Hi it’s been many years since I’ve been on here. I have a 2008 Prius that bought new that year. Replaced the hybrid battery about a year ago and the 12v a few months ago. Over the holidays I went on a short drive and the triangle of death came on. The only previous time this happened it was because the hybrid battery required replacement, but the new hybrid battery can’t have more than 200 miles on it. The next time I got in the car a couple days later, everything turned on like normal but the engine wouldn’t turn over, so I had it towed to the shop. The mechanic told me both batteries were dead. He was able to revive them just enough by disconnecting them for a few days, and now he says everything is fine with the car they are fully charged. This car does not get driven a lot - I keep at my inlaws where I spend a lot of weekends and where we have use for an extra car, especially in the summer. The 12v battery has died before for lack of use but never the hybrid. Recently I have had someone turn the car on once a week and then either drive it or idle for some minutes. In the days right before this happened, I had a taken a few short drives of 10 / 15 miles. Any thoughts on what might be going on and how to prevent it? I’m still trying to keep this car going as it’s great second car especially for my kids now in the summer, but I’m also trying to figure out when it’s time to give up on it! any advice most appreciated.
If you don't have a 12 V battery charger that you can use permanently at your in-laws, purchase one (a fully automatic multi-stage charger with an AGM setting that can deliver 4 to 6 Amps) and use it whenever the car is laid up for 3 days or more. As far as the new hybrid vehicle (HV) battery goes, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you bought some kind of refurbished battery. If so, you will have problems with that due to it not being driven daily (if not every other day). Check the warranty on the battery and you will find a clause that invalidates the warranty if the car sits for extended periods. If it is a new Toyota HV battery, then you might have a warranty claim as sitting for a few weeks up to a month shouldn't be a problem for the battery. I think Toyota recommends running the car (just starting it to READY not driving it) for an hour or two every couple of weeks. Me, personally, I would be checking the battery level every three to four weeks and force-charging the battery to keep it at the top blue bar on the battery indicator (60% SoC) if it was down to three or four bars.
Thank you! The hybrid battery was supposed to be new according to the shop that installed it. Not OEM, but brand new rather than refurbished. I can't remember the brand, although I could ask obviously. Not sure about warranty. Thanks for the tip on the charger. I've only had chargers for jumpstarting, and didn't even know this was an option. Would that help with the hybrid battery too? Or is that an entirely separate issue?
That's an entirely separate issue an entirely separate charger A new battery would be a Panasonic EV battery from Toyota and a few months ago you wouldn't have forgot the cost Even the round cell conversions are pricey bike cost standards too so there's always that usually most of these green tech green bean type of things that's all refurbished nonsense but I've had good luck with my battery guy doing that here so I guess it can be done or it's luck of the draw or whatever I mean it's very few batteries you go around rebuilding and swapping and playing three-card monte with.
Thanks - yes I do remember the OEM would have been more expensive, but the one I got wasn't cheap either. Will have to check in with the shop re: warranty etc., but it has been over a year, so if it's just a 1-year warranty that won't cut it. I might not have it in me to throw more money into replacing it again!
