New owner of '05 with only 200 miles

Could you take a picture of the warning lights on your dash?

Do they resemble any of these icons maybe (That way you don't have to take a picture)

http://www.mytoyo.com/images/pages/2/page.h43.jpg

I'm not sure what help I can be, but I'm fairly certain that with more detail with regards to specific warnings, someone might be able to help a bit better

 

Hello and welcome to PriusChat.

You said:

Then said:

The fact that you got the car started, means the HV is not dead. Would be interested to know what the Energy Monitor screen showed the state of the battery to be. Any chance you took a photo of it or at least viewed that screen.

Put the emergency parking brake (foot operated) firmly on, then also press firmly on the foot brake. Select 'D' with the gear selector and the press the go pedal (accelerator) firmly to the floor and hold it there. This will "force charge" the HV battery to 80%. Observe the battery on the Energy Monitor screen–see if the battery will charge up to 8 (green) bars (80%). If the battery is good it could take some time; if the battery is not so good, it will charge quickly.

Possibly good, I have read that NiMH batteries can sit for a long time. They will just slowly self discharge, but will not damage. But to be honest, I have not heard of this situation before, so would be keen to hear of the outcome.

We have some good battery guys contributing here who know a lot more than me, so hopefully some of them will chime in.

In terms of wrenching, these cars are easy to maintain, so your experience should see you in good stead.

Keep us posted.

 

With regards to Ni-Mh, another battery manufacturer, Panasonic, uses them and their batteries go from 100% to around 70% after 5 years



That could just be a bit of a red herring however

 

That will be with use. This Prius has had few charge cycles over the years.

 

Nope. That's in storage. With use, it'd be a lot less

A few more here:
AA Rechargeable Batteries - NiMH | Battery Logic UK

Also see:
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http://panasonic.net/sanyo/news/2011/10/06-1.pdf

 

Let's see what the OP (original poster) reports.

 

This is so cool! A new 11 year old car. Keep us posted, and best wishes from Nashville

 

Wow!
I snagged an 05 with 4k a month ago and it had been great so far!
I thought that might be the low mileage winner but.......
Good Luck



iPhone don't expect too much

 

As dolj from NZ says, Gen2 can be self-charged by the method suggested (put on brakes and give it a little gas)...

 

LOL, yeah I was thinking about you when I saw this thread. Makes yours sound like high miles and my 06 with only 44k miles sound like I should take it to the junk yard! WOW!

It will be truly amazing if that HV battery comes back to life. The big thing in its favor was storage in a cool environment and heated when needed. If it were me, I would seek out an independent hybrid shop that knows about battery reconditioning.

 

Yeah when I first saw the thread, I thought OP meant 200K miles but nah it's...200 miles

 

Did you see above posts? you can put your foot on brakes in DRIVE and gently rev engine to force a charge on the battery do this I do not know 30 minutes or until you start to see the bars filling up to the Blue. Be careful and search on older posts for more details.

Other than that you gotta buy a balancer/charger available here. Also you can hook up Techstream with mini VCI to the car to view battery cells, but I'd be tempted to try to force charge it.

You can buy a new batt maybe $2000 DIY.

 

There really is a ZERO chance that HV battery is good. The engine running 100% of the time is letting you know the HV battery has already failed.

I would try and call Toyota and see if they will replace it under a good will warranty. Tell them it's a 2005 with 200 miles on it......that shock alone should get you a new battery.

 

congrats and welcome! i would leave it in the garage for another generation.

 

Or they might give a decent price...not the dealer though, Toyota.

 

As dolj say's the HV battery cannot be dead if the car starts, and shows 1 bar on the battery screen. One bar is a charge level of about 45%, and you also state it has started a number of times.
Now about NmHi batteries. If you read the information on them correctly you will find the recommended method of long term storage is to discharge the cells before storing. This does not harm them unlike lead acid batteries. All batteries have a self discharge rate that will gradually discharge them. Again this doe no harm to NiMh cells.
The car will run 100% of the time with a charge level of one bar, and every time you start the car more charge is removed, and has to be replaced.
What does the battery level charge screen show in drive with one foot on the brake and the other on the accelerator. It should show arrows going from the engine to the generator then to the battery. If this is happening "something you have not answered" the battery is charging. Patience is required when doing this. I once discharge the HV battery on a long clime towing a caravan so that no bars were showing and I was alarmed at how long it took to get back to 3 blue bars coming down the other side of the mountain with full regen braking for 5 miles with the caravan pushing the car.

John

 

Hi John,

From your explanation, what do you think causes batteries that sit for extended periods to fail? We read lots of people that let their cars sit for extended periods to find P0A80 when they restart the car. Wouldn't that be caused by self discharge and then reverse charge?

 

Self discharge does not cause reverse charging. Self discharge is discharging within each cell across the plates.
Reverse charging is cause when a number of cells in series connection are discharging current into a load. Then if one cell reaches zero charge "before all the others" this cell then goes into a reverse charge state being charged in reverse by the other cells through the load.

In series each cells + terminal is connected to the next cells - terminal and if a cell cannot contribute to the output you will see it is like a battery connected to a charger in reverse. The current through all the cells is the same, and in the same direction.

John.