Biting the battery bullet

The first thing is the Dr Prius calc is a guess rather than an accurate view of capacity remaining. Especially coming off a deep discharge which can result in a different guess after further driving.

But regardless you will appreciate the increased mpg and pep a new battery will give. Be smart and buy an oem unless you just want to flip the car.

 

Try driving around for awhile and see if the code comes back

 

Are you a DIY person who feels comfortable working on the high voltage battery?

If so, a grid charger and discharge will greatly extend the life of your battery. See this very long thread:https://priuschat.com/index.php?posts/3434610

If not, you could try to find someone to do the grid charging and discharging for you.
OR you could just ignore this post and buy a new OEM HV battery.

 

B mode is not necessary and costs you mpg in almost all driving. It is designed for long mountain descents when the battery is completely full and regen charging is no longer a method to indirectly slow the car. At that point the hybrid system will go into a no fuel engine braking mode. The ironic part is the system will do this in D mode when needed as I and a couple of others verified in early July.

The reality is weak hybrid batteries do pretty well in highway driving where they are not constantly charged and significantly discharged as in stop and go city driving. Even city driving is better than N in a car wash or anywhere especially with the AC on which runs on the hybrid voltages. When in N the car can’t charge the battery.

With that said, I would get long distance towing coverage before taking my old v on a 2600-3000 mile road trip. Not because of the hybrid battery but concerns like brake boosters, inverters or some previous or new engine part that decided it was its time.


The Prius stayed home on our July roadtrip to the Colorado mountains

 

Do not drive in B mode. Driving in B mode will reduce the amount of regenerative braking, and it will not charge the battery as much as D mode. Put it in D and just drive it. Hopefully, the SOC of the battery block will equalize and the Delta SOC will reduce down to 0%

Drive it for two to four weeks, and then check the Delta SOC.

 

It will do so in D, when needed, but the difference in B is that it will begin earlier, doing less regen into the battery and trading it off for more engine braking, whereas in D that only comes when the battery gets near the upper charge limit.

So the battery will be protected from overcharging either way, but the point of B is that you might know that you're at the top of a very long descent where the battery will end up fully charged no matter what, and by selecting B you can be extra gentle with the battery by not charging it as hard.