2010 prius 12v battery?

Is it just me, at Optima's own site they don't even list a Prius as a model by Toyota?

 

If this is it, it's buried on their site:
DS46B24R YELLOWTOP® Prius® Auxiliary Battery 8171-767 :: OPTIMA® Batteries

 

^ Probably. Yes, that's buried. Still odd that they'd completely ignore a popular model name series in their drop-down finder widget, for all the model years they've been selling a 12v battery for Prii. So 2004+ includes 2010-2014 also? Or is that one aimed at the 2004-2009 GenII's? Is there a difference in specs for GenII and GenIII batteries?

 

There is no difference between Gen 2 and Gen 3 and v. I am unsure about c.

 

Yep, this is one of my favorite features that Nissans all seem to have, even on lights on map lights that have switches that stay depressed. To cycle them, after the auto power-cut, you have to close and open door.

Sometimes on my Leaf, I sit in the car long enough for the map and interior lights that I turned on to shut off.

On my former Z, I think they missed the case where the hatch isn't fully shut.

 

Entirely depends on where you live. It looks like you've done ok given your location.

 

I became concerned that my 12V battery was starting to die when I saw its voltage falling below 12V with the engine off and the headlights turned on.

Following suggestions in another thread on this site, I opened up the cells of my 12 V battery and found most of them had very little water left. I used distilled water and refilled the battery cells to cover the plates. The battery now stays above 12V when stressed with the headlights. I'll have to replace it in the next year or so, but for now it's doing OK.

 

It doesn't need to have water visible !!! In an AGM the electrolyte SUPPOSED to be mostly absorbed by the fiberglass-mash material !!! The rest of the place is for the gas/vapour which is generated during charging/discharging and it supposed to be recombined.

The only possible reason you would need fluid if the battery was grossly overcharged "boiled" off water in which case very likely other damage occurred as well.

But it is your car you do whatever you feel like to it

 

In at least three of the cells, there was water above the plates, but the rest of the cells had essentially no water visible. If the norm was no visible water, none of the cells would have shown any fluid.

Since I put the distilled water in, the battery has been fine, though I need to check its charged voltage tonight after my commute. I checked the voltage after adding the water, and it was 12.4 volts (it had been dropping below 12V before).

 

The dealer just told me I need a new battery. They did a test on it and the little paper said 12.7 - Replace battery,.

I took it in to get serviced, they said I needed to change my Air filter, cabin filter, and do a Throttle Body Sensor cleaning ? That came out to almost $300. Then he said that I need to change my battery as well, says its $188, plus like $70 to install ??? Wth ?!?

Glad I found this thread. FU toyota! I'm going with the Optima.. pffffft

 

How old is your Prius, how many miles on it?

Most of those "recommended" service items were likely an attempt to fleece you of your money and were uneccesary. Especially the filters and throttle body cleaning.

Even your 12v battery at 12.7v doesn't sound bad.

 

I left light on one night; dead battery next morning!! Put battery charger through fuse box at 2 amps. About 30 minutes later, I was ready to go.
Then my battery went down hill! Prius took too long to get in "READY" mode, after several tries.
The OM battery is about 3 years old.
I too I'm thinking of getting the yellow; or even the red top Optima, for using a power inverter.

 

Well just received my 12v from amazon...where is the date code on this?

LG-LS980 ?

 

If you bought an Optima, like I did in December, there should be a little round sticker on the top with the month/year. Mine shows "12/13".

 

Lead acid batteries really do not like going flat, and a 30 minute charge at 2 amps only put in 1 Ah into the battery which is like a teaspoon in an big coffee mug, and the Prius charging system is not much faster- if you only drove it to work and turned it off, chances are you only put in a few more ampere-hours into the battery, and while the car was off, the on-board electronics continue to drain a fair bit, and every time you open the door, the brake pump sucks a huge wad of current, so you've basically been going around with a mostly discharged battery.. Try charging the battery overnight with a much higher current setting than 2A, and I'd bet that you find the battery is back to normal (unless it has already been so long that it has started to sulfate due to the low charge state- lead acid batteries really like to be fully charged or as close to it as possible- leaving the battery in a low charge state for extended periods is guaranteed to shorten its life)..

 

Yes to "overnight", likely that's what it'll take.

But no to "much higher current setting than 2A", I'd use a charger around 4 amp or less, the limit for charging is spec'd in the Owner's Manual.

Regarding "and I'd bet": don't rely on bets, get a charger with indicator lights, that tells you how the battery's doing, it's status.

 

That 4A limit is what the on-board converter will charge the battery at; it's not what the battery itself can be charged at.. Lead acid batteries are almost self-regulating when it comes to charging, which is why the circuitry of the old cheap chargers is so simple, and has been used for decades.. If this is the type you have, then you may want to watch the charging current setting if the battery is, as in your case, at a very low state of charge- the danger being that when low, the battery will literally suck as much current as the charger can provide, and too high a rate can result in hydrogen production..

If you have a modern electronic charger though, a lead acid battery of the class in the Prius can very safely take virtually any rate that a modern electronic charger can throw at it, just make sure it has the appropriate mode for your battery chemistry (flooded, gel, AGM- some have the ability to auto-detect).. Modern chargers can also detect whether a battery is sulfated and attempt to correct this condition with a desulfation mode, which is of great benefit for batteries that have gone flat from overdischarge..

 

I notice NAPA has their own brand too, probably similar: http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Battery-NAPA-Legend-75-Month/_/R-NBE9851P_0396636578

Comparing the specs of these vs. the Optima, and the relatively small price difference, I would go with the Optima. I'll be doing this soon also, as my 2010's 12V aux battery also seems to be dying. Yes this seems premature. I know I did leave an interior light on overnight at least once, maybe twice, but the car still started fine the next morning, so I never completely drained the battery that I know of. That Toyota's battery has a reputation for being damaged by things like this is one more reason to choose the Optima, as it claims to be a deep-cycle battery that will tolerate this better (just in case I ever do it again).

 

I remember reading elsewhere here that the Toyota Batteries are now warranted for 7 years or so (prorated I think) and are not that much more expensive than the Optima. I would also consider the Exide Edge AGM with Graphite Technology seriously. They apparently invested quite a bit of tax-payer money in making batteries especially suited for start-stop technology that's now making its way into more cars. Not that the Prius is that demanding on the 12V...

 

^ In a way the Prius is very demanding on the 12 volt battery: since the 12 volt doesn't start the car they downsized it. And then, when you leave a map or dome light on for a few hours, something that would irritate a heavy-duty 12 volt, the Prius' diminutive 12 volt is near death.