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Battery go from 7 bars to 2 after a short stop

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by rogerchin, Jul 11, 2024.

  1. rogerchin

    rogerchin New Member

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    I was going home today and as I was cruising down the hill to the bank just before going home, my battery charged up to 7 bars. I went into the bank to deposit some cash, probably like 5 min, and when I start my car up again, it was 2 bars. Is this normal?
     
  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    No. It's likely the hybrid battery is on its way out. You'll also notice the engine running more often to charge the battery, as well as the battery meter fluctuating more wildly as you drive.
     
  3. rogerchin

    rogerchin New Member

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    I used Dr Prius to do the life expectancy test and got just a little over 50%. Is 50% on its way out? I also noticed two failing modules.
     
  4. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    I mean, most warranties are for 70% of its original servicable life.

    It's possible the two modules are dragging down the overall average.
     
  5. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Yes hybrid and electric cars are going to be a lot of fun for a lot of folks that don't understand anything about this stuff I mean I forgot what year your car is but it's 2006 if that's the original battery how old is that generally hybrid batteries the Panasonic ones that go in this model car average out 8 to 10 years I do believe you're a bit over that and you've got two modules showing that are failing and 50% SOC rate so on and so forth so you tell me that's a 50% state of charge not life left and the failing modules they're all racked up together so anything in the line that's failing drags everything else down you know with 13 14 years old kind of to be expected.
     
  6. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Main thing to look at now is your gas mileage run it down to the last pip fill up run it down to the last pip and make a note of how many gallons went in and how many gallons went out and your real MPG not what the thing says on the MFD when you get down to around 39 mi a gallon consistently in the engine running quite a bit and the battery energy display going from blue to green to magenta very quickly 90 seconds to 3 minutes changes while you're driving then you know it is time to be dealing with your hybrid battery corrosion frosted nuts and all that kind of nonsense guaranteed practically.
     
  7. john1701a

    john1701a Prius Guru

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    No need to speculate, between age & mileage it should be an expectation for the battery-pack to near its end. What you are seeing confirms that. Like any other vehicle that that point, you have to choose whether to replace parts as needed or just until it can't.