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.
So my 2004 honda civic LX with 165k miles has had some battery issues, or so it seems. While driving the car has been "shutting down", headlights fail, dash lights fail, radio sound goes off, and sometimes the car stalls. Typically this is happening when in stop and go traffic. The battery light on the dash comes on and off during these moments of failure. These issues started a few months ago when the dash maintenance light came on. I brought the car to a mechanic to see if he knew the issue. We decided to test the alternator and it was fine but we replaced it anyway. The issue went away until recently when the maintenance light came on again and seems the problem is worsening this time around.
View 5 RepliesI'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?
View 11 RepliesMy 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.
View 1 RepliesSo 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.
View 6 RepliesJust 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?
View 10 RepliesI 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?
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.
View 14 RepliesI Have a 2010 Prius With Solar Panel, when i drive the battery will charge up to 6 or 7 bars and quickly it drope down to 3 bars bar. i like to know is this normal
View 4 RepliesMy 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.
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 .
View 9 RepliesShould I be concerned..I have been noticing my battery is charging down overnight. I checked and all lights are off. It does charge immediately in the 10 mile I drive to work..but I am concerned why overnight it should be discharging.
Another Question - The right/left indicator sound is very muted..is that normal? Like, if I have the indicator on to merge into traffic, I am not sure it is as I can barely hear it chirping..
Is it normal that over night parking battery looses charge from 7 bars down to 2 bars? I never lock the car and leaving my key in it.
View 10 RepliesMy 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.
View 12 RepliesI 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?
View 4 RepliesI have a 2011 Gen3. It's driving perfectly. Its charging when being driven by the ICE as normal. Its also charging by regen braking. However, when the car is 'stationary' with full EV battery- and when it looses its charge with lights, fans etc, it cuts out. When the battery indicator drops to the normal 2 bars, the engine falls back to 'ignition on' mode (i.e the dash lights illuminate and the steering goes heavy)
View 11 Replies2004 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?
I recently was stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of the Mojave desert. Outside temp was about 102 and we crept along for maybe 15 minutes going no more than 5-10 mph. I had the air conditioning on. I noticed the power bars were rapidly disappearing and got worried that I would lose the battery if I didn't get moving. Needless to say, I finally was able to speed up and the bars came back. (dropped to 2 bars).
View 19 RepliesWhen 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) ?
View 6 RepliesI 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.
Ever since I became a driving instructor I have paying a lot more attention to traffic and how everyone acts. I have always been told that when driving on the freeway you should never use your brakes. After observing traffic and trying this out for the last year or so, I have noticed that if you look farther ahead on the road and simply notice traffic starting to slow really early you actually can make an entire trip on the freeway (even during rush hour) without ever using your brakes. The idea is that if you lift off the gas early enough you can coast up to the traffic and not have to stop before traffic starts moving again.
I have also noticed that while I am able to just cost up to the stopped traffic, everyone else around me wants to race up and slam on their brakes. Why do so many people do this? Do they think it is faster? Cause I can tell you that it isn't.