars within five to seven minutes. Used to be that it took 3 five-minute bars of traffic, running fully electric at 100 mpg, to then go down to 2 pink, when the ICE would run and charge the battery. Today the battery indicators went down to 2 pink after sitting in traffic with the AC on and stayed there for the remainder of the time we sat in traffic - another 45 minutes or so.
The ICE would run at idle sometimes, but didn't seem to bring the battery back up unless we were really moving. A couple of times I held the brake with my left foot, revved the engine with my right, and that seemed to bring the battery up a couple bars. After we finally got going on the highway, the battery recovered. I got no warning lights, no triangles. But I'm wondering if these are symptoms of the battery failing. Time to get it tested at the dealership?
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I'm new to the Gen 1.
All has been well in just over a month of driving the car and about 3300 miles logged. The 12v, Aux battery was dead from the car sitting on the lot for so long (I replaced with a new OEM Toyota 12v battery) After a week of the car experiencing dim headlights, and various other electronics
No codes or CEL though.
Now that the 12v battery has been replaced, the car runs exceptionally well, aside from an intermittent fuel gauge issue where it only reads full bars (completely full) if I let the tank get to empty (Flashing single bar) or close to that. If I fill the tank from s
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My neighbor stopped me this morning saying her 2005 prius was acting up.
When we started off the MFD was showing all blue bars, ac lights radio all turned off.
Drove less than 3 blocks and it dropped to one purple bar and had hesitation on acceleration.
Went around the neighborhood about 3 miles and it was showing full charge green , parked and restarted, it dropped to all blue bars.
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I'm a new Prius owner and don't know if this is normal. Sometimes after being parked for a while and restarted, the icon shows the battery is down to 2 bars. It charges back up after a mile or so of driving. Also if I sit and idle for a while, the battery will drop down, and once going thru a car wash (car in Neutral), a message came on the screen that the Tractor Battery was in trouble (I don't remember the exact words). When I put the car in gear and drove off, the message disappeared and the battery charged up. What's the deal?
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My wife left her newer 2013 Prius "on" at work....by this I take to mean she did not hit the on/off button when leaving the car. to turn off the car I asked if it started ok, and she reported yes; however on return from the gym about 3 miles away, she says she noticed the Hybrid Battery bars going down very quickly now and the gas-engine on almost the whole time.
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This is a video to compare some of the advantages and disadvantages of the two most popular hybrid battery technologies in hybrid vehicles today.
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I just bought 05 prius from a dealer I don't know the history was told all it needed was a hybrid battery.
Now I have a 05 that I drive with known good parts so I pulled my hybrid battery and installed it in the new car the monitor showed engine charging inverter then going to the battery. However the bars on the battery graph start dropping. only code is a engine code 2102.
I also noticed the old A/C condenser in the back.
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I have a Honda Accord 2004 Hybrid with 85,000 miles on it. My IMA and check engine light went on less than 2 months ago, and the dealer replaced the starter battery and it was "fixed". Less than 2 months later the same thing happened and the dealer claims that the hybrid battery is failing, need to replace it, and they can't do this anyhow because the part is backordered "indefinitely". Honda extended the hybrid battery to 80,000 miles but you are over the limit. So here's my question:
1. Can the car be driven without the hybrid battery, just using gas engine, without risk of getting stuck somewhere?
2. Is there any other remedy that would be less costly?
3. Was this a known problem that I should have been warned about when I bought the car.
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Had a Gen 2 years ago, first time with a Gen 3. Specs: 2011 Prius Two, not II, CPO'd with 83k miles. I've been experiencing this phenomenon for the past couple of days. I would park the car with 6 or 7 bars, but after 8-10 hours of parking it would power up with only 2 bars, or it would power up with 4-5 bars and quickly go down to 2 cars before it charges back up to 6-7 bars. I called the dealer and the SA tells me it's normal. I know for a fact my Gen 2 didn't and my TCH didn't. So is this something I should be concerned about or is this normal for the Gen 3?
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Im the second owner of a 2008 Toyota Prius (Package II) with 23k miles.
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So I met my wife after work. I was killing some time with my son. We drove across the street, then to a neighboring shopping center. I changed the display to see the more accurate instant MPG and noticed my battery was at 2 bars. This is the first time that's happened, that I'm aware of. During normal operation, it stays at 2 bars above the halfway mark, or above.
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My 05' with 130,000 miles has been acting weird lately. It likes to charge up to 8 bars all the time now. Before it was always around 5-7 bars. It goes down to purple 2 bars on a 2 mile hill climb. I see the bar from 6 going down to 3 or 2 immediately.
When I am driving on a flat road at constant speed. The battery is charging or being used continuously. Never does it stay at discharge or charge for longer than 2 seconds. The arrow goes green then orange then green, on and on and on. Besides that, it seem to drive ok. No dash lights what so ever.
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I am a relatively new 1st time Prius Owner. I have a 2007 Touring Model, [69k miles] that I love so far, and have only had it about 3 months. I do Night Watchman work part time as a retiree, and mostly sit around equipment yards in my Prius. I've noticed that although everything seems fine on the road with no problems or unusual occurrances, that when I do start my Prius and let it idle, the Battery Bar Gauge will after about 5 minutes or so, begin to drop, until there are only 2 bars left, which causes me to panic and start driving around to get the battery bars to start coming up again. If the bars go to 2 or lower , [1] and I don't do anything, will the Pius go dead on me, or will it eventualy kick the gas engine in to start charging the battery and make the number of bars go up? I don't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere, and when I do idle, it's just to throw on a little heat, or have the radio on, no lights .
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I had my 2005 Prius sitting idle for three days and when I last used the car it had 6 bars of battery (blue). Today I turn it on and it has only 2 bars of battery (purple) and the engine stayed on about 10 minutes to charge the battery. After about 10 minutes it went all the way to 7 bars (green) and the engine did its normal idle stop. Is it normal for the battery to drain that much in only a few days?
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I think my battery is low in both of my fob keys.It's not unlocking every time anymore but I don't see any access to get into this thing....Don't want to do damage cause i'm sure it wouldn't be cheap.
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I had the Honda recommended software upgrade done on the car in July 2010 and have taken it back twice to two different Honda dealers more than once. The gas mileage has dropped from 44 to 40 consistently for the same route and driving conditions on my daily commute. Worst still the car's power has suffered as the battery does not kick in as often so it struggles going up a hill. The battery is in charge mode more quickly at roughly 50% life so it is not available to boost the power, prior it would not stsrt recharging until much lower like 20% left. In fact I have had to turn around on hills that it could manuever before as it would not go up hill after the upgrade. I have spoken to several other drivers of the same model that say they have the same problem. The software upgrade was to lengthen the life of the battery pack not kill the power and MPG of the car. Any recommendtaions on how to fix since Honda is of no assistance?
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Car wouldn't start, electric came on but it wouldn't turn over. Towed it to Toyota Dealer. Trouble reported in window was "Check Hybrid System" and " Check CVS? and one other but don't remember. After leaving the dealer and arriving home, I had a call advising me that there was water in the hybrid battery to the tune of $6K. Manager told me that the car had to have passed through standing water or water rose to level where batteries were contaminated. Don't know of any flooded areas around here and no evidence of water on the carpet so how does water get into the batteries. Manager advised me to call insurance company to have them pay for it. Nothing surprises me today but how does water get into the system without flooding the car?
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When battery is low (purple bars IN DISPLAY) EV mode is not allowed, obviously; but WHY is it not allowed when the battery is full or nearly full (green bars on display) ?
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My 2006 Prius died this morning. I've never taken it to the dealer since buying it brand new until today. It was running great without any problems until this morning. It turned out, that the Exxon Mobil station that I routinely get gas from had DIESEL pumped into their 87 octane tanks the day before.
I was not alone. There are many other cars affected by the gas station delivery company's negligence. Fortunately, the delivery company admitted to the mistake and I was advised to take my car in and get it fixed and to later submit all repair receipts for claims submission. How long till I get reimbursed is anybody's guess.
Sad thing is, my car stopped recharging the batteries for some reason. I'm sure it is related to the diesel gasoline. The Toyota service manager made a note of the additional problem caused by the gas station's negligence. I was the 7th victim that came in to the dealership today.
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I have a 2007 prius with 107,000 miles. At first start up in the morning, the battery is at blue then instantly goes to black (empty) then revs up to recharge then goes to green. Like its not keeping a charge. This morning it revved up so much I thought it was going to explode. No warning lights on.
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