Anyone's battery ever go PURPLE?

[font=Comic Sans MS:d0422cdc7b]Hi Nan. The battery on "the video" is the High Voltage traction battery, not the puny 12 volt auxilliary battery. The 12V battery just runs the lights and the radio (and video) and boots the computers so they can control the ICE and charging. There is no easy way of telling the level of charge of the 12V battery.

I figure this car is so smart, it will take care of itself; I shouldn't have to worry about coddling it. If it doesn't take care of itself, that's what the Toyota Roadside Assistance and the warranty is for. Next time, keep the AC on. Aren't Trader Joe's great?

BTW, I think the colors of the battery may be affected by the color screen you choose. I haven't tested to be sure. I changed my day screen to gray from green because I like it better. I think other screen elements may change to match the background theme.[/font:d0422cdc7b]

 

This is the very reason Toyota chose not to include much beyond the basics for the Multi-Display. They wanted to empower owners. But brand new knowledge can be scary. It's sometimes better not knowing, because the natural tendency is jump to the wrong conclusion... which you did.

Even if all the bars disappeared, you'd still have a decent amount of battery-pack power left. The display only actually shows you the middle range, the part most commonly used. There's still more beyond that.

Prius is smarter than you give it credit for too. It will protect itself from ever deep-discharging (as long as you have gas available). The worst that could actually happen is your MPG will take a dip, since it will simply run the engine more. So you can kick back and enjoy.

 

Refreshed as in blue bars, not pink, as soon as you started the car? That would be VERY odd unless you left the car in Ready mode instead of powering down. The ICE will start at some point to recharge the battery if the computer decides it needs more charge.

Isn't it great that the Toyoota programmers were able to let the car figure out that 2 MPH wasn't enough of a drag on the battery and instead of polluting (even at the 10% Prius level) by running the ICE to keep you moving, it continued to use the electric motor?

I guarantee you that if the traffic had magically lifted and you were able to go back up to 40 MPH or whatever, the ICE would have started.

 

It's often hard to tell when ICE kicks in. Sometimes it only runs for 10 or so seconds when it is on the 2 bar threshold.

 

[font=Comic Sans MS:122d8c83b3]Hi Nan. To have the fan run without the AC, hit the Climate button by the display and then the AC soft-button on the display. If it has a bright bar (yellow on my display) the AC is on, if the bar is dull, the AC is off. You can also set the fan at a specific level or just let the Auto function try to keep up with the heat.[/font:122d8c83b3]

 

Now that it's warmer here, stuck in traffic, 1-3 bars is very normal with the A/C on.

About the only way to see all bars and green is to move here in January so at -40 the ICE runs constantly. Trust me on this: it's *not* worth it!

 

2 bars is still plenty and the colors just reflect the level of the battery and shouldn't alarm you in any way. I've gotten down to zero bars going up a mountain to a ski resort before, and at that point it's all engine. Once the load is off (no longer going uphill or slowing down on my uphill climb), the battery happily recharges.

 

My battery indicator has never shown a full charge in the week we have owned the car. It's always 2 bars short....is this normal in city driving?

 

I've noticed the battery display sometimes "lags" reality. Like if I come off the freeway and come to the stop, the battery bars are blue. If I flip the display to something else and back, the battery bars are now green.

I've experienced this a few times, and I believe this is what happened to you.

 

This is completely normal. If you want to see the battery completly full on the display, you'll have to coast down a long hill. Also, keep in mind what John said about the display; the battery on the screen actually represents the middle range of the battery's state of charge. With all the bars lit, I believe the battery is only 80% full, and when it's totally blank, a 40% charge remains.

 

The only time you may see "full" charge in city driving is here in Winnipeg in January at -40. The ICE will never shut off.

OTOH temps +75 F or higher with the A/C on, 1-2 pink bars are normal too. Don't worry about it.

 

It is true, I see green more often in the cold depths of winter. Really mentally painful to be sitting at a signal in the morning 2 minutes from my house with 7 green bars and the engine running!

I know, it wants to be warm. It is a lot harder to get it into electric mode when it is really cold outside so the battery isn't used as much.

I know what you mean about wanting a 'vent' button. I usually hit A/C button, then the fan speed to cancel auto before I set the temp to max cold so the fan doesn't go way up.

And why doesn't the nav lady understand MAX COLD??? It is faster to just hit the temp down button on the steering wheel than wait for the voice recog to come up, say 65 degrees, then push the temp down button once.

 

We have had our 2005 Prius for several months now. We recently took a 2,000 mile trip from WA to UT and back. During our trip down, we had been driving all day at highway speeds up to 75 mph. later, we were pulling a hill to a 7300 foot summit and we went down to one battery bar before hitting the summit. We were fully charged by the bottom of the other side. We had no problems the entire trip. We got down to two bars several times but quickly recharged. I'm curious what would happen under these heavy load situations where both motors are employed simultaneously for extended periods of time? The ICE can't charge much when it is trying to maintain speed on a hill. If the battery were too low to maintain the electric motor contribution, I assume the electric motor would stop adding power until the ICE could provide support to charge the battery.