Hybrid Battery going bad?

When I had my '07, it was no uncommon for what you described to happen to me, as well. Especially if the last couple of minutes I drove was in EV mode. The reading on your battery will adjust the next time you start your car. With the mileage you are currently getting, I wouldn't be concerned.

Also, when parking, with the car on, it is completely normal for the HV battery to go from almost full to drained in 20 minutes. Actually, that is quite good. Think about it. You are using the HV battery to run everything. With no movement, there is no charge from the engine or regenerative braking. So, the battery will drain, and then the engine will kick in to bring the battery back up to three bars. Stay parked, and it will happen over and over again. Don't worry about it, and enjoy the car!

 

how many miles on her? how long have you owned? how many bars when you park it at night? what does completely drained look like?

 

We don't see a big loss of bars overnite in our 2006.
A/C though can help drain faster. You don't see that in winter as heat actually charges you up.
Sometimes a couple minutes warm up helps, put car in ready mode, engine comes on, then goes off. Now you pull out. If A/C is off in this period you should gain some bars.

 

If there are no warning lights on, then the traction battery ECU thinks the traction battery is fine. Your OP says that your fuel economy certainly is in the normal range.

That being the case, what do you expect the dealer tech to do for you?

 

....I gotta go back and find the case, but we had a MD 2006 I think Toyota helped her 50%. MD is CARB and I know they did not join until 2011 but that probably helps getting at least partial coverage. The fact you took it in helps if it goes soon. I bet you do as good as me I am 140k+ see no problems, knock on wood!!

 

Patrick, I have two Prii and my wife's 2010 seems to loss charge when running in electric mode for about a mile and a half. I'm not forcing it in EV mode, it's a part of my route to the city park where I pulse and glide. I am at 6-7 bars when I pulse then by the end of the 1.5 mile glide (very slightly down hill) it is at 2-3 bars. This doesn't happen on my car (2008) so I'm thinking it's not normal and the HV Battery is bad??? In my 2008, it may or may not even drop 1 bar..

 

is it down hill all the way? 1 1/2 miles should deplete the battery to two purple bars on level ground, if the ice doesn't kick in.

 

Yes it almost flat with a slight decline.. just enough to allow me to run in only on the HV Battery running at about 37 MPH

 

Not sure what you mean by both batteries

 

Possibly relates to the PiP, which Bisco has. I believe that the HV battery display is segmented (visually) into 2 segments.

 

The only thing, I can think of, that would cause that is running the A/C at a cool 70-72 deg F when the ambient OAT is >80-81 deg F. Could that be it? I would avoid running on electric only, give it a bit more pedal so the ICE runs then bleed off the speed in the Glide. If you are holding the speed at 37 using EV, then you're not P&G'ing properly.

Just my thoughts, hope this helps.

 

but back to your two cars, how is it possible to drive 1 1/2 miles in your '08 at 37 mph, and only lose one bar, or no bars?

 

I don't think I was in true EV Mode on the 2008, I believe the ICE was idling and providing the charge.

 

I used this method to test both Prii's HV Btteries with a ELM327 and USBseawolf2000's Custom PIDs My results were the variance between the strongest and the weakest were 0.1 Volts. Both baterries are good.

Predictive battery failure analysis for the Prius Hybrid

A good test to used if you purchase a ELM327 or equivalent with the Torque APP on your Android Phone.

 

So today I took my favorite route with the ELM327 and Torque APP running and found that my 08 runs down this road with the MFD showing 99.9 MPG and the arrows going from the Battery to the MG and the MG to the Wheels... So without the APP I assumed that the ICE was off and it was running on the HV Battery alone. The APP show the ICE idling at around 1000 RPMs (charging the HV Battery). This is why I thought my wife's car's HV Battery was going bad. Sorry I posted ...I am new here, but I am learning a lot. While the wife doesn't like my 08, she claims it is too clunky.. her car is smoother when the ICE shuts off and quieter inside, I find the seats more comfortable in mine. I wouldn't trade mine for hers and she is glad of it

 

agreed, the gen III was not a major improvement.

 

Any time you see 99.9 MPG, this indicates the ICE is running, and in your case was probably doing ~196 MPG. I'd speculated you were in stage 3b of the warm up cycle. You can read more about the Hybrid Warm up stages by clicking on the 5 modes of Prius Operation link in my signature. I doubt that the idling ICE contributed much if anything to the battery charging as its sole purpose at this point is to ensure the ICE coolant gets up to temperature. You could confirm this by adding the HV Battery Charging Amps to your Torque display. If you notice this scenario again, pull over to the side of the road (where it is safe to do so) and wait about 10 sec after coming to a complete halt for the ICE to shut off (at this point you will now be in stage 4), then repeat the run down your favourite route and you will see you run in true EV, provided of course you have the same starting SOC in your HV batt.

Helping new people is partly what we live for on this site, so don't worry about a hasty post here and there. I'm just glad you prefer your 2008 to your wife's 2010 Prius. Take heart, some people would not have even noticed the difference.

 

While I found many HV PIDs I cannot find the specific one mentioned "HV Battery Charging Amps" I found one called "HV Battery Charge" and "HV Battery Current" which one I should add to Torque?