Possible Hybrid Battery Failure? Help!

I would think it would throw a code.....toyota can test them I believe??

 

It's entirely possible. It would be useful to keep an eye on battery state of charge for us and report its behavior. Very rapid charge/discharge and lots of charging from the engine seem to be common symptoms of failure. That and the master warning light coming on!

Of course a replacement (if that's really the problem) will be on your dime due to the miles. Start thinking about whether you wish to go the used route (getting one from a wrecked car) or a new one (expensive).

 

Disconnect the mini 12 v in the back for 30 minutes and then reconnect. Can't hurt now can it?

b

 

Sitting isn't a problem, it's a very light load on the hybrid
battery -- just maintaining the amp or two into the 12V converter,
and getting periodic runs of 20 or so charging amps when the
engine cycles to keep it up. Driving and regen-braking is much
more load, but with the battery management the way it is it should
be good for a whole lot of that too. A lot of steady-state
driving is also almost zero battery use, like on the highway,
so even with a module or two creeping their internal resistance
up the MPG of that type of driving shouldn't change a whole lot.
.
Getting a properly set up scantool on it that can display the
block voltages, and then placing various loads in and out, is
probably the most indicative thing a tech can do. I just did
this in a friend's Classic the other day, in fact, and had her
force-charge [test 1] and then drive gently while dragging the
parking brake [test 2] while I eyeballed the voltages on the laptop.
.
_H*

 

Do the easy two first. No sense pulling the plugs if the first two fix the problem.

Somewhat related to the throttle plate possibility: who has been changing the oil? and do you check the oil level afterwards?

 

For that $175 the tech would hook up the scantool and tell the
car to read the voltages, without having to open up the pack or even
come close to getting dirty. They're feeding you a line there.
.
One scantool that can do this is autoenginuity, with the toyota
enhanced functionality. Around $400 all told, I haven't priced
it out recently. You supply the laptop. There are others floating
around too; google for "scantool" and "bi-directional" and
"manufacturer" which will help ferret out the ones likely to
have the most functionality where Priuses are concerned. I
think AE is the most popular and debugged at this point, though.
.
_H*

 

Any Toyota dealer should do a test using the scantool for under $100. Even if no codes are there they can read out the module voltages. Note that you can't replace a cell, you replace a module, which is 6V nominal, or 5 cells. The standard charges are around $60 to connect the scantool and standard shop rates for the testing (at $110/hr around here). So perhaps $175 is a reasonable quote. What he said he would do is incorrect.

If you are currently using the car for short trips (less than 10 min), then the mileage you are seeing is not unusual in winter conditions. Mine currently is down in that area due to short trips and ambient temps around freezing. I'm seeing 40 MPG imperial (around 6 l/100 km). If I drive for 20 min consumption will drop into the low 5 l/100 km right away. After about 40 min of use the consumption average drops into the high 4 l/100 km.

 

You seem to have a good understanding of your car.... While you didn't mention it... I assume that you have checked your tire pressure and it is at recommended tire pressure. (I run high 50 psi in front and 48 psi rear. Even in cold weather 20-35 degrees still getting 45-52 mpg.) Plugs are the second best option. Throttle body and max air flow sensor are a little down the line.

I haven't seen this mentioned in Prius forum but with your mileage you may be having some carbon buildup in your engine. This could cause a pretty nice drop in mpg. If it hasn't been done I would try a decarbonizer and plugs. My guess... you will be good as new.

 

I have a set of GY Comfortreds. I used to run them at max side wall psi of 41. I started to notice higher wear in the center pretty early on and lowered the pressure back to 35. Now the tires have better traction and even wear pattern.

[start rant]
Higher pressure works for one type of tires doesn't mean it works for all tires. PCers should stop recommending higher pressure to everybody.
[/end rant]

 

[start rant]
Higher pressure works for one type of tires doesn't mean it works for all tires. PCers should stop recommending higher pressure to everybody.
[/end rant][/quote]

Rant noted. A closer read might show that higher tire pressure was not recommended. I realize that I am giving something away (breaking distance, smoother ride, handling in wet conditions) by running higher tire pressure. For this reason I would not encourage anything other than recommended tire pressure to anyone.

 

spitinuri, I didn't mean to target the rant to you. It is a general rant, because in almost every thread related to MPG, I see PCers recommending higher tire pressure without knowing what kind of tires people are using. From evidence provided by some PCers, seems like the OEM GY Integrity do suffer wear from under inflation. Using higher pressure is justified. This condition doesn't apply to all tires.

 

No problem. Merry Christmas!

 

I was wondering about the Traction Battery life span myself. I own a 2007 and I have about 10k left on the warranty. I heard, from a salesperson , that the replacement would run about $8000! 4 sounds a bit more reasonable... BUT, if they come out with the 'plug-in' Prius, I'm tradin' this baby in! (After a year to work out the bugs, of course) I already just love the hell out of my car. A few things I still want to do (upgraded speakers for one) but compared to my 1994 Saturn that I bought NEW 15 years ago, oh wait, there is no comparison.

My mom is thinking of getting a Prius and wants to know more about how long the battery lasts.

 

You've already put 90k on it? (or 140k if in CA?) The battery has an extra long warranty. Now if I were putting miles on at the rate above I wouldn't sweat it, just factor in replacing the battery at 200k or something like that. Putting on miles that quickly the Prius would be ideal and one would want to run it until multiple systems were failing.

Since you can buy them for around $2,000 new, this salesperson is either full of it, or trying to mislead you.