Bad Battery?

I am the original owner of a 2005 Prius. I currently have 91.5K miles on my car. I THINK my Traction Battery is heading for the big junk yard in the sky.

I understand the warranty is 100k miles on my battery but I wonder if there may be conditions which may void my warranty. I apologize for any excess info but am trying to be thorough.

Two months after purchase I suffered a severe accident which damaged my front passenger side/fender including snapping the right tie rod. It was repaired at the Toyota certified place locally. Then I had a pallet fly off a truck and damage my front bumper while coming back to New Orleans after Katrina on Oct.2. This was a minor incident..then I had a hit and run which crumpled my front fender but seemed to be body damage only. 2 weeks later a flatbed tow truck I guess, backed on top my hood and scraped my paint through to the metal..more cosmetic damage, another hit and run. I was pretty disgusted at this point and just left it that way till post Katrina insanity calmed down.

I have run out of gas a few times. One time the Battery was drained to where I had to push it the last block to the gas station after the first gas station I was shooting for was closed.

Having suffered Katrina..and had to live in ways I hope none of you ever do..I spent more than quite a few nights..sleeping in my Prius with the car running and the air conditioner running. I suspect my Prius has a significant amount of extra duty on its engine and battery that a person under normal conditions never would experience.

Ok...now to the problem. This morning I noticed that my Prius seemed to have some power drop outs. I switched over to my MFD(Battery Gauge) it showed my traction battery with one bar. I began observing it and noticed that it was not charging back up despite the arrow showing power going to it. I turned my AC off to allow it faster recharge and still no postive charging to more bars. I stopped and let my car run when I jumped out for about 2 minutes and came back to find my indicator showing green and I think seven bars. I turned on the AC and took off and the bars dropped away in under 30 seconds. With my extreme deductive reasoning I have come to the conclusion that there is something wrong. (and they say we are all dumb in Louisiana). I have suspicions that this is another thing that Katrina is indirectly coming back to kick me with. I took some video of my MFD(apologies if I am getting this wrong) and I will post it on Youtube with a link later if any of the gurus take interest and think it useful.

I have not yet had the opportunity to take it to the dealer since this problem started.

What I would like to know are:
1)What may be the problem.
2)If it IS the battery will they cover me based on what I have said.
3)If I don't volunteer all the above info will they know how many hours my battery has?
4)If it is the battery and they will not cover it, (I had a friend with a shop price a battery and it was $2900.) are there better/cheaper options for replacement(that dont take my whole spare tire out or cost 9 grand). I do have the skill level to install the battery myself if I go Non-dealer but overall...the 2.1 hours labor saved isn't so much worth my time when balanced with the extra danger of handling a High Voltage battery. Also, I'd like to pass on a more efficient Prius to who ever I sell it to when I buy my 3rd generation so I am willing to bite a little extra bullet for the common good...plus being a capitalist pig...I will charge them over book for that.

Thanks for suffering my novella...please forgive my poor attempts at humor and lack of brevity..any help is much appreciated.

 

Patrick,
Can you describe the LIGHT UP like a christmas tree a little better. Do you mean all the lights on the panel coming on?

OT: I experienced this before at times when I had a broken ground wire on the rear of the car that I finally found. The instrument lights would all light at times when I put the car in reverse and stay that way until shut off. Other functions affected by this broken ground wire more prevantly were the lights blinking hazard fashion when the turn signal was used and the cruise control acting funny when the turn signal was used with cruise engaged.(The cruise would stop keeping the speed steady and the cruse light would flash and not work until the car was shut off and on again. I havent actually soldered this in place yet so maybe I will take pictures of my repairing this along with the problems it caused and post it here as a DIY repair if it doesnt already exist.

Back on topic:
I have noticed that since it has gotten dark my battery seems to be moving through a cycle and moving above one bar and accepting some charge even with the AC running...it seemed to improve as the outside temperature went down. This makes some sense to me with a failing battery as temperature can play a role in battery failure.

Also...So basically I am going to HAVE to continue driving with this diminished battery until ABSOLUTE failure to qualify for my warranty? This doesnt seem so great for the engine and overall car. I was feeling kind of dumb for continuing to use my car today but if I am understanding correctly..its what I HAVE to do to get it to die completely and get the warranty? Obviously a trip to the dealer needs to happen in case its something else..but I suspect the brain trust here tends to know more than most techs do at the dealer..they just lack the actual car in hand to make the proper diagnostic judgement.

 

Yeah I had seen mention of that in a few threads about the running out of gas. Ya know...the thing about it is...if running out of gas voids the warranty..or is bad for the battery..they should make a little greater effort to inform consumers about that. That non withstanding I appreciate..ya run out of gas...thats your own bone headed fault. The part that bothers me about that is..Our cars are SO ADVANCED in their power management, if Toyota knows this is a severe problem for the battery the car should shut down when you run out of gas....JUST like a regular car. I'll be honest..the first time I did it..I was headed to the station after doing a tank..I think I might not be the first person that maybe pushed it a shade too far for giggles to see what he could get out of it. The time I REALLY had a problem was post katrina and I had trouble finding a station open where I was later in the evening..in "highly populated area".
The more I think about it..the more this bothers me...running out of gas happens sometimes even to very responsible people. Thats why AAA has gas delivery as part of their road side assistance.. I think that this should be addressed better to people and a "WARNING: Driving while out of gas may damage your Traction Battery. Proceed only under extreme emergency!" should flash on the MFD and you have to hit an agree button to continue..

I will let you know what happens to me.

 

Richard,


I tend to be big on personal responsibility and when I first posted was really accepting my own actions in potentially voiding my warranty and expecting to have to buy a battery. As we have discussed this I have thought more and more about my gas failures. I do know I was unaware that I was potentially killing my battery and with that knowledge I doubt I would have pushed my luck. I recall the first time it happened...I was used to getting a known amount out of my tank..and for whatever reason..this tank I got 40 less and had a OH HECK moment...and thought..WOW..how cool..its a little safety net for goof ups.

As I said before...we all have marveled at the complex series/parallel dance of our Prii which makes the Toyota system so superior to other hybrids. So it just seems like a failure on Toyota's part towards its customers during a time a customer may not be thinking as logically as they should. Also, with all the different sorts of batteries we deal with today..its easy to confuse what is bad for a battery. Expensive lesson...but what ya gonna do..

Honestly with some of things I have been through...I MAY have still done things the way I did them anyway. I just would have made the decision knowingly. I know that I assumed my Motel Prius nights were going to kill my battery at an earlier mileage than most and did that knowingly. I planned on selling the car a bit under the going rate when I sold it so as not to screw the next guy(I was hoping 3rd gens would be out by now). I also know that the time I shagged the battery the worst(assuming the run out of gas incident is the cause)...I had the time to walk and get the gas...and very well might have parked it and made some calls. Ahh who knows...maybe I can play the Katrina card on them and they will show me mercy...heck if they give me a new battery at cost or a nice discount I think I might do that even over a salvage battery for less.::dreaming::

One other thing I have noticed since I started writing this mail hours ago..
There seems to be a definite heat issue with the battery...the hotter it is during the day the less able the battery is able to charge...even with the AC on max at night which should be causing similar strain.. I wonder if there is a fan on the traction battery that may be going bad...or maybe my cooling system needs a flush? Hopefully I can get in Monday and get checked out.