Hybrid Battery dying - What are my options?

You can drive to CA and register the car there again. Then you will still be covered under warranty. If it's $3500 for a new battery, I would make the drive and do a temporary registration.

Triple AAA can do all that stuff for you in a few minutes. Then just drive straight to the dealership and get a new battery.

 

Calm down, you are probably way overthinking it. Not to say there isn't a possibility of a bad battery, but I know those passes, especially on I-70.

The Prius when driven properly will scale those passes at speed (80mph+). If driven like the majority of drivers do, you will lose speed and never recoup it. The Prius is just powerful enough to maintain speed on the I-70 passes with full throttle. Anything less you lose speed and no amount of throttle will allow you to gain speed above 50-60mph on most of the passes unless you already started above that.

Charging to "1/2 to 3/4" of the battery meter is exactly what it is supposed to do. The car wants the charge in the 3-6 bar range. Bars 7 and 8 it doesn't like. Bar 1 and 2 it doesn't like either.

Top it all off with the fact that going up a big hill and drawing huge power out of the battery only to go down a big hill and shove it back in super quick multiple times will make the battery very hot. When the battery is hot, it limits output power even further. A hot battery is an unhappy battery.

Considering 10 minutes of "idling" didn't produce a full green battery I would say your battery is actually doing just fine. The driver just needs to understand how the Prius works. When driving in the mountains, you floor the pedal up the hills. DO NOT take your foot off the accelerator for even a hesitation, because it will never regain speed. Obviously this is extreme, but those hills are extreme. We take our Prius up to Summit County nearly every weekend the resorts are open in the 6+ months of winter.

 

Are you sure you even have a problem? On long hills, I've seen the battery get to two bars many times. There's no need to stop and force charge the battery, just keep going and it'll use the engine to pick up the slack. The car won't keep using the battery until it damages it. I've gone up many hills with the cruise at 75mph and it just chugs along, but like Toaster said, make sure you maintain your speed, because you don't have enough engine power to accelerate up steep hills.

 

Sorry to hear about the problems. Perhaps you can call that dealership to retrieve the error codes for interpretation here.

I'm a little skeptical that the work done was relevant. Needed preventive maintenance perhaps, but very expensive.*

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As for Prius in the mountains,
The advice given was right -- once the battery is discharged there is not a lot of engine power left to climb mountains and certainly not to gain speed. The trick is to avoid battery discharge to very low levels by accelerating early (best is before the incline) and then climbing the mountain with steady power demand.

The goal in mountain climbing is too keep the battery in reserve. Spend more of your TOTAL power budget for the climb early. The reasons are a bit obscure, but it works well.

* DIY preventive maintenance is easy on a Prius and saves a LOT of money. If you are inclined to do some of the work, this forum has oodles of help and tutorials.

 

what does the battery meter do on flat roads?

 

If you are strong and careful and mechanically adept, you can buy a used battery off ebay and install it.
2009 Toyota Prius | eBay

If you want some one else to install it, consider a re-manufactured battery
Hybrid Auto Repair Shop in Los Angeles, CA | Hybrid Battery Replacement
Auto Repair in Culver City | Mechanic | Modesti's

 

You have a good CO battery shop Boulder Hybrids (3ProngMike here I believe).

See my write up on CARB Warranty Ins-and-Outs: Toyota requires, in addition to vehicle being first bought and registered in a CARB state and normally driven in a CARB state, that you are currerntly registered in a CARB state and now normally drive in a CARB state...so I think you are going to have trouble there, even if you re-register in CA temporarily...but it's all 1-on-1 with Toyota so you can try your luck.

Bottom line, though, you just gotta be registered in a CARB state to get the 150k miles warranty. That's the first requirement, and then we can talk about the other special requirements Toyota has, but no manufacturer gives CARB coverage if you're registered in a non-CARB state.

CARB Warranty Ins-and-Outs (and In-Out-Ins) | PriusChat

 

You have some great hybrid mechanics in Denver and Boulder.
Are you near either of them?

I'm certain they can install a refurbished battery for under $3500.

Or if you need one sent for you to put in yourself I can always help out as well.

 

Hi Chris, can you please clarify something about this. Why exactly were you "forced" to pull over? I understand that the Prius can be sluggish on a climb after the usable battery charge is depleted, however it should still be drivable and capable of making the summit (albeit somewhat sluggishly).

Was it concern over damaging the battery by depleting it that 'forced" you to stop? Or was it concern about travelling too slowly (in relation to the speed limit) that made you pull over.

Please let us know exactly what the situation was. Thanks.

 

hey uart, or anyone else that wants to chime in.. bringing up running on depleted HV battery ... we noticed last weekend while we were stuck in a mile-long line waiting to get into a concert venue, that the car shakes a lot when we're slowly moving and the battery is in the purple zone. Is that kinda normal?

 

Yeah when I get stuck in traffic like that it's great for a while, with everything running on electric. After a while when it gets down to about 2 bars however, the engine has to kick in literally every time you want to move forward, even if it's only a few car lengths. The shaking was probably just the engine cutting in and out, or maybe also doing a fast idle to try and recharge the battery.

 

A battery that is in failure mode can make the Prius nearly impossible to drive. Shaking, shuddering, or outright refusing to run at all.
It's not like when your healthy battery is low, in these situations the battery is dying.

 

3ProngPaul that is.

 

Hey OP, if you have no warning lights on, just keep driving and learn the car. As for the mountains, just remember that it's a 75hp engine moving a heavy car.

 

Another Coloradan here. I agree that it doesn't sound like anything's wrong. We've had three Gen 2's in the extended family since new and that's exactly how they are on the I-70 (and many of the other) climbs. The traction battery usually reaches minimum charge around 1/2-2/3 of the way to the summit, depending on how charged it was when the climb began and which climb you're on, and the car is pretty underpowered after that, acting like it's "slipping", etc. But there's no need to pull over. Just let it chug over the top (I like to keep the engine at around 3k rpm) and then recoup speed and charge after the summit.

 

The smaller mountain passes that I often drive don't deplete the battery, though they're about 150m (500 feet) max elevation change (more like big hills than mountains). They are still big enough to "max out" the battery to full 8 bar SOC on the descents though.

Last year I took a camping trip and did a few mountain passes that were more like 700+ meters (2300 ft) elevation change, and these were a whole different ball game! These passes weren't high speed, just really steep with switchback type bends and only 70 to 80 km/h (45 to 50 MPH) speed limits most of the climb. Yeah my SOC just kept dropping, by about half way up I was down to about 2 bars SOC and it was very sluggish. I'd have to slow to about 35 km/h around the tight bends and then I just couldn't get my speed back to the speed limit on the straight sections, usually only making it to about 60 km/h before having to slow for the next bend.

I suppose it's fortunate that the mountain passes I drive are generally steep and winding, so the speed limits you're supposed to keep to are pretty low anyway.

BTW. Can someone who's familiar with the area "google earth" those I70 passes and let me know what type of elevation *change* we're talking about here.

 

It was -really- shaky when moving (very slowly) while the battery was drained. Not engine on/engine off, i mean it was ... really really shaky. i don't know what to compare it to. Engine on/off is barely even noticeable normally unless you're listening for it ...

 

Hybrid Battery dying - What are my options?

I'm afraid the only way out of this for you is....suicide. As in get a barrister and sue Toyota.

 

On I-70 from Idaho Springs (already kind of in the mountains at 7555 ft) to the Eisenhower Tunnel (11,013 ft) is a 3,458 ft gain. From Denver to the Eisenhower tunnel on I-70 is a 5,733 ft gain (but it's spread over about 57 miles). Bypassing the tunnel and going over the old Loveland Pass takes you to 11,991 ft.