Prius (Gen 3) :: Way To Charge 12 Volt Battery During Vehicle Idle Standing Time?
Apr 16, 2011
Is there a way to keep the 12 volt battery charged, especially during extended period of time the vehicle has to stand idle (with accessory on).
I wanted to try firmly depressing the brake then press down the accelerator. This way the car won't move but energy is being used from gas and traction battery to recharge the battery?
Would like to know is this an okay method to maintain the 12 volt battery charged.
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Well, since I had to fix the traction battery. The car I bought was a salvage vehicle that had been rebuilt.
On pesky problem was found after I'd had the car for about 4 months. I let it sit for three days. When I went to start it nothing happened. The 12 vdc Aux battery died. It tried charging it and it wouldn't charge. I bought a new aftermarket battery at WalMart and installed it. Merrily being led down the garden path I figured I'd not see that pesky problem again.
I was wrong. It continued. About the time I was going to tackle it, I moved and that took the next 4 months and the Prius sat idle when the HV Traction battery error cropped up.
This week I figured since all the carpets and shrouds were out of the trunk for the battery repair I'd look at the luggage courtesy light, it was the most obvious cause of an error. Sure enough the lamp would not shut off even though it seemed to operate correctly. It pulls up ground and turns on the light.
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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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Im the second owner of a 2008 Toyota Prius (Package II) with 23k miles.
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2005 Toyota Prius, 85,000 miles on the car. Recently changed spark plugs with stock NGK plugs. I replaced the 12 volt battery today because the old 12 volt battery was reading 9.6 volts with engine shut off. 13.8 volts with car powered up. Long story short.
Easy swap. I have lots of tools and I am a service technician in a Bridgestone/Firestone tire factory. I can work on most anything with no problems.
The car now idles at 1640 RPM as read on my scangaugeII. I have not plugged in my Auto Ingenuity program yet but there are no trouble codes that the scangauge can read. My airbag light is on but it was on before I changed the battery. My left Side airbag is unplugged or partially unplugged and I need to search for the plug. Any fix or some way for the car to relearn the proper idle? I also noticed that my Drivers side window Auto up and Auto down feature stopped working. I can read individual sensors with Auto Ingenuity if you need numbers.
The 12 volt battery now reads 12.6 volts with the car powered down.
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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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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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I started having a problem last week when my 2007 Prius was setting for two days while I was using my pickup truck. Found the 12 volt battery dead so I disconnected it and tested it with a battery load tester. And it showed it was bad. Well Ok, that figures, since it was an OEM battery and ~6-7 years old.
I have another 2007 Prius here for body repairs so I took the aftermarket (newer) battery out of it and topped the charge off in it. The battery load test indicated it was still a serviceable battery.
Put it in the car and cleared the red triangle, etc.. Everything was fine.
Since I was still going to be short one battery, I contacted Battery Systems, my shops battery dealer and ask them to drop off a new Yellow Top Optima that fits the Prius (FYI my shop price is $159.96). I would be a couple days til their deliver truck would be here and again I left the car sit for a couple days and drove my truck. On the day of the delivery, I had an appointment and drove the Prius, about 15 miles. No problem. Left it at in a street parking space for about 2 hours. Came out and all systems were dead. Nothing. Dome light was the only indication that the battery was so low that it was very dim. Head light were off and I hadn't used them while driving.
I called for road service and got a jump start and the systems came up and I was able to clear the Read Triangle when I got home by turning the car off and back on again.
The new Yellow Top Optima arrived shortly there after and I installed it. Drove the car for 6 days and this morning everything was fine when I drove to church and left it, head lites off (never had used them), came out 2 hours later and when I started the car, I got the Red Triangle and Ready but continued home. I turn it off and on again but this time I got no Ready but the Triangle and the whole sting of check light. Could only get it from park into neutral. Nothing else. Wouldn't clear.
Using my Torque Pro program, tried to read the ECU and it indicate no codes stored, Several tries, no codes or history. Called friend who has reader that will read the CAN Bus and he managed to find an odd P0503 code having to do with a speed sensor. Cleared that and the Triangle went out.
In the end I went and checked the voltage of the new battery and it was only 12.01 volts. I put the load tester on it and the condition is fine. Just the charge voltage is low.
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2009 Prius 36,000. Driven at least 30 miles per day. Two months ago, 12 volt battery wouldn’t boot up car. Crazy messages on MFD like “Park on level surface and apply parking brake.” Jump started and drove car to the dealer. No problems found. Three weeks later, same problem. Again, no problems found but dealer replaced the battery. About three weeks later same problem except this time got the friendly Triangle illuminated. Drove to dealer and left car. I have an extended warranty so Im not too worried about any costs. The next morning the triangle was NOT lit and the only error code was low voltage. No interior lights on and current draw is normal when car is parked.
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I recently discovered that the compartment where the 12 volt battery is located had water inside. I checked for leaks none found. I also found a drain plug underneath, to drain the water out. Where might the water be coming from.
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I got the ECU Update Friday.. Today my 12 volt battery died. (got it started after a jump)..Any correlation?? Toyota service days no. Is there any kind of a warranty on the 12 V battery? 2011 with about 40k on it seems way low for the battery to die. No changes in driving habits since ECU update either...
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My dad's Gen III has been sitting garaged for almost a year now, and of course the 12 volt battery is dead. Firstly, it's sitting in a one car garage, and secondly I have a Gen II so a straight jump isn't possible. I have a trickle charger that should be able to bring the 12 volt back up in 15-19 hours, but here's my question:
Maybe I'm being lazy, but I'd rather not deal with climbing in the back to release the hatch and running an extension cord so I can get the charger close enough to hook straight up to the battery..
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As our Pri age, sooner or later the 12 v battery will fail and at exactly the wrong time. So perhaps preventive maintenance means replacing it just before failure. What has been the experience of other owners of 2010's as far as failure goes?
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We accidentally discharged the 12 volt battery in our 2010 Prius with an interior light. By the time we noticed the car didn't have enough power to turn on. I removed the battery last night and charged it with an intelligent charger and have since reinstalled.
Will this have any long term effect on the battery? It seems these 12 volts are sensitive compared to a standard car battery. I have discharged numerous 12 volt car batteries with no major long term consquences after a recharge.
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I got the ECU Update Friday.. Today my 12 volt battery died.(got it started after a jump)..Any correlation?? Toyota service days no. Is there any kind of a warranty on the 12 V battery? 2011 with about 40k on it seems way low for the battery to die. No changes in driving habits since ECU update either..
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If the Prius 12 volt battery (the one that is like all other car batteries, not the hybrid battery) goes out, can you use jumper cables to start it like any other car?
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I know there are battery "thingies" that plug into the lighter, which supposedly preserve the settings, but since the lighter is not "hot" when the car is not running, I don't see this working. How to do?
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My Prius has 150k miles on it. We didn't drive it for a few days and when we went to turn it on,it wouldn't work. We were able to jump start it a couple of times, however after that we ended up having to replace the battery. We purchased it brand new from toyota. Then, the car wouldn't do a thing (No sounds, no lights, other than the red amber power button and the flashing check engine light, which was not on before.) We ended up having two blown fuses and we replaced them today, one was for the battery.Now the lights are on, but the car still won't start. It will cost over $200 to have the car towed and I am really trying to avoid that right now. I don't know much at ALL about cars. but I'm trying.
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I've seen this a couple times but always made it home with the Red Triangle and VSC warning. A year ago, I blamed it on the OEM 12 volt battery and eventually replaced it with a Optima Yellow Top. No more problem until today. Day time driving with my Plug-in Supply 10k rechargeable conversion performing normally. City driving raining but normal Western WA conditions. Red Triangle and VSC warning. Other systems operating normal.
I knew, from previous experience that the Prius operating systems would continue to work only until I turned it off. I did turn off the Plug-in Supply controller to isolate that system and observed that the OEM traction battery was at a fairly high state of charge and the ICE was still providing the normal amount of assist to the traction battery through normal street and driving conditions.
I should have driven the 20 + miles to get home, even with the Red Triangle warning. I had done that in the past with the old OEM 12v battery. But I needed gas and went to a station and turned off the system ICE out of habit. Sure enough, the system wouldn't go back into Ready but would go from Park to Neutral. Since it was rain hard now, and I was calling my road service, I ask for a Flat Deck Tow home rather than a jump start.
As soon as I got off the tow truck I put my battery charger on the Yellow Top and it only read 11.7 volts. It's still on charge now. Now I'm wondering why the power conversion system wasn't charging the 12 volt battery or is my 1 year old Optima bad?? Or is there something about my driving conditions/plug-in conversion that is effecting the charge of this battery. I did a 2400 mile road trip to So. Calif and back to WA without any problems. Car has just 98169 miles right now. About 10k miles on the Plug-in Supply conversion.
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My 12 volt battery is flat. I attached my CTEK MXS 5.0 and started on the Normal setting. I figured (wrongly it seems) that having the battery charger attached would support in starting the car. The green light displayed when I depressed the brake pedal and I pressed the Start button, but everything went dim and the brake pump slowly wound into life. The Start button glowed was on but no other functions started.
I pressed Start again and the light went out. Now when I connect the battery charger, a whining noise starts from near the inverter. The speed varies; dropping from a peak and rising again, and there's probably a pattern to it.
I've disconnected the charger a few times and the noise stops immediately. I wonder if the car has not switched itself off. I've disconnected the charger and I'm waiting some period of time before connecting it again to see if something will fall asleep. If not, I'll just have to climb over the back and disconnect the battery from the car before I charge it.
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A purchased a new 12 volt battery at the dealer. I was getting weird warning lights, so I had them run diagnostics. They said all the codes were voltage and I needed a new battery. Shortly after this I noticed the Smart Key no longer opened and closed the doors.
The car starts ok.
My question is this, could the changing of the battery have caused this? I tried searching for the answer BUT all answers refereed to adding a new smart key purchased on Ebay.
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