Very strongly considering buying a very high mileage ex-taxi Prius (or ideally Prius v) as my next vehicle. From what I've read, the biggest potential issue is a worn our battery pack that requires an expensive replacement. Is there a "how to" thread or YouTube video that shows how to navigate the menu system and determine if the battery is accepting and holding a charge? I'd like to know enough about it so that when I go test drive some in a month or two that I can just click through the menu and pull up whatever screen I need to look at to see if the battery is still good. Thanks!
welcome! no. you would have to take it to the dealer, or get toyota software and do it yourself. you can only test the 12 volt battery through the multi function display. all the best!
Welcome to PriusChat! You've come to the right place to learn all you're ever likely to need to know about Prii. You would do well to use the "search" feature with "Prolong Battery Charger Grid Charging" as the search-terms, and also: Prolong Battery Systems. Extending the life of your hybrid. – Hybrid Automotive might also be of some use! (I don't work for Hybrid Automotive, nor do I have any interest in their company, although I must admit that I have purchased a "Prolong Reconditioning Package", purely as a preventative maintenance action - hope this helps - (at least it might save you the search!) - Wil
Hm. Any idea if checking/testing batteries is something that dealerships charge for? I'd imagine there'd be a diagnostic fee of some sort & just curious what it might cost. I suppose the only way to get a real answer on that is to call a local dealership and ask them.
I thought I remembered reading a thread on here about navigating the on screen menu system over to some screen that would indicate whether the car is switching over to electric drive and using the stored energy from the batteries vs. staying on ICE because the batteries are crapped out and not holding a charge? I know that's different from checking the health of the batteries, but, is that a thing that can be checked on a test drive?
yes, if the battery is weak, the hybrid batter icon which shows a simple state of charge , may fluctuate from low to high to low fairly rapidly. but it's no indicator of a battery that's almost at that point. even going through a health check at the dealer can only tell if the battery is within parameters when they test it. when you drive away, one cell can go bad, and your out $3-4,000.
I remember reading somewhere about an indication might be if you notice any alteration in the way state of the hybrid battery indicator changes, i.e. how long it takes to go from purple to blue, then blue to green, then all green - I have a ScanGauge-II set to show me the SoC (%) of the hybrid-battery, and over the 2 years I've had the car, I'm now fairly familiar with the correlation between the MFD and the SG-II. As mentioned above, I have a Prolong Grid Charger, and although I think my battery is still OK, I'm taking Jeff's (Hybrid Automotive) advice, and starting to charge/discharge the battery as part of the car's regular preventative maintenance. (…and by the way, if there are any other Prius owners local to me who would like to get and install a harness, I will offer them use of my charge/discharger kit so they might do the same! (…well, we Prius owners must stick together! )) - Wil
$3-4K? I've read on some for sale ads for priuses with bad batteries that the replacement quote is $1800cdn. Hmm
that is an aftermarket refurb and can be problematic. plenty of threads here for you to judge the goodness of an aftermarket option. a new battery from toyota is $2,000.+ and labor on top unless you diy.
Sorry if this should be in it's own thread but along these lines... I have a question. I'm sure we have all read the Art's Automotive predictive failure analysis page Predictive battery failure analysis for the Prius Hybrid But I've been trying to use the search function here for explicit directions to get to set up that test, but am having no luck. I test drove a Prius yesterday and hooked up my OBD tool really quick to get some readings. It threw a transmission code so I lost interest pretty quickly. I figured what the heck, might as well try to run the predictive failure test to get some practice at it for future test drives. I clicked around for a while and couldn't find what it was. Does someone mind posting (or directing me to a post, most likely) to those directions?
^ That's an interesting write up on the predictive failure test. Googled and the scan tool cable and software is only about $60, however, then I'd have to have a windows based laptop with working optical drive to use it. :/ So not exactly a cheap test tool if I have to buy a new computer. Hmm, I wonder if dealerships run a similar diagnostic? Also, here's a thought on a zero dollar test - not as accurate I'm sure, but.. the write up describes how with a bad battery it drains in 1min 45sec before the ICE comes back on and a good new one takes 4 1/2 mins to drain. One could use that duration to determine battery health.. under 2mins, bad, over 4mins, good.. The test procedures say to "press the trigger button" while pressing the gas/brake simultaneously. What is the "trigger" button? Do you hold it in during the whole test?
I had that same question for a while. While I obviously haven't ran the test yet.... I believe that it is referring to a "trigger" button that initiates the test within the Techstream software. So you're clicking the button to tell it to start recording. So I believe that it's more like 1) Hit the trigger button in Techstream (which tells it to start recording) 2) Hit the gas/brake simultaneously. As written, it sounds like DO ALL THREE AT ONCE, at least to me. For what it's worth, I bought a ~$12 OBD from amazon and installed 32-bit Windows 7 (and loaded up a 32-bit Windows XP virtual machine on it, just in case) onto an old Dell laptop I had laying around to make it work. So far I've been able to scan codes from two different cars before (not) buying.
Alright, well I'll answer my own question here... I got a chance to "test drive" another car. The lady was kind enough to humor me while I ran many tests on her car and fumbled through the Techstream software. . The steps I took in really prescriptive order for future use: 1) Drove it around a bit to get the engine warmed up. 2) Parked the car 3) Turned my Techstream laptop on. 4) Opened Techstream. 5) Connected my VCI to my laptop 6) Connected the VCI to the OBD2 port on the Prius 7) Turned Prius to IG-ON by hitting the power button until it was amber-colored 8) Hit the Connect button on the Techstream application to connect the computer with the Prius 9) Selected the Smart Key option once the vehicle was recognized and hit the next button 10) The system select screen comes up in Techstream, I had all systems selected and clicked the "health check" button 11) Waited patiently while it checked everything 12) Health check screen popped up. I double clicked the HV battery system under the list of systems (I THINK this is what happened next) 13) Set Prius into READY mode 14) Fumbled around like a doofus trying to get Prius into reverse 15) Waited for internal combustion engine to stop running 16) Pressed record/trigger button in Techstream on laptop 17) Applied brake and gas simultaneously for about 6-7 minutes, ignoring the repeated beeping. 18) At the end of five minutes, ICE had yet to turn on, so I saved that information and quickly pressed record again. Once the ICE kicked on, I stopped the second recording.
Dealers will not do this test. Some specialized independent hybrid mechanics like me will provide this type of service. Generally is about 1hr of labor.
How I check the hv battery with the techstream program? The car would be in ready or in ig-on? Somebody can explain the procedure?
Again, I'm no expert... but my instructions in post #13 are what I believe to be the procedure, if I am not mistaken. And I really, really could be
