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What does this indicate?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by brin wood, Mar 6, 2015.

  1. brin wood

    brin wood Member

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    Drove 80 miles on interstate, battery indicator blue and near the top. About 3 miles from home indicator all green. About 1 mile to go, indicator showed 3 blue bars. Anybody know what is going on? Also how does one read the consumption screen, I can't figure out what it is telling me!
     
  2. stonerider

    stonerider Member

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    How many miles on your 2006 Prius?

    Your HV battery may be going bad, if it starts fluctuating rapidly from full to empty and back. Drive it until your dashboard lights with errors and warnings, some people call it "Christmas lights". Your Prius can be driven even after the Christmas lights, so no worries. After it happens, look into the various options, including the Dealer's $2500 battery replacement.
     
  3. andrewclaus

    andrewclaus Active Member

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    It this a new condition, or just something you've never noticed before?

    In my case, I have to climb a slight grade to get home, and that usually drains the battery to three bars or so in just a mile. It's normal for me and my battery. Variables could be a cold engine, heavy payload, extreme wind, etc. Or maybe your old battery is just starting to lose some capacity. I put a salvaged traction battery in a couple of years ago when I noticed a change.

    I'm a retired engineer, so the consumption screen is what I normally leave on. Living near mountains, I enjoy seeing the bar graph as a negative of the terrain--when I'm climbing the graph is low, when I'm descending the graph goes high. My fuel gauge isn't always consistent and the "miles" number gives me distance since last fill-up which is more consistent. I enjoy watching the average mpg, which could be an indication of possible car problems, strong winds on a road trip, etc.

    My friend who's a CPA and MBA and CEO just turns off the screen--he has no idea what it all means and it's a distraction.
     
  4. brin wood

    brin wood Member

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  5. brin wood

    brin wood Member

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    Thanks for the quick reply. My Prius is still under the 150000 warranty. In NY anyway. You mentioned the dealer's $2,500 deal. What's with that? Is that if I get stuck with having to pay for one?
    Experience with my dealer is not a good one. But there are others in the area.
     
  6. brin wood

    brin wood Member

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    Oh, forgot to say my Prius has 131K on it. A 2006 model.
     
  7. Kevin06prius

    Kevin06prius Junior Member

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    I thought the 150k warranty was not for NY? Correct me if I'm wrong. I also have an 06 prius but I have 159k on mine.
     
  8. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Normal

    You descended a large hill? Even just decelerating from the interstate and taking an exit ramp can easily give 7 bars - which may well be what you describe as "all green".

    You sat in traffic with the aircon running?

    There are normal everyday scenarios which cause the SOC to vary by these amounts and more. Without knowing exactly what the driving conditions were on the day, no one can say if there is anything anomalous or not about your observations.
     
    #8 uart, Mar 6, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2015
  9. brin wood

    brin wood Member

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    NO AC! Only 12 above zero. No hills! Level to my house. NY and CA have the 150K battery warranty. It was totally green, no space at the top; then dropped to 3 bars when I stopped. Never seen this before.
     
  10. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Well in that case then I'd say that your Prius is exhibiting excessive swings in SOC, which is often a sign of a weakened or soon to fail HV battery.

    Unfortunately however, Toyota does not give warranty replacement on weakened or soon to fail batteries, only on actually failed ones. If it fails completely you will get the "red triangle of doom" displayed on the dash and the computer will log the associated fault code which allows Toyota to declare it failed and issue a warranty - if it's still within the warranty time frame when this happens.
     
    #10 uart, Mar 6, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2015
  11. miscrms

    miscrms Plug Envious Member

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    It might be worth getting it in to the dealer to document the behavior if it keeps doing it. They might replace it now, but will probably have to wait until the error codes are thrown lighting up the "christmas tree." Having its current behavior documented now could be helpful if it ends up failing right around the time the warranty expires. Keep in mind I believe its 10 years also, not just 150k miles (assuming you are in a CARB state). I would assume that goes from date of build on the VIN plate, which could easily be mid to late 2005 on an '06. So the warranty could be up later this year.

    Rob
     
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  12. brin wood

    brin wood Member

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    Anyway to hurry up the failure?? lol.
     
  13. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    You could try driving a few mountain passes (ascending) very aggressively. This causes the SOC to drop to a very low level which can trigger failure in a weakened battery. Drive safely though. :)
     
  14. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    See my post "CARB Warranty Ins and Outs" but as long as you comply with all of Toyota's rules (car must be purchased and registererd in a CARB state, etc, etc, etc) free replacement is a slam dunk within 10-ys (of purchase) and 150k miles.

    As Rob said, you need to figure out your 10-yr old point. How much time do you have left? But I certainly think I'd be taking it to the dealer for check up, becuase they may replace it for you free 'cause why not? Good for you, good for them. Toyota pays.

    Wish I lived in a CARB state... I am same car as you but I have to pay $4000 if my batt breaks down. Though I may drive limp mode over the state border to MD to see if I can get a favorable CARB ruling. Maybe I put my arm in a fake sling and use a crutch for the sympathy vote.
     
    #14 wjtracy, Mar 7, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2015
  15. nh7o

    nh7o Off grid since 1980

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    Not from what has been shown about dealer service departments. For them, there is no problem until the car sets a DTC, so they won't be interested at all in changed behavior that is within the bounds the car sets as acceptable.
     
  16. nh7o

    nh7o Off grid since 1980

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    Just a general comment on this topic. I notice that my SOC can vary quite a bit from trip to trip. I drive the same road every time, and the temperature and general conditions don't change much either. There is a fair bit of variabililty to what the meter tells me, with some trips showing very minimal dips into the lower ranges, and some trips swinging quite a bit more, on the same stretch of road. It has been my suspicion that the battery ECU does attempt some sort of battery balancing by allowing lower SOC sometimes, and not others.
     
    #16 nh7o, Mar 7, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2015
  17. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    The time part of the warranty starts when the car was first placed in service. For a new car that is the day it was bought.