Hello All: Just got my 07 Prius yesterday. This morning I brought it to get the windows tinted. I asked the guy if they had any experience driving a Prius, he said tons. I asked him a second time, and explained the potential dangers that the hybrid battery could drain all the way down, and he said no problem. I said, just in case, there's a "valet card" in the cup holder with turn on / off procedures. So, they call me at 12:45, said the car was done. I get there at 1:15, thow my bag in the back, and notice the Info screen (the one that shows which way power is flowing...sorry I'm new, but will learn) was on and the Main Battery on the Hybrid had no bars. I don't know what stage the car was in, but I believe the parking brake light was on, not sure if that means anything. The ICE was not running I don't believe. So I quickly went in, told the guy that the main hybrid battery was empty, and I was worried it wouldn't start. I went back out, started the car, and the ICE came on immediately and started charging. I immediately had two red/purpleish bars. I then went back in, and made him write on my reciept what happened, that the battery was drained, and then took a picture of it. I then went for a 50 mile drive, with the goal of charging the battery as MUCH as I possibly could. about 45 miles in, I got the battery in the green, with all bars filled except for 1. It quickly went away though, then right before I parked, it went green again, but then while parking in the lot, it went blue again. My questions, any long term damage? Any at all effect on battery long term performance? I was hoping my first post was just a hello...but didn't realize I was going to run into this idiot. in advance, thanks! Ron
Sounds normal. Probably the reason you didn't see any bars the first time is because it is blank if the car is in position two but not in Ready mode. As far as being in the purple most likely the guy that did the work on your car did it with your Air Conditioning running the entire time. 6 blue bars is the preferred State Of Charge. You wont see Green bars last all that long because when you get them the car is designed to bleed off that energy. Try to stay between 4 and 6 bars for optimal economy.
firts time you got in to the car you forgot to press the brake padel. then you don´t put it ready mode and see a all white no bars battery icon. after that you started the car and its showing the 2 bars. no problem.
Dutch, thanks for the quick response. They MUST have left it on though in some capacity, right? I didn't even get in, poked my head in, looked at the screen which was on, and it showed no bars. Then I came back to it and started it up, that is when I had the two pinkish bars. But no problem you say? that's a relief
no worries. they probably left the car in ig-on mode to listen to the radio while they installed the tint. soc is not displayed in that mode. the battery is made to run the full range shown in the display- so if it had 2 bars when you started it, you're fine. don't worry too much about a full battery, it has a very specific preferred range it tends to gravitate to on its own.
well its just a gues... but i think toghter with morpheusx where on the right track maybe thy left the car in ready mode for a while.. the car will protect itself!! and start the engine or refuse to startup if the SOC is to low. if the radio was on for a while you maybe have a really low discharge on the aux battery .. maybe even damage that.
The only way he could have caused damage to the traction battery would have been if he had it in ready mode with the car in neutral. If the car was in park it can run until it runs out of gas without problems. In every other situation the traction battery takes care of itself.
Even if you have no bars on your screen that does not mean that the traction battery is fully drained. I believe that 0 bars translates to around 40% remaining charge.
Exact exact same thing happened to me too! 2 weeks old (last year) and took it to the tinter that has done 3 of my other cars. They do a good job. Prius started up but was one purple bar. First time I saw that and was not sure what was up so drove away. That was one unhappy car for about 5 miles. Some noises under the hood I had not heard before. Took almost 10 miles for 3 blue bars to come back. I was pissed 'cause I knew they had listened to the car stereo the whole time. The hybrid was really low.But no long term problem. I didn't know at the time that the car will not allow you to completely discharge the hybrid but it has never seen that low since. Now when I take it to get detailed I tell the detail guy if he listens to my car radio and farks my battery I'm not paying him. If ok when I come back he gets a $20 tip. I think you can guess the outcome but lessons learned for both of us!
Been there, done that. Fugettaboutit. :welcome: WELCOME TO PRIUSCHAT! Take pictures of the tint job. We need to make sure it was worth the panic.
I've been down to 1 bar a few times most notably though was once when I was leaving a Cleveland Browns game. It was about 90 degrees out so we needed air conditioning and it took about an hour and half of stop and go to get from the parking garage to the highway. The Prius will act like a completely different car when the SOC gets that low. Watch for the engine to run more frequently, there are some things that you can do to help it along or conserve energy such as turning off the A/C and vent fan and rolling down your windows, but even so just be thankful you aren't like most of the other cars on the road just sitting there wasting gas and not moving.
The A/C is electric. It is not mechanically connected to the ICE as they are in almost every other vehicle. Therefore, the A/C drains your hybrid battery whether you are sitting still, moving, and even when wearing obnoxiously loud Hawaiian shirts (it's in the manual, look it up!).
One more reason not to get the windows tinted :_> It doesn't matter whether the car is moving. What matters is whether the car is (a) ON ("Ready") and (b) shifted either into "P" or "D". If it is "Ready" and in "P" or "D", you can run the A/C all you want; the engine will start as needed to keep the batteries charged until the car runs out of gas.
