Pleasant 12V battery charging surprise for PiP

Yes, Think of a dead battery as either a dead short or totally open, Not good for the rest of the car. I’m not speaking of a battery that measures ~ 10-12 volts that’s still recoverable, ......(maybe)

 

Questions on Prius maintenance and operation are covered very professionally on Patrick Wong’s sites on Generation 2/3, research these.

 

Thanks, Andy. That almost reminds me of a diesel but for obviously different reasons. My old Nissan Frontier would run w/o the battery once it was started. I guess that makes sense since, once the Prius is in Ready mode, the DC/DC converter is putting out power to charge the 12V, which would be available to the rest of the 12V system. It's interesting to hear from someone who actually tried it.

 

I also threw in a small 12V alarm battery, it worked fine, as a temp fix.

 

Cool! I figured one of the 7AH UPS batteries would work in a pinch. In fact, I think I've heard of that being done. I wasn't sure that one of those little ones for alarm systems would provide enough current to boot up everything. That really says a lot about how little the Prius demands of the 12V battery.

 

So I had a gen 2 Prius and jumped the battery no problem. Is there anything different when jumping my 2012 PiP? In a gas car I would drive it around the block to charge the battery up well before parking /turning off again.

 

Just plug it in

 

That will do very little charging, lol. If you have a seriously depleted 12 volt battery, a full charging session with a decent quality smart charger is the way to go. It'll take somwhere between 6~12 hours. For 3rd gen, you want to keep it around 3~4 amp max spec'd charger, check the manual.

 

Assuming that the 12V isn't too dead to start up the traction battery charger.

The above is true, but to directly answer your question, you wold jump or charge the 12V in a PiP just like any other Prius. As always, be absolutely sure the polarity is right. Also, iirc, the PiP & Gen 3 positive jump terminals under the hood only have one metal side. Some jumper cable also only have one metal side. That has cause consternation when people don't notice it and connect metal to plastic.

 

welcome!

if it is original, just replace it. if not, try all of the above.