Loosing power on the road, no HV!

Hi dmb..,

When the battery gets low, most of the engine power goes into recharging it. This leaves little power for moving the car, and of course, the battery power is not going to the wheels either. So, instead of 110 hp, you have more like 35 hp.

What runs the battery down? Lots of stuff. But stop-and-go driving with heavy AC use is the most common. If this hill was after such a period, that would explain it.

 

just keep driving.. *shrug* the only time i would worry about the battery level is... when you're about to run out of gas..... if it's too low.. it wont re start later...

otherwise.. keep driving.. like donee said the HSD takes care of itself.

 

What year of Prius?

Bob Wilson

 

What sort of car do you have? Is it a Prius? A hybrid? not in post or profile.

 

Heat is the enemy of the main batteries and one big source is a lot of regenerative activity like descending a hill in "D" instead of "B". But where you can, try to park in the shade.

The car would not move in that case.

Bob Wilson

 

With luck it will be just what you suspect: a combination of things that had not occurred before at that place on that drive. Keep driving it and see what happens.

You're not afraid to mash the gas pedal to the floor when necessary, right? or does the engine noise cause you to ease off the pedal? And the battery system cooling vent is never blocked?

 

Hi again dmb...,

At this point you really need to tell us something more specific. Like where are you, and what hill are you talking about, what are the temps there, did you hot-soak the car, and at what temp?

Use the AC in the automode. Do not just set it at max cool and leave it. In the automode, the AC power will taper off as the car gets cool.

 

This is the first time I've heard that the hybrid battery is down to 1 bar even with the ICE running...even so with going uphill, the hybrid batt should not go that low. Just make sure that you do not run out of gas and just step on that throttle...hopefully your batt will be in the green zone soon.

 

Something doesn't sound right. I'd get it checked out. If it's a '07 the hybrid system is still under warranty. I had my Prius in 113 degree weather sitting for 40 minutes with the A/C on full blast while I was inside a restaurant with the kids on Sunday afternoon. When we got out we jumped right on the freeway (heading to the circus) and I merged into traffic like it was nothing. Even climbing the large hills with the A/C on blast with 4 people in the car it always seems to have the same power regardless of the state of battery.

Mike

 

My 2004 Prius is having the same problem, i just bring the car to my Toyota dealer and made a road test with the service manager, it hardly charge the battery and when we stop the battery dies. He call me today and told me that the problem is the HV battery and they will replace the battery, he also told me that is under
warranty.

 

Re: Losing power on the road, no HV!

How many miles are on your odometer?

I haven't seen very many posts from 2G owners who have gotten a new traction battery under warranty; congratulations for winning the jackpot!

After you've had the work done, please post the part number of the new battery that was installed, and if the repair invoice shows any DTC codes (i.e., Pxxxx), please post those as well.

 

A few weeks ago mine got down to half a bar going up a loong hill at 60 mph with AC running, set on 80 degrees... SG was reading 27% SOC. Around town, you won't get below 40% SOC, ICE will charge it. On a mountainous highway at 60 mph and AC on and at 7000 feet, all bets are off.

 

So... i'm almost done with a road trip. On the interstate my battery is constantly dead ( 1 bar ) every time. It's never been like this before. i'm at 101k miles right now. CA gives a standard warranty of 150k miles.

At times, full throttle only gives me 55mph... I am climbing a mountain but I used to be able to keep half battery power while climbing...

 

I typically keep my bars slightly higher than the middle on the Interstate except when climbing. I always get down to about a bar if I'm climbing a good grade. Are you sure you used to have half your battery power when climbing a mountain grade? That doesn't sound right.

 

I drive in the mountains (not hills) regular here in the Denver area, and it's not unusual on a REALLY steep hill such as the approach to the Eisenhower tunnel to run out of battery. Typically after 3 or 4 minutes of FULL throttle uphill driving the battery is flat. However, the car can continue to run once the battery is flat. On the 7% grade up to the Eisenhower tunnel it is able to continue at 65 mph without battery, although if I have to slow down for slower traffic it takes a real long time to get up to speed again. Keep in mind this is at over 11,000 feet, so there is even less horsepower available from the gas engine.

On the downhill side it takes about 5 minutes to fully charge the battery to all green.

There is something not right here if you can't make more than 25 mph.

 

I've had this battery-gone-pink thing for a few weeks now, on or after days where it crept up into the 100's here.

It's like the HV battery is too hot to recharge properly, so it waits a while to get around to putting energy back. Meanwhile the MPGs drop as the ICE has to over-rev since the electric motor is not available to help.

No sign of it since the temps stayed lower, so I hope it IS strictly temperature related. If there's something to do to make it stop, I'm all ears...

 

If you get the old batteries, I would like to make an offer for them, $200+50 and I'll handle the shipping. Send me a PM if this is possible.

I am doing battery refurbishment experiments and though I have plenty of NHW11 batteries, I only have one NHW20 battery and it is in good shape. I need failed or failing NHW20 modules to see what works with them.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson