Weird stuff happening? MPGs dropping? Test The Battery

You could carry a small 12V battery and a couple of clipleads around for the day when the built-in battery fails. That would mitigate the risk, but wouldn't help much if it failed on a dark and stormy night.

 

No there is not a battery in the engine compartment. The battery that would be in that location for a non Prius is at the rear of the car under the cargo mat / hatch area (in the right rear corner).

If you connect to something under the hood there are long wires that run the length of the car to connect to the battery in the rear.

It's one battery but you can access it electrically in more than one place.

 

A great message to convey Richard... I guess I know what to do!

 

Hmmm, MPG seems to be improving slightly since switch over to "winter blend".
Car was averaging 54 MPG before the switch and now averages almost 58 MPG.
That is on my regular daily commute of 74 miles round trip which includes a big hill.

Just received the complimentary 10K miles oil and filter change today.
Driving it down to LA this weekend (394 miles) to look at a bulldog puppy.

 

Mike, did you ever find out what might have been happening with your screen?

I have recently seen the temperature in the drop down bar and this morning my '08 Prius started acting up during start-up. The Key FOB seems to be running low on battery - the LED works intermittently. The 12V axillary battery was metering at 9.5V under no charge. I wouldn't think the screen gliches and the low axillary battery would be connected, but maybe a coincidence. Also, there were times when the car would quickly beep when I opened the driver door after I turned off the car, as though I had left the lights on or the key in the slot, but neither were the case.

Hopefully changing the FOB battery and driving around enough to charge the axillary battery will get everything in working order again.

 

Nope, never did figure it out. My prius still lets me know when its 37 degrees outside tho... The 12v is fine after the tests I did and it still always goes to navigation first even tho i selected the maintenance screen. gotten use to it

 

I read an article that suggested the HC battery blower can become clogged on Gen II's. I have a PDF that describes how to get to and clean the blower. My main concern is the last statement - "Notice: certain systems need to be initialized after disconnecting and reconnecting the cable from the negative (-) battery terminal.". I am not concerned with resetting the clock or a couple of radio presets. How much of a hassle is involved in this? Thanks for the advice.

 

I read the same article and of course tore everything apart to check. It's not that hard, just consumes some time. At the time of checking I had about 35k miles on it and the only reason I did it was because I found some dog hair in the cargo area from the previous owner. Of course, after all the tear down my blower fan was completely clean. I doubt I will ever inspect again as I don't haul animals or travel dusty roads.

 

Nothing worth worrying about, the auto window up/down has to be reset by manually lowering the window all the way and manually raising it all the way or somesuch but essentially when the auto up/down doesn't work you'll end up doing that anyway and it "fixes itself".

Any other setting is cosmetic/user preference items on the dash/MFD

 

Richard,
Thank you for posting the battery test procedures. I went thru the test, and I got 11.4v on the 4 year old battery. Got the Optima yellowtop from ELearnAid and new battery reads 12.8v.

MPG is starting to climb from 42 to currently 46 MPG and still climbing.

DBCassidy

 

Its not the combination meter I'm talking about, it's the MFD that's doing a few weird things

 

Very useful thread, thanks guys.

 

Thanks for the top post on the diagnostic available through the MFD. Even living here in San Diego, the cold weather this week shot my battery. Car wouldn't start, and son #2 went to the yahoo pages and got depressed and distracted. Told him to come here and we solved the issue (jumped the battery, did the diagnostic, Battery +Plus run for the Excite replacement). Thanks - btw can't seem to find the YouTube video available on PriusChat that walks you through the same diagnostic....thanks guys!

 

Good morning,

I'm new here but I wanted to share my battery experience.

I bought a used 2005 prius about 6 months ago and I started to experience the typical dying battery symptoms described. I changed the battery and all was fine for about a week. Then the battery volatge had dropped again and I was fighting the car every morning to get it to drive. I was convinced something was slowly draining the 12v battery but I could not figure out what it could be.

I took the car to my mechanic for a coolant flush for the ICE, and he let me know that the hybrid engine had no coolant. (I didn't even know it needed coolant.) He added the coolant, and lo and behold, no more issues. My MPGs started climbing up again and I never saw any of the dying battery symptoms again. I checked the voltage and battery now holds a charge.

I know I didn't include too many specifics (feel free to ask questions) but I just wanted to share in case someone was going through the same hair pulling experience I was. I probably did not need to buy the expensive optima battery, just check the fluid levels.

 

What exactly didn't have coolant? You knew the engine (the ICE) needed coolant and was there to have that flushed so it wasn't the engine. Was it the inverter coolant, in the coolant container to the driver's side of the engine? Or was it the transmission fluid? The term hybrid engine in this description is unclear.

 

Also, if whatever it was didn't have coolant, where did it go? How did it get out? Signs of leaks? I'm just thinking out loud. It hasn't always run without the fluid. This is potentially a very serious and costly issue on which your mechanic must be able to advise you. I would want to know what happened to the fluid and is it still leaking. The words from a mechanic "the hybrid engine had no coolant" would frighten the hell out me.

 

I had the same reaction when he told me. I am still unclear as to what 'hybrid coolant' is. My first question was "what do you mean empty? so I have a leak somewhere?" He told me no, just whoever had it before didn't change the fluid.

I know still vague, but I am not at all mechanically inclined so I took his word for it. I've been driving for about three weeks with nothing wrong (that I can observe.) I'm taking it in to Toyota tomorrow for a recall. Let's see if they say anything, (I doubt it.)