Battery Knowledge

Hi All,

I recently replaced my OEM 12 V battery. I had high confidence the battery would have easily gone 4 years. But it was showing signs of age - specifically 11.0 Volts when running the accessory mode electroncs, rather than the 12.6 of a new battery.

I have done alternators and batteries, and even heater cores (complete with dashboard removal - Ford what were they thinking?) in 2 degree F weather in unheated garages or even outdoors. It turns out that 4 years on my car would have been in Febuary, when we usually get our cold-blast weather. So, Labor Day was just great weather here, and I could not resist doing this then, rather than in 2 degree F weather.

When I did my spreadsheet to find out if the Prius would be more costly, or less, and if more costly - how much? , I did have a line for the 12 V battery costs. I estimated the same battery life, but factored in the more expesnive Prius 12 V battery.

I replaced with the Optima D51 battery, which was $157.49 (edited to correct cost) at Advance Auto, and I used the eLearnaid conversion kit to switch over to the Automotive sized terminal.

There is a Batteries Plus next to a grocery store I frequent. So, I popped in there this week to see if there was a cheaper deep-cycle battery. There was a Werker that looked good for about $100 (31 AH -I do not have the smart key system), but the terminals were flat bars with through-bolt holes. So, that would be a completely different adapter kit. Their Price for a D51R (Reverse Terminals locations) was much more however, and I did not see a D51. I peronally think a place like Batteries Plus could come up with these adapter kits, and sell the whole solution cheaper than what you can get at a dealer.

The D51 is a still an automotive starter battery, with good deep cycle ability. But one would think a longer life solution could be had if one could get a true deep cycle battery like this Werker battery was.

 

ya all lead acid batteries will die. 3-5 years, good rule of thumb... good maintenance you can add a few years to that...

every time its dead enough to have to jump it AND its not 20 below... take away a year. all lead acid (even the so called deep cycle ones) should be opportunity charged. iow, keep as fully charged as possible as much as possible.

a lot of people here case on me for leaving my car running (when picking up kid will do this for up to 20 minutes at a time) i know a lot of hyper milers shut their car off at drive thrus, stop lights, etc.

i leave mine on simply because it helps to reduce the strain on the 12 volt battery... so ya, when i am doing my regular vacuum, tooth brush the cracks of the dash, etc... i start the car and let it run jus so i can hear the stereo.

 

Hi Richard,

The need is to power the SKS system. Getting rid of the SKS system, you could put a crank on the car to charge up a super cap, then push the power button to drop in the hybrid battery relays, using the super-cap for the relay power. Once the hybrid batteries were up, they would run the inverter and the boot-strap operation would be complete.

 

ya, i go into park at most lights simply because

1) dont want the extra power needed for brake lights

and the most important reason;

2) too lazy to hold foot on brake pedal!!

 

Exciting moments like that build character. Assuming they don't kill or maim you first

With the external fender mounted starter solenoid used on older Ford's, when the solenoid fails it usually fails closed. So you go to start the vehicle, and the starter motor keeps grinding away. The only fix is to yank off the negative cable and replace the solenoid

Smart Ford owners will keep a spare solenoid in the vehicle. They're fairly cheap, usually <$20

I noticed a big difference after getting a bunch of VDC Battery Minder's and plugging in various batteries, including the Prius battery.

 

Is power for starting the engine obtained from the traction battery? And is the 12V tap that's under the hood connected to the small 12V battery? If so, how does a jump start provide power to the battery used for starting the engine? Likewise, is the small size of the 12V battery a reason not to use the Prius to jump start another car? Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere.

 

Technically true, but it would be a hard sell.

 

In order:
- Yes
- Yes
- It doesn't. The 12V system runs the accessories and boots the computers. The traction battery starts the engine; if it is drained the car must be towed to a Toyota dealer to use a special charger.
- Yes
- No problem, mon :_>