Prius (2004-09) :: MDF Indicates A Rapid Discharge, Battery Shows One Bar
Feb 16, 2012
2006 Prius with 130k miles. I'm thinking that my HV battery has slowly deteriorated to the point where it's causing drivability issues, and now needs to be replaced.
The main symptoms I'm experiencing are rapid charge/discharge according to the MFD and significant loss of power once the battery has discharged to one bar. I realize the latter is "normal," but the problem is that I'm seeing one bar frequently now. Hill climbs that my car used to do with no problem and would drain the SOC to 2-3 bars now cause the battery to drain to 1 bar about half-way up and then loss of speed from 65 mph to 45 mph by the time I reach the top. Descending hills, it's not unusual to see the SOC go from 2 bars to 7-8 bars within 30 seconds or so.
I'm not seeing any error lights, and my (cheap) code reader does not report any logged DTCs.
This seems to be a slow degradation of battery performance, rather than an outright failure. I first noticed that the battery would charge/discharge a little quicker than it had been at about 90k miles. At 99k (before the warranty ended) I took it into the dealer and they tested the HV battery. Block voltages ranged from 16.59 to 16.68 V and resistances ranged from 0.025 to 0.026 ohms. Based on this, they said that the battery was fine, and sent me on my way. Since then, the problem has just gotten worse and worse, though.
View 15 Replies
Advertisement
Very occasionally and usually from a cold start I get a rapid discharge of the battery.
View 7 Replies
I can park the car with a full charge showing (all green)
leave the car parked for 4 days and when it starts it shows one bar below full green.
put the car in D and go to the corner about 1/4 mile, maybe less and its down to one purple bar then starts to recharge . AC/RADIO ECT ARE OFF
View 9 Replies
About 20 minutes ago I started up the car and the screen indicated the main battery was pretty much empty. And hour before I had pulled into my driveway and the battery had indicated maybe 70%+. The car was off, nothing like headlights or anything I know of was left on.
View 19 Replies
My car is an 05 and currently has 219,000 miles. Runs great. Only things I've replaced are the 12 volt battery and the rack and pinion. Replaced the rack because I was trying to drift in the snow and tried to beat the traction control. Needless to say, I lost and hit the curb. Jammed the gear in the left side of the rack. Replaced the rack with a $75 used one and no problems since.
My issue is this, even if my battery is at 6 bars when I first take off, my hybrid battery drains down to even as low as 1 bar. It only got down to 1 once but is hitting 2 regularly. After about 3-10 miles it is back to the regular charge rate. I also noticed the other day with the window down, there was a slight whirring sound, almost like a gear or wheel that is a gummed up and is being slowed down. It also felt like there was resistance, almost like the brake was dragging. After a few miles, as in less than 5, the noise was gone and the car was going along just fine. I've checked the emergency brake to see if it's dragging by applying it and releasing it several times. Does not appear to be the issue. Today I put it in neutral to see if that changed anything but it did like it always does and just coasted along fine with no resistance. My thought is the transmission. I'm wondering if the fluid it so old and broken down that maybe things are gumming up. Either way, I purchased the tranny fluid and will change that out. I know people will probably gasp but I have never changed it. Actually thought because it's a cvt and there is no dipstick to check it, that it doesn't need changed. After reading up yesterday I discovered I was mistaken.
I think that's about it. I'll edit it if I think of something more. Once the battery is back up to charge it accelerates and drives like normal. I do want the car to last so my daughter can use it when I buy the new Prius Prime.
View 7 Replies
I have a 2005 with 165K on it. Just within the last 2 weeks, at start up, no matter what level the charge shows on the display, the HV battery will almost fully discharge and then come back up to full charge within a mile of driving. I just replaced the 12V battery thinking this could have been an issue, but it didn't change anything. The car never acted like this since I bought it in 05. When it drops to the discharge level, It running on ICE only, with the typical slower acceleration. What could be going on?
View 8 Replies
I tried to turn on my car this morning, but the "Ready" sign didn't go on. The whole display is black. "Check Engine" sign blinked briefly. Battery display shows the battery is "green". Everything else works - cd/radio/bluetooth, etc. As I tried to start it, the screen showed that the engine briefly charged the Prius battery, then it was all quite. I tried to wait and restart a few times, but still the display was all black and no "ready" sign. I WAS able to still move the car, but I didn't chance to drive it out of the garage. I just had it serviced (oil/fluid change). Small battery was replaced in July.
View 19 Replies
This evening, long after sundown, I found myself stuck on an unmoving expressway with no sign of traffic starting up again (the radio reported a vehicle fire ahead, all lanes blocked). Time dragged on, and I started worrying about the possibility of the headlights draining the 12V battery , assuming that they do indeed run off the 12V battery. In a conventional car this wouldn't have been a problem because the idling engine would have maintained enough battery charge, but of course here the ICE wasn't running. So I turned off the power button to shut down the lights (it's a Canadian car, so there's no way of turning off the headlights with the power button on). That was safe in this particular situation because there were plenty of stopped vehicles behind me. It definitely would not have been safe if mine had been the last vehicle in the lineup.
View 7 Replies
I have a 2007 Prius and the red triangle showed up. It has less than 50,000 miles. I noticed that almost right after I start it up the hybrid battery fan kicks on. This leads me to believe that maybe one or more cells in the hybrid battery are overheating due to charging problems. Is there a way I can check this out without going to the dealer?
View 3 Replies
The 2007 Prius starts and runs fine with no problem. However, the 12v battery check with a multimeter shows 9.9v reading. Does this mean that the 12v Battery is coming to end of life and needs to be replaced.
View 13 Replies
My '06 only shows 1 blue bar when I start up. Is this a bad indication as to its' longevity? Got me a little worried......126K on the car.
View 11 Replies
My car is eating up battery power: only when outside is cold, below 10 C,something very strange, in summer days there is no battery draining, my climate stays adjusted at 19 C, but now is very cold and I make it 25 C,and then it is the mystery: the battery is draining for 2-3 hours below 10V?
I made some tricks:
-when the car i turned off while climate is set to 25C(or above 24C)-the battery is draining very fast, second battery relay switches on and I can turn the ignition on only with the key in!
-when the car is turned off while the climate is set to 18C(or below 24C) the battery drain is very small???
So does something turn on while the car is locked,or something is trying to keep any temperature inside? I double checked if AUX heating is off,and it is off,I don't have parking heater or anything. Another thing I notice is when I turn on the rear seats climatronic above 24C the voltmeter goes from 14V to 13V and stays there for a 5-10 min,if I turn off the rear seats climatronic or set it below 24V the voltmeter gets back to 14V?
Whats is happening with the car?
View 24 Replies
The stereo will power off after 10mins or so (even if the ignition button is on ACC or Power position), and the radio screen shows a battery discharge warning (this goes on before the power gets cut off).
Is there a way to keep the stereo power on even with the engine off? The ignition button is already on ACC or Power (without engine on) and the system still cuts off the power after 10mins or so...
View 19 Replies
I got the Battery discharge warning massage today, I was listening to xm in the car for about 5 minutes on engine set to ACC and the Battery discharge warning massage came on and tells me to run system while the engine is running. Am I not suppose to be on ACC if I just want to listen to music?
View 17 Replies
I just brought home a shinny new 2012 Hyundai Sonata Limited with Nav and it's awesome! Just discovered something though...
When the engin is off and I am running the radio I get the Battery Discharge Warning pop up on the Nav screen accompanied by a beep. It goes off every minute or so.
This is going to be annoying next time I go to the drive in that we like to frequent as we need to play the audio on the FM radio with the car turned off.
How I can turn this off or disable the sounds at least?
View 28 Replies
I replaced a post-cat O2 sensor because of a code that came up last week. We didn't reset the ECU, but after driving it a couple days the check engine light went out. 3-4 days of driving and everything looked good.
Today the check engine light came on again and autozone read the code as:
P0136 - heated oxygen sensor - bank 1 sensor 2 (HO2S12) sensor range/performance condition
Explanation Open circuit or short circuit condition
Probable Cause
Poor electrical connection
check other service codes
Faulty Bank 1 Sensor 2.
Anyway, I thought it might be because we didn't reset ECU and some kind of calibration might be off in the system. So, I unplugged the battery in an attempt to let it discharge and reset ECU. When I connected the battery back up.... ALL THE FREAKIN LIGHTS ARE NOW ON THE DASH. Check engine... traction control.... tire pressure.... everything.
Golf TDI 2012
View 2 Replies
I've noticed that the display shows the Battery Discharge warning while the vehicle is running. I notice it while reversing, because - well, I'm watching the image from the camera. The message goes away in a few seconds and the regular "look around you" advice appears. It doesn't happen every time nor does it follow a change in weather. Just random occurrences.
View 10 Replies
The sound emanates approximately from the area of the coolant storage tank (driver's side, behind the front bumper), though I doubt the tank or its pump is the problem. It sounds only when the car is in 'ready' status. I also think it is not one of the relays in the nearby fusebox. There water-pump drive belt is not on that side, so I don't think it's the water pump or its idler pulley. I have posted a ten-second sound recording on YouTube, greatly amplified. (Ignore the video portion.)
View 5 Replies
I have a 2008 Prius. I noticed that a large red triangle displayed briefly on the left when I started my car the other day. I know all the other smaller icons light up briefly but I don't remember the large red triangle lighting up. It and all the other icons go off after a second or two. Then the next time I started the car there was no red triangle. Then maybe the 3rd time I started the car, the large red triangle did again appear briefly. I took my car to my Toyota dealership but the tech said that is normal and means a door must be open, but that cannot be correct. I make sure all doors are closed and the "Open door" icon is not showing. I have already been through the water coolant inverter pump disaster so I admit I am a little paranoid about any funny things showing on my dash.
View 16 Replies
I saw a really weird thing happen about half an hour ago. Hadn't driven that car today until I made a quick trip a bit ago to pick something up.
As I was coming back from the store I noticed the display was showing extremely low numbers with barely any speed/coasting. After I got up to ~30mph and started slowing down, I noticed the display was actually showing the mpg decrease as I applied the brake.
View 19 Replies
My 1996 Volvo 850 has a relatively new battery but every few weeks it will go completely dead. A typical situation is this: the car will start fine and we will go to a restaurant but when we come out the battery is so dead that the digital clock is off and the radio pre-sets are lost. The shop has done a lot of diagnostics and replaced the alternator but the problem persists. They have determined that the battery is fine and the current drain when the car is off is within normal specs. And, yes, they have disconnected the light in the glove box. They have done everything they can think of but because the problem is so intermittent it is proving impossible to track down.
View 2 Replies
