Prius (2004-09) :: Losing Traction Battery Charge In Morning
Aug 2, 2014
I have a 2005 Prius with about 170,000 km on it. I bought it two years ago used at 150,000 km. Everything worked fine for about 8 months, them I noticed the main battery started to drain on first start in the morning after driving a short distance. It would drop down to about 2-3 bars most days, especially on cold mornings. After reading on this forum for a bit I turned off the key locator, and it went back to normal for about 6 months, at which point it started dropping again. I haven't had any warning lights come on yet.
I replaced the 12 V battery, as recommended here with an Optima Yellow Top, even though the original one showed no voltage drop. It actually tested higher than the new Yellow Top I got. My fear is that the traction battery is losing modules. I'm planning on testing them soon.
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I just purchased a 2004 Prius. When I am driving the battery seems to work fine but yet the battery loses charge when I am sitting in the car while running on idle. The battery goes down to 2 bars and the engine has to kick in to charge the battery. I have no check engine lights. Does this mean my battery needs to be replaced? If so then what are your thought on rebuilt batteries.
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A month ago I bought a 2007 Prius with 140,000 km. I notice that the state of charge drops into the 'red' bars within about 20 minutes of the car switched on, in Park with no accessories running. A mechanic connected his diagnostic computer and saw 2 cells are low. However, the mechanic informs me there is no value in replacing those cells as others are likely to go down, thereafter. Is there anything I can do to avoid having to replace the entire traction battery?
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My 2007 Prius has 120,000 miles. I live in a mountainous area. I need to climb 3 miles at 6% grade to get out of my neighborhood. Lately I've been noticing the traction battery loses charge fairly quickly and I've been thinking about replacing the battery. Much of my driving is in steep hills and I run a full charge cycle many times a day, so I guess I should expect some loss of life.
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I've bought a used prius v ,the mileage is now 72k and as of monday (2 days ago) the maintenance reqd light came on intermittently when I start the car. So, I checked and saw that this meant it was due for a service, no big deal.
I don't know if it's linked but Monday I drove about 360 miles and then last night (Tuesday) I noticed my battery drained quickly on a 7 mile trip , it went down to 2 bars (they became blue on the car display) and took forever to go back up. Then same thing this afternoon but funnily enough, not this morning.
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Took my C to the local drive through car wash as it was pretty crusty looking from all of the rain we've had lately. I had my A/C on as its a nice and warm sunny Florida day. Pulled inside and put my C in Neutral to go through the wash and half way through my car started beeping like mad and flashing the "!" in a triangle symbol and on the small screen it said something to the effect of "Cannot charge traction battery when car is in 'N'." My HVAC system drained down the traction battery and since the car was in neutral the engine couldn't keep it above the minimum SOC level. Turned the air off and anxiously waited for the car wash to hurry up so I could put it in drive. After I put the car in drive the SOC read 1 blue bar and took FOREVER to charge back (or perhaps it just seemed that way because I was freaking out..)
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Over the last few weeks I have noted the following when I first start the car in the morning : I turn on the car, and turn on the A/C (this is Arkansas, remember, and the sun has already heated the car up pretty good). The Traction Battery is usually at 6 bar+/-
Over the next few minutes (driving uphill, maybe stopping for a minute to put trash in our trash cans, A/C on all the time), the Traction Battery goes down to 2 or 3 bars quickly. Then over the next few minutes it pretty quickly comes back up as I start driving faster (40-45) on a main road.
I am guessing this is happening now because of my A/C use. But I don't remember this happening so much in previous summers, which were at least as hot.
BTW, I start driving as quickly as possible after turning the car on (little or no warm up). So maybe some of this has to do with the car using battery energy while the engine is warming itself. But again, I never noticed this before.
Is it possible that a cell or something in the battery is going bad? Or is it just completely normal and I just never noticed it before and I'm having Traction Battery Paranoia?
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I see this was discussed back in 06 but not resolved. Maybe more owners have had additional experiences with this.
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I know car likes to shut off at 3-4 bar, but what if I want to keep the battery closer to full in order to get more power. Is there any way to tell the computer to keep engine running?
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I've noticed that after sitting over night my battery for the hybrid system is not charged enough to operate the car in EV or for the first mile or two it does not seem to use as much electric power to supplement the car. After a couple miles it is charged or near charged and I see more use.
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On a hot sunny day, occasionally I have to be stopped for extended periods with the A/C running which means the engine will come on for a few minutes out of every 10 minutes or so. to charge the traction battery. Engine comes on at 2 bars and goes off at 3 bars.
As engine efficiency at idle is low, would it be better to put it in D with the brake firmly pressed and push the accelerator so that the engine speed is in the high efficiency range so as to produce more charge for the fuel burnt and maybe also I could charge it to a few more bars on the battery indicator?
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New battery, new terminals but my car won't turn over if I need to make a quick stop somewhere. I must wait at least an hour for the proper amount of voltage to build up and then the car starts just fine. What is going on?
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I recently started up a modest hill in the snow. My '05 Prius started to lose traction and the ABS/VSC kicked in and killed the drive power. The drive then came back on and then off several times before quitting completely. The surface was slick. If I could have disabled the system, I could have driven through the situation. Is it possible to turn the system off?
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I recently purchased a used 2007 prius. The car has not been driven for some time. I won it in an auction from a used/wreaked car lot and am in the process of fixing it up. I need to know if it is possible to charge the hybrid battery when the car is idling or will this only discharge the hybrid battery and if so, is there any way to charge the hybrid battery other than driving the car?
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The symptoms are: HV Battery loses almost all charge over night. Sometimes it won't start. HV battery loses charge fast while cruising in the city (I used to see it getting green at the highways with cruise control and now it doesn't happen). Red warning light goes on randomly.
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I have a problem I can't figure out. 06 Prius with 105k.
Current codes: P3000, P3020, C1259, C1310, C1378
Car will run and drive but is in limp mode
HV battery fan is at full blast, but charge does not fluctuate
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I got my car about 2 month ago, and i started to understand how she is working ( how the hybrid cars works in general ), in my daily trip, there is about 5 mile flat road, sometimes when I reach this road SOC shows 3 bars only and its not enough for EV that 5 miles road, but if the battery have more than 6 bars i think it will do the job, and if you will ask me why you don't charge it through the car movement, the answer is very simple, because I am gilding the car before getting that flat road, so, is there any why to force the ICE charging the HV battery?
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My 2006 Prius battery is not holding a charge very well. About a month ago I had rodents in the engine and had both my stereo and wiring harness replaced at the dealer. I've noticed that every morning the Energy Monitor screen shows only 2 purple cells left in the battery. It always recharges as I'm driving it, but then it loses its charge after siting still a few moments. No idiot lights are on. I've done the DIY system check mode and everything says OK, except audio- it shows "check" in red. Also, my 12v battery is at 11.9. (I replaced my original 12v battery several months ago with no problems).
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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've had my 2006 Prius since Jan. Today it started giving me a warning when I put it into drive. The warning was the battery couldn't charge while it was in neutral. It told me to place it in park. I did. I repeatedly tried and even drove out of my parking but it continued to say this with the ! in the triangle appearing. I've never even put it in neutral before.
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In reading a lot of the threads here, it seems that my traction battery or inverter is dying/dead? 2004, 135,000 miles.
A couple months ago, got the triangle of death and parked it at my office. Next day, came back and it drove fine. Then, a couple weeks ago, drove 100 miles fine, parked at the house. An hour later I hopped in the car and didn't get more than two miles down the road before it died. Came back a couple days later and it drives/runs fine, battery at 50%+ on the MFD. Had it towed to shop and they haven't had time to look at it, so I'm going to figure it out myself. I don't have a scanner but want to get one.
As described in the thread title, the ICE won't even run, and the traction battery drains down to one bar. If I let the car sit for a day or two, it will probably run, but I know there's something that needs to be addressed. Is it the traction battery, or possibly the inverter?
I called the dealer to do the inverter coolant pump recall, but they said I did it back in 2011. Was the problem identified back then? Or are they lying to me?
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