This community was very helpful with advice on whether I needed to worry about my original water pump so I'm going to ask about my weak hybrid/traction battery. I make several trips a year from Las Vegas to Southern California, which is a 4.5-5 hour trip through mountains and desert landscape. A good portion of the trip is made through uninhabited land in 100+ degrees, where you don't want to experience a break down. My car is 10.5 years old, it has brand new tires, there are no leaks, the engine isn't burning oil, fluids are fine, EGR is clean, and I have a new inverter. The concern is the traction battery, which is giving me around 42-45 mpg for a tank, from an average of around 50 mpg during it's peak. Dr Prius has my battery at around 38% left in it's estimated lifetime, they recommend a new battery when it hits 30%. My question is what happens if my traction battery dies when I'm in the middle of nowhere? I've read that I can limp along with the engine, but how far can I drive the Prius just using the ICE engine? Can I make it up mountain passes and how fast can I drive? Or does the Prius just become a regular ICE car and can be driven like one until I get a replacement battery? (I'm leaving this week during a heat wave, so I'm hoping to hear something reassuring. I'm anticipating getting around 47 mpg (calculated) for this trip. TIA)
generally speaking, the battery dies slowly and will give you plenty of notice. even when it poops out and the car won't start, disconnecting the 12v for a minute resets the codes and you are on your way. now would be a good time to consider a grid charger to recondition the battery and extend its life, unless you'd prefer to invest the money in a new battery. see hybrid automotive.com or maxx volts.
Run an app that shows the hv battery temp and turn on the fan intake with the AC up before you begin regen downhill. I do that thru the grapevine and going to and back from SF. The battery heats up fast during summers when I make those trips.
Uh oh. My morning drive to the local park usually gives me 60 mpg. This morning, I achieved 33 mpg. I quickly did a full battery test via Dr Prius and received a battery warm warning. I’ll update later but I’m getting more concerned. does anyone know what the battery warm warning means? Update: I'm going to get a new OEM battery installed. The prices that I have been receiving have a big variance between the different dealers in different states close by to me so it pays to shop around. I'll update this later about the experience in getting a new hybrid battery.
Does anyone know if this is a healthy battery? I test drove a 2012 Prius 3 for about 30 minutes and this was what I got back from my OBD2 link. It’s listed at $11,995 and has 79,000 miles. It rides great but I want to make sure the hybrid battery is healthy before I buy it.
that looks about right for a 12 year old battery, but don't count on it lasting much longer, and don't forget the brake booster and head gasket issues. all the best!
