Traction Battery Drain near Cell Tower??

But does it have the same number of bars as when you parked it before you start driving? If not, how many bars does it lose when parked near the cell phone tower? Until someone can describe a relationship between cellular signals and NiMH batteries' state of charge, I am skeptical.

 

When you're leaving work to go home, the air conditioner is probably maxing out, drawing piles of power. This will pull down the traction battery and can even make it read lower than it should.

Monday morning you might not be hitting the air conditioning as hard. Remember with auto HVAC you aren't necessarily aware of everything going on, but it can make a big difference to the load on that battery.

 

No.

This is not possible.

 

well, something is causing it. how much testing have you done?

 

5g is the worst thing that ever happen, it a chines conspiracy

 

I'm just trying to figure out what that has to do with tax credits.

As for your traction battery, my first guess would be that it's nearing the end of its life and working a LOT harder in the hot afternoon with air conditioning and baking in the sun in Tucson all day. You didn't mention weather or shade or anything, so it's just a guess based on your location and symptoms. I park a couple hundred feet from a cell tower all day in the shade and nothing like that ever happened to my 2005, my PiP, my Prime, or my wife's 2007 Prius. Heat is brutal on a battery and death on an old battery. I'd guess the Dr. Prius app would show it as being pretty low in life expectancy.

 

I’d be very surprised if a 5G base station or any other nearby RF source has such an effect, because (among other reasons)...

...when the car is parked—that is, any time it’s not in READY—the hybrid vehicle ECU opens the system main relays, physically breaking the circuit very close to the terminals of the HV battery, so no current can flow, just as when the orange service plug has been removed.

This safety function is monitored, so if a relay were stuck, you’d see warning lights and a diagnostic trouble code (DTC) would be stored. See the diagram under “SMR (System Main Relay) Control” in 2004 Prius New Car Features (more info), page TH-49, and the Repair Manual information for DTCs P0AA1 and P0AA4.

I’ve seen some weird things happen because of EMC issues, but not usually on regular-production cars—the automakers tend to test throughly—and in this case, I’d look for other causes.

 

I agree with many others here that it is AC load with old near end of life battery that causes the drain on battery. It has nothing to do with 5G.

I too notice same thing (battery bars going rapidly down within 1000 ft) after not using the car for a couple days. I believe the SOC or battery bars you see on MFD after starting the car is the cached old value. It does not account for internal discharge. Thus when it starts getting new values those go rapidly down, further enhanced by significant load from AC. You may want to force charge the battery to make sure it is fully charged before turning the car off. That is what I do before preparing the car when I know I would not be using it for a few days.

Force charging can be performed by using one foot on brake and other on gas and putting the car in drive. You need to be careful though by putting the car in park and turning it off before releasing the brake so that car does not jump and hit something.

 

how much a/c load can there be a/c on a car after 1,000' of driving?

 

It's not the 1000' of driving. It's the 8ish hours of (presumably) daytime parking in Tucson leading up to that drive.

 

understood, but the a/c can only draw its max, no matter the temp. unless it took ten minutes to drive 1,000'.

 

Right, my point is that it probably isn't maxing out for the morning commute. I hypothesize that if it were, OP would see the same effect in the first 1000' of leaving home in addition to seeing it when going home.

 

Not just the load, but the battery capacity. If you have half the capacity of a new battery, that otherwise no-problem air conditioning load starts to become an issue.

@yups, there's a simple test to check your theory. Park somewhere else away from the cell towers for the same amount of time during the same part of the day with the same amount of sunshine and heat on the car. I think you'll see what everyone else with old traction batteries see when they park in the heat. In fact, that's one of the classic signs of a traction battery that's getting old.

 

I did not mean the energy Ac used in 1000 feet of driving alone. AC would use battery keeping SOC low when being parked. That along with internal discharge and additional requirement from AC would drive it down further.

 

i think we need more details

 

The Five Stages of Prius Hybrid Operation | PriusChat

S1:
...No power is being drawn from the ICE, but it is running. Also in Stage 1 you will notice that battery power is used for even mild acceleration. In Stage 1 the HSD prefers not to draw power from the ICE if it is not necessary.

This is the reason the first 1000 feet will draw down the SOC of the HV battery, becoming more noticeable as the battery gets older.

 

Excellent point in addition to the air condidtioning difference between morning and afternoon.

 

I'm simply "betting" NO to the OP's creative hypothetical as to why their Hybrid Battery seems prematurely drained.

The reason I'm doing this is the hypothetical-Cell Towers somehow draining the battery, is the opposite of Occams Razor.
That is, it's not the simplest or even most direct possible reason for the OP's symptoms.

My side bet?
Is in a 2006 Prius? It's more likely early signs of failure from a aging Hybrid Battery. No cell tower needed.
I would suspect unusual rapid drain will simply continue to get worse, parked at work or otherwise.

Not particularly good news for the OP, but I could be wrong.