Prius (2004-09) :: Traction Battery - State Of Charge Drops To Red In 20 Minutes
May 16, 2015
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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Its not my car (its my father in laws). The other day his 05 prius (170k miles) shut off while he was driving. He pushed it home and I sent him a link on how to check the 12v battery. He said it showed it was low so he used his golf cart battery to go and take it for a test drive to see if that fixed the problem. In the drive way at idle his hybrid battery charge went up half way but when he went to drive it he got 1/8th of a mile down the road and it dropped to 0 then the car shut off again. He said the display says something about the battery (I haven't been over to look at the car).
They are sure its the hybrid battery, but if it was me I'd go to the dealer and find out for sure. My husbands aunt had her hybrid battery go out and hers did other things, like go into turtle mode and a/c blew hot. I think her inverter pump went out and she kept driving it till the battery got messed up, but anyway...What does my father in laws symptoms sound like? Is there any extra at home testing that can be done?
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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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When stuck in traffic jams, and my 2004 Prius shows 2 bars on the HV battery charge, it attempts to start the engine to maintain the charge on the HV battery. What was happening was the engine would attempt to start and then it would immediately die. It would keep repeating this process, over and over again, and would not charge the HV battery. Once I started driving out of the traffic jam, the engine ran fine and it charged up the HV battery while I was moving down the road. I decided to clean the throttle body. My charging problem did change due to me cleaning the throttle body. Instead of starting and immediately dying, over and over again, the engine no longer dies.
It now revs up, and slows back down to idle over and over again when sitting still with 2 bars of charge. The display does not show any charging going on during this revving up and slowing down episode. I need some more hints as to what to check out. I am studying electrical diagrams of the vehicle, but I need a synopsis of which system starts the engine for HV charging, and which system keeps the engine revving at the same RPMs during charging while not in motion. The throttle body cleaning made my 257 K mile Prius run like a scared deer again. I just need to get her charging while sitting still again. 12 volt charging system is in the 14+ volt range and 12 volt battery with no load is around 12.2 volts.
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About 4 months I accidentally reversed the polarity when jumping my car and fried my 12V battery and blew the fusible link. I replaced it with an Optima yellow top but due to other issues I haven't driven the car since about that time.
Last week I got most of the other issues resolved and tried starting the car, nothing. It was reading less than a volt on the voltmeter. I used my portable jump starter and got the car started. I only drove it to the gas station (1 mile round trip) to fill my tires and back. I went to start it the next day and nothing again. I thought maybe I didn't charge the battery enough since I hadn't been driving it.
I charged it overnight using a wall charger and again the next day it wouldn't start. Yesterday I jumped it again and drove it about 20 minutes, about half at low speeds (<30 MPH) and half at higher speeds. I got home put the car in park, but still on, and checked the voltage again, about 13.8 V. Turned the car off and checked again and I could see the voltage dropping like a rock. Within about 30 seconds it was down to 6V and within another 30 seconds it was so low that I didn't have any interior lights or dash lights.
It seems to me like the battery is bad. However after I "fried" the original battery I had similar issues. In fact the reason I had to jump it in the first place is because the battery died a few times in the same day. Could something be killing the battery?
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