Battery issues

wow that is scary... definitely sounds like something is draining your big battery. i would take it in ASAP!! you are talking about an expensive repair if that battery pack goes. plus the draining could dramatically shorten the life of the battery and the effects may not show up for years.

 

please inform us of the code they pull from the computer and have them explain what they found. This sounds like a stuck relay or some thing that's not breaking the HV battery from the inverter/converter or some thing like that. Could even be a A/C problem OR anything like a thousand other problems. Scan of the computers will reveal the problem.

 

The same thing is happening with our Prius. My wife has been driving it to work every day for the last couple of weeks and it has happened at least twice. Apparently, when she arrives at work in the morning the battery is green (7 bars?). When she leaves later that day the battery reports only 2 bars and drives very rough! She says it is very "clunky" and frustrating to drive when it does this. She also noticed that for the first 5 min. the car gets like 10 mpg. Once she gets on the Hwy the battery slowly builds back up. The last time it happened I took a picture of the mpg info to show that the first five minutes had around 10 mpg. Needless to say we will be taking it in soon to get it checked out.

 

yep you definitely have something shorted to ground and its draining your battery. i would take your Prius in at the EARLIEST opportunity.

 

recall?

oh oh... what part numbers and how would we know if we maybe having problems soon?

 

Just talked with my Service department. (They are needing to replace one of the computers and do the 40E recall.)

The battery recall is titled "40G". Apparently, letter is going out to those affected (thankfully no me.). Seems to be a realitively small group. Wonder what the missing "40F" was / is about???

 

My service department said that they "could not replicate the scenario" I described. I am going to go pick it up tonight and drop it back off next week when they get the fuel tube in from the recent TSB. I am sure that they couldn't replicate the problem I am having because it happened 2 or 3 times over a 2 week span. What else can I do? I am not sure if my VIN is within the battery recall range. To top it off, the service guy helping me is gone till Wed. He left a contact, so I called her up and she has no knowledge of my car or the situation surrounding it. Very frustrating !!

:guns:

 

Just know that my service person felt a need to check on my "04 to see if it was part of the 40G recall

 

According to my dealer, the battery recall is in process. They have to put "felt tips on the end of each battery" - this is a quote..

We are having it done this weekend along with a July recall that somehow we never got a notice on (we did all our recalls in June- 40G). Upgrades a version of the computer from 1xx to 2xx.

 

I just found this post. I am having the exact same problem. It has happened 3 times. Once while driving! (see my last post for description) I am taking it in tomorrow.

 

Ok, Dealer checked and the battery issue was 1st Generation Prii (2001-2003) not 2004.
They did do a Tech bulletin which takes 24 hours to upgrade the computer, since all the warning lights came on.

This is what the invoice said:

"REPROGRAM E.C.M AS PER BULLETIN EG027-04"

Anyone had this Bulletin done?
>>>>>>>>>>
Check Orange County out at: oc.priuschat.com
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Yes that helped.
Per bairkurt on PriusOnline.com:

"Lo and behold, there were codes that led them to perform the EG027-04 repair. This is a reprogramming of the Engine ECU that needs to be done after or in conjunction with the SSC 40D reprogram of the Hybrid ECU and Battery ECU. The affected cars were produced prior to VIN # JTDKB2#U#40076912. My car's VIN ends with 17684 and was delivered in November 2003."

My story:
Same thing happened as bairkurt - all warning lights came on, battery drained, was able to get off freeway. Waited 2 hours for Toyota emergency service and gave up. Car warning lights went out, so drove home, then to dealer next day.

Dealer did computer upgrade from verision 1xx to 2xx per
Technical Bulletin:

REPROGRAM E.C.M AS PER BULLETIN EG027-04
Which they said takes 24 hours to do by the way. They then have to drive it 15 miles to test everything.

Now "Fanny" is home.. Hope it does not die again...hard to get to work that way, especially with a 6 month old car.
Also Vin is before VIN # JTDKB2#U#40076912 (got car in Feb 2004), so it fits.

 

Well, heck. Maybe all of us should call Toyota at 1-800-468-6968 (1-80-GO TOYOTA) and ask them whether any bulletins apply to our VINs.

I was in turn transferred to the Toyota Corporate Customer Experience Center 1-800-331-4331 x3-1-4 and was told that no campaigns apply to my VIN. So, because my VIN is earlier than those quoted above, this campaign at least must not apply to a consecutive range of VINs.

Or maybe they don't apply until we actually suffer a breakdown, he wrote darkly.