Prius (2004-09) :: Traction Battery Go From 7 Blue To 2 Pink Bars Within 5 To 7 Minutes
Jun 19, 2010
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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My 2008 Prius battery stays blue all the time and my MPG went 43 from 51MPG. Two days ago I drove almost 600 miles but battery sign didn't go to green. I dont know if is there any problem with my car? NO CIL.
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I own a 2008 Prius with 87k on it. The factory hybrid warranty was good through 11/15 and on 1/22/16 the dash lit up along with the MFD screen. After research I thought it was an inverter pump. I got the call from Toyota that it was throwing a P80 code meaning it is the hybrid battery. The dealership told me that it would run 3200.00 for a new replacement. I called the service manager and had him send in a goodwill exception since we service our 7 other toyotas with them.
Toyota corporate responded they would cover the battery under goodwill but I would have to pay the labor cost of 450.00. I spoke to the service manger and the dealership is covering half of that which I'm only liable for 225.00. I'm not out 3200.00 but after doing more research the typical battery last 60-80k. Some are luckier to get over 150k. For those Prius owners approaching those miles beware that you might need a battery replacement. This will be the last hybrid I will ever own.
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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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We just replaced the Traction battery in my 2004 prius. The car has 242,000 miles on it and was running fine when we pulled it in. The battery was purchased used from a 2005 prius with just over 80k on the clock. The replacement battery was removed from the wrecked prius less than a month ago.
The problem is that after installing the new traction battery, every thing looks great except the Ready light will not come on. There are no warning lights except the little red light that indicates there is no key in the car. The key will remotely lock and unlock the car so I'm sure the battery is not dead and the no-key light stays on even if I insert the key into the key slot on the dash. The shifter will only move from Park to Neutral.
What am I doing wrong? Is there some special procedure to go through to make the car recognize the key after replacing the battery?
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I just replaced two bad modules in my 2006 (125K mile) traction battery. I replaced one other module a year ago successfully. I installed the battery last night and tried to charge it with my Hybrid Automotive charger. The charger would not go into charging mode. So I decided to check the idiot lights on the dash - plug in key and push the power button - every light on the dash lit up and stayed lit. The battery charge indicator in the display on the dash had most of the blue bars filled. I left the power on for several minutes and the engine never started (usually does regardless of state of battery charge for a minute or two when you first power up the Prius).
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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 2008 recently had auxillary battery replaces. My display (seems to me) that the battery bars on the display seem to be low or go low much more often. At freeway speeds the battery appears to be charging, that is, the number of bars get more numerous.
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I have been driving my new 2011 prius for a week now and have noticed that in stop and go traffic I occasionally get down to three bars before the engine kicks in. Is this normal?
Also today I was in a traffic jam for a half hour and got to 2 bars a few times(lots of stop and go). Is this normal also? When driving on the freeway the bars are always 6-8. There are no colors on the bars, just white.
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Just got a used 2012 Prius TWO, NOT II, yesterday, I noticed that the battery on the dashboard was down to two bars when I was driving at one point. What happens if it goes to zero bars?
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I notice on my MFD that my battery level never fills up to the top. I've seen purple when it's low, blue, and green when it's in a high charge state, but there's always a missing 'never filled in' space for another bar, though always blank.
I can let off the gas downhill with it already green and that blank space for an extra green bar never fills. It just stays blank. Is this normal?
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Lately when I turn the AC on my battery runs all the way down to two purple bars. The temp here is hot and it happens when I'm traveling at low speeds. The battery finally gets back up once I drive faster.
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