Greetings, all you knowledgeable people I've put 45,000 miles on my gen 3 and the battery icon on the dash has always shown 3 bars, then drops to 1 bar and the ICE kicks in and charges to 3 bars. The only time I've noticed the battery icon full with 8 bars is when I take a 7 mile descent on the Angeles Crest Highway. For the past week the battery has consistently shown 7 or 8 bars and very occasionally dropped to 6. Car seems to be running fine. Is this a problem? TIA
You’re sure it’s one bar, not two? Everything “may” be normal, if two bars is the minimum. But one bar, typically means pending failure. You may still be within warranty period; check with dealership, and independently, because dealerships can get it wrong, inadvertently, or on purpose. Try Dr Prius app to assess the battery blocks’ volts and resistance, and check for codes. It requires an OBD dongle, Carista is readily available and works.
It does not sound normal. Since you have a 2015, you're certainly under warranty. Normally, the charge is smooth up and down. You should talk to the Toyota service department about the erratic behavior of the hybrid battery. Even if they only check it, and say they find nothing, you have it on record about a problem. So in the future, when it fails, you can say, I told you so. If you want to spend the money, you could get the Prolong system and recondition the battery. If it doesn't bring it back to like new, it will bring out the weakness and it will fail sooner.
Thanks for the response. i suppose the solution will be the same either way but I guess i didn't explain the problem well. I will try again Redo I bought the car 3 years ago with 55k on it, Runs great, Routine service. The Hybrid System Indicator on the dash has always shown the battery at less than half full (whether its 2 bars or 1 bar I really wasn't paying attention) It just went up and down and did it's thing and everything was great. But unless I ran the car down an 8% grade for 7+ miles as I usually do twice weekly, it never showed more than half full. Now for the "problem" for the past 200 miles which the photo illustrates The battery icon: It's FULL all the time or nearly full all the time. Driven on the same flat streets, same speed, same distance just like every week. Why? Suddenly, after 45k mi of it always reading out less than half full, why is it showing the battery is always topped up and it doesn't drop? Is this bad? And Carista I've looked into this before to kill the hated back up beep. Does Carista make an OBD2 adapter that works on a Prius? The website goes into great detail about incompatibility of various devices that claim to support ELM327 v1.4 and above and then they link you to an Amazon page that doesn't exist Life was so much simpler before 2-2020...... Thanks again Goa
Thanks, Dogman This is my first hybrid. I was hoping I could avoid the dealership but sounds like I better suck it up and take it in. Love your avatar! Is that a Malinois you're wearing? Goa
No, I bought it 3 yrs ago with a bit under 55,000 miles on it and until this week the battery icon always went up and down but below the 50% mark (unless being driven downhill in the mountains where the battery fills to the max and the car whines while it bleeds off the excess like I'm in a giant tesla coil.) So that was the read out I've grown accustomed to seeing. Last week after sitting in the rain for 2 days the battery icon shows full and doesn't change much if at all. The ICE doesn't seem to kick in more frequently, the gas mileage doesn't seem to have changed drastically. I googled and couldn't find anybody else complaining about a hybrid battery that suddenly is perpetually full.
For warranty work, the dealer is the best place to go. Not all dealerships are equal. Hopefully you have a good one near you. Yes, that is a Malinois. He was a very good one!
