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125,000 miles ?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by chrisasst, Oct 5, 2015.

  1. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    and she never saw it go to two bars before?
     
  2. chrisasst

    chrisasst Junior Member

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    No and I drive it in winter and have never seen purple/2 bars.


    iPhone ?
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    interesting. i think i saw two purple within a few days when i bought my first prius in '04.

    does the o/m have any helpful info?
     
  4. Eclipse1701d

    Eclipse1701d Prius Enthusiast

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    Well, there is nothing wrong with two purple bars. My '07 frequently did that and my '13 drops to two bars on occasion, as well. It all has to do with the current drive you are on. So, that is not a problem. Perhaps you are noticing it more because it is time to change the 12v aux battery. If it is getting low, it may be pulling more power from the inverter, while driving, to keep it charged. Check the levels on it and report back.
     
  5. ILuvMyPriusToo

    ILuvMyPriusToo Senior Member

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    Although two purples still surprises me, that means that your hybrid battery is still at 60% or so. The system keeps the battery in the upper range of its charge for the best lifetime performance and doesn't let you drop below that (unless your gasoline engine can't start to charge it up.)
     
  6. chrisasst

    chrisasst Junior Member

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    I put a brand new 12v in it this year because the cold killed the other one.


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  7. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Well the good news, is you are STILL under warranty. And more importantly previous "luck" or experience has little or nothing to do with what may or may not happen in the future moving forward.

    Sort of assuming you bought the car new, or nearly new, and you feel it's been maintained and is in good shape in all other regards?

    If that's close to being the situation, I'd just keep driving it. Prius have a reputation for reliability, and regardless of fears of HV battery failure shortly after passing warranty, the truth is you could drive the Prius for a whole lot more miles and have no problem.

    You could go to the dealership and get your fears documented, which "might" help you if you did have a HV Battery failure shortly past warranty, but you are still a few years and 25,000 miles from expiration, and unless your battery is throwing codes I would suspect the dealership would do nothing. With a 25,000 mile cushion of warranty, my other speculation is that IF your Hybrid Battery is in the process of failing, you actually might be on the positive flip side of the equation, which is a failure just before reaching the end of warranty. In which case you would get a replacement under warranty.

    Also if you can't afford the less than $5000 for a new Hybrid Battery replacement, could you afford the cost of buying a whole new vehicle? If used, is that vehicle going to be in any better shape than The Prius?

    I would just keep driving it. Monitoring behavior, and looking for a code. 25,000 miles is still quite a cushion.
    Bad Luck in the past, doesn't guarantee bad luck in the future. I see two scenario's that would be "good" luck. You keep driving it for 50,000- 100,000 more miles with no major problem. Or the battery is indeed failing and it fails before the end of warranty.

    The ONLY scenario that is possible, that could be bad, would be the failure of the battery ONLY after passing the warranty period. Even though there IS a chance this could happen, it actually seems like a relatively unlikely scenario, and even with this worst case scenario, a New OEM HV battery is going to be cheaper than almost any new vehicle you could buy.

    Really, the factor I would look at is how you feel about the vehicles condition on all other fronts. If you feel it's in good shape? I'd just keep driving it.