My prius is almost 5 years old and has 88K Klm (49K Miles) My battery has gone down to one bar of late. This never happened until recently, never went below two. The bars seem to fluctuate up and down much quicker than before. My mileage is slightly down but it could be because of other reasons. Does it seem that there is something wrong with the battery? No warning lights are coming on Thanks
Can't hurt to bring it to dealer to test the HV battery. If it's deemed warranty issue you get a new HV battery (3-4k price if out of pocket) 8yr/100k warranty on it. 10yr/150k warranty for CARB states. --might want to check the 12v reg car battery first though to see if thats the issue. Pepboys will Check it free of charge. Edit: I just saw that your location is Isreal (mobile priuschat does not show locations, you have to click on posters name), warranty there I am clueless about, hopefully at least the 8/100. And pepboys?? Best of luck.
Here we get only a 5 year / 100K Klm warranty and I'm about 3 weeks away from that so guess I'll bring it in ASAP. Toyota offers to extent the warranty for a year (at a time) for about $80. We can do that every year till the car is ten. I plan to do that. I need regular maintenance (90K) in about 6 weeks but don't want them to tell me I'm late so I will bring it in before. Why would the 12v reg battery cause that?
Well that's good to hear you are still in warrant Re. 12v read #9: Improving Gas mileage (mpg) on a Prius Some cool info on that website.
sounds like she's ready to give up the ghost. you can continue to drive her until the dashboard lights up. how's your gas mileage?
"It can't hurt" is not quite true. It will cost you $50-$120 to have them evaluate the battery. If they find it's bad that charge may be waived. I doubt the battery is about to "go". The charge meter is approximate at best. Lots of things can cause it to read differently, such as changes in ambient temperature, dirty battery cooling vents, etc. etc. The 12V battery is charged from the traction battery (through the charger built into the inverter). If it's failing it will be a constant load on the traction battery, and -could- cause it to run a little lower on the charge scale. More importantly, a 12V battery in poor condition can "mess" with the electronics (poorly regulated power).
Thanks all I'll get it checked Tuesday. I don't think they will charge to check - we'll see. I am still using the original 12V battery so it could be that. As to my gas mileage - It has never been great - life time average about 40 MPG - lately about 10% down.
Even if the traction battery is on its way out, the dealer probably won't do anything unless there's a code/warning light.
I'd second the guess that your car is just fine. The 12V battery might need replacement, but my first guess would be that everything is normal. The lower bars on the battery gauge represent less range than the upper bars (this is also true of the bars on your fuel gauge and your cell phone signal strength). So if your battery SoC is lower than it typically has been, you may see bars coming and going more frequently than you did before, even if the SoC isn't varying any more than normal. As to why it's low - it might just be chance, or maybe something has changed in how you're using it. Are you using A/C more, or the defrost vent output (which forces A/C on, even if the light is off)? Are you using EV mode, or feathering the pedal to keep the engine off intentionally? Are there any new or different electrical loads on the car? Turning on your headlights *might* make a noticeable difference (not on my car, but they're LED, so you'll have to ask someone else); more noticeable would be high fan speeds, a large power inverter, or aftermarket audio equipment, for example. Or maybe it just got low one day, and hasn't recovered yet. If you get on a highway and use cruise control to stay at a nice constant speed, it should stabilize around 60% SoC/6 bars fairly quickly. The battery meter on your dash tells you absolutely nothing about the health of the battery. Keep an eye on it, and look out for anything else unusual, but I would have no worries in your situation.
Went to get it checked They found no problem Said the 12V battery may go soon as it is 5 years old Didn't pay a penny
vskid3 you got it right The car gave a warning "check hybrid battery", then they started taking me seriously After a few day wait got the hybrid battery changed for free. Luckily I paid for the extended warrenty just a month earlier LOL Car sounds much better and seems fuel economy back to what it used to be3
Hi vday. I have noticed my battery dropping down to one bar twice now over the last couple weeks. I also noticed that i cannot drive as far from full SOC to when the engine has to chip in to recharge. Are these the symptoms you had before your HV battery failed? I am at 85000km in a 2010 Prius. How long did it take before the warning signs and actual failure?
