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Dead 12V battery

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by qbee42, Mar 29, 2011.

  1. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    My 2006, with original 12V battery, finally failed to start. It was stone dead. I've been expecting this for awhile, given the age of the battery, but so far it has exhibited no warning symptoms. It was just stone dead in the garage, having not been used for five days.

    I used my jump box, which I keep in the back of the Prius. Everything fired up without a hitch, other than the alarm going off when I applied power (rather loud with my head under the hood.)

    Chalking it up to an old battery, imagine my surprise when noticed the passenger reading lamp shining down on my wife's side of the car. Puzzled, I wondered how that could have been left on. I'm pretty careful about details, so I was surprised that I missed it. My wife said: "That would be my fault. I left it on when I put the car away. I knew I turned it on, and I tried to remember to turn it off..." Automatic features and careful planning are no match for a determined spouse.

    Tomorrow I get to do all of the settings again. Oh boy.

    Tom
     
    2 people like this.
  2. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    It used to take a headlight left on to do this. And it would be nice if if someone could come up with a reliable safeguard system against accidental battery drain. Still, time for a new battery anyways.
     
  4. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    As I've mentioned in many other threads, Nissans have had a feature for years which automatically shuts off all interior lights, including map lights after 30 minutes. It also handles the case of doors being left open. It's on my Z and my former 02 Maxima.

    Unfortunately, (IIRC) on my 350Z, they didn't include the hatch area lights for the auto shutoff.

    I really wish the next Prius would have the above feature, covering all cases and lights.
     
  5. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    Ha Ha. Tis True. Very True.
     
  6. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    That sucks...and you took such good care of the battery too.

    Its annoying that arming the alarm will not detect those lights on
    just the doors and hl's.

    My wife's gonna get me too eventually......:mad:
     
  7. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    And quite frankly, I'd have it no other way

    Especially when you are involved. Somebody has to keep you on your toes, and it can't always be the cat
     
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  8. DetPrius

    DetPrius Active Member

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    About the only good thing i can say about GM is they have also had this feature for quite some time now.
     
  9. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    We were only driving three miles, so there was no way the battery could charge in that short time. In time honored Prius fashion, I left ours in Ready at the restaurant. By the time we got home the battery had a good charge.

    This little episode emphasizes the utility of PriusChat. I've never before had to deal with a dead battery with my Prius, but because of PC I had everything ready and had rehearsed the steps:

    1) Mechanical key to open the driver's door.

    2) Reach back and unlock the back door.

    3) Fold down the back seat to get to the jump box.

    4) Pop the hood.

    5) Open the fuse box.

    6) Attach the jump cables.

    7) Exclaim "f*** that's loud" when alarm horn sounds.

    8) Open the driver's door to stop the alarm.

    9) Start the Prius.

    Without PC I would have had trouble with several of the steps, most notably the mechanical key and opening the fuse box. Because of planning, the whole process took less than a minute; perhaps a bit more if you include packing away the jump box.

    Tom
     
  10. GuamKelly

    GuamKelly Member

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    Takes me longer than that to move
    all the junk that's in the trunk . . .
     
  11. Rokeby

    Rokeby Member

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    Tom,

    Given the age of your battery, and the fact that it was fully discharged,
    it wouldn't surprise me if it fails to hold sufficient charge overnight tonight...
    might as well leave the jump box on the pax seat for easy access. :rolleyes:

    When the time comes, probably much sooner now than later, will you get
    a Toyota battery or the Yellow Top?
     
  12. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    I'm curious too if you will be able to salvage the battery. If you have a <4A charger, it isn't too late to put it on for a while to see how high you can push the SoC. The vast majority of owners out there do not have the foresight to know that they either need to leave the car in Ready for several hours or put it in a trickle charger immediately after finding it dead.
     
  13. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    So far the battery is holding a charge. Despite its age, my battery has two things in its favor:

    1) This is a cold climate, so it seldom heat soaks.

    2) This is the first time that it has been deep discharged.

    As for which battery I will use as a replacement when the time comes, I'm still undecided. I suppose it may come down to when and how the battery fails. If it goes all at once I will probably have to buy a battery from the dealership. If not, I will probably order a battery because of convenience (35 mile drive to dealers).

    Tom
     
  14. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    I replaced my 12V battery last week. It wasn't giving any problems yet, but the Scangauge was showing that the Coolant Heat Recovery pump was pulling the voltage down below 12V on a regular basis. I do get a lot of heat soak in the summer here (+ 100°F).

    I wimped out and bought a battery from the dealer. I was looking at some other options, but they all would have required some modification. $152 + tax, no core charge.
     
  15. Mark57

    Mark57 2021 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD

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    Crap! That's an expensive battery. Must be a miniaturization charge or something. :rolleyes:
     
  16. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    MSRP is $138.70 but I've noticed that many California Toyota dealers charge more.

    The GS Yuasa battery is made in Japan (not China) and also is packaged individually in what seems like $20 worth of packing material, so that adds to the price...
     
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  17. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    They use small electrons, which adds to the cost. At present they can't directly make the small electrons, so they start with standard ones and machine them down. It's a painstaking process which requires steady hands and good eyesight.

    An alternative process offers some hope. In this one they tumble the electrons in a drum and grind them down to the smaller size. Unfortunately, early researches testing this method were nearly killed by static shock. Adding a Bounce sheet to the drum seems to help.

    Tom
     
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  18. Mark57

    Mark57 2021 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD

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    LOL;)

    They could just feed then through a smaller gauge wire and cut them off at the end. Much simpler and cheaper. I'm off to the patent office . . . .
     
  19. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    It needs to be a tapered wire, which would work much like an extrusion die. I like this idea.

    Tom
     
  20. mikee1159

    mikee1159 New Member

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    I left my 2007 all turned on to charge my cell phone, DUH? I ran all the battery's dead. My manual was all safely tucked under the rear floor pannel (didn"t want it to get dirty.)
    Fortunately, I had read the book enough to know where to jump it under the hood, the guy that was there had a jump-box so we got it started OK. OK, so why was this a big deal--Well I had been singing the praises of my Preus and the guy was going to take a test drive with me when HE discovered that the battery was dead, my Preus is red and my face was a perfect match for it....LOL



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