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Charging problem?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by mongo, Aug 26, 2004.

  1. mongo

    mongo Junior Member

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    The other night my wife got the dreaded Red Car with the exclamation point icon. Buzzers buzzing, lights flashing. The battery drained very quickly. We had it trailered to the dealer. Of course, the next morning, the evil icon was gone, but the battery was still in the purple bars.
    They uploaded new software and called it healed.
    I don't think it is. I can't get the battery to charge into the green bars now. No matter how I drive - and I know how to drive so it is in charging mode. Even regeneratively braking down a long hill, it will NOT charge to the green bars.

    Any suggestions?
     
    #1 mongo, Aug 26, 2004
  2. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    with the scan tool that the dealer uses, they can tell what the car is doing. So if you can't get it to charge I'd take it back and have them hook it up and have a look at the HV battery and all the parameters that the tool will show them. State of charge, voltage, Hi and Low voltage and temps and all the data the tool can pull. A drive with it connected to get a real time data flow would be in order as well. Keep us informed.
     
    #2 Frank Hudon, Aug 26, 2004
  3. mongo

    mongo Junior Member

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    They did put the scan tool on it, but I don't know that they drove with it. The scan tool showed all was well with it just sitting there.
    I have a feeling that I'll be back there very soon.
     
    #3 mongo, Aug 26, 2004
  4. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    I seriously doubt there's a problem. If the car is responding normally then just drive it. One day it'll go into green bars when it needs to and that will be that. There is no reason to try to get it into the green at all.
     
    #4 efusco, Aug 26, 2004
  5. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    have you put many miles on it since the dealer "updated the software"? My thinking is along the lines of we did the 40D and now when it comes back we'll be able to get the codes. If you've only gone a few miles and the battery was severly depleted it might take a couple of hundred miles to get it back to normal. I'd still be leary of the soft ware patch.
     
    #5 Frank Hudon, Aug 26, 2004
  6. mongo

    mongo Junior Member

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    I drove it around some around midnight when it got a little cooler. Using regenerative braking, I was able to get it to 8 gloriously green bars. So I'm happy.

    Don't get me wrong, I don't want to keep it at that state of charge, I just wanted to see it get there and I was having trouble doing that no matter how I drove. Now that it has, I'll go back to driving normally.

    Thanks for the help.

    - Tom
     
    #6 mongo, Aug 27, 2004
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