12v battery at 4 years

32k miles per year!

Are you an Uber driver?


My battery is 3.5 years, but I only 38k miles on the car and the voltage (with load and without load) seems to be holding up fine.

Battery worries me as I would not like to be stranded somewhere.


iPhone ?

 

I just went out to my 2010 (Aug '09) and the lights blinked and flashed and sputtered out. I was literally thinking this morning how long my 12v has lasted (although I only have 40k miles).
I made a few phone calls to see what was available locally and eventually decided on getting an Optima on Amazon for $160 after tax and free 2 day shipping with a trial Prime account.

I have recently had worse gas mileage than any time in the last 5 years. I assumed it was an oil change I had done a while back. I thought maybe they used non synthetic. I'm now wondering if it was the bad 12v battery. We'll see in a couple days.

 

True, despite the popular myth that a Prius's 12V is a lot smaller than any "regular" car battery. Batteries that skimpy in conventional vehicles are nothing new. Ford, for example, installed OE batteries of about the same AH capacity (but different physical dimensions) as a Prius 12V in full-size pickup trucks 50 years ago. Those old engines took more power to crank than a modern Honda's.

 

I replaced mine at 50 months. It seems that on average, four years is the normal life expectancy on this particular 12V.

I'm going to automatically look at getting a new battery at 96 months

 

once you run it down, it's pretty much over. they don't like to be drained. mine is the same age, and like brand new. and it sits in the cold 5 weeks every winter.

 

please keep us posted. i'm about the cross the 100k mile mark any day now on my 2012 and i'm wondering about the battery since its never been replaced. I also been suffering the mpg drop, i use to average 50 mpgs and now i'm in the low 40's.

 

One sign of a failing aux battery is the drop in mileage. What will you do when it leaves you stranded? Replace it ASAP.

 

That's 8 years, is that what you meant?

 

Since I had to wait a couple days to get the battery delivered from amazon, I charged the old one. It held over the next couple days just fine.
When I received the new Optima battery I installed it and have driven it for a few days. My mpg went from 44 to 51. So I definitely had a bad cell.
BTW when swapping out batteries if you have a charger hook it up before you start the swap out. By doing this you don't lose any settings on your nav, radio, etc. With the jumper terminals up front it's very easy and convenient.

If you have a bad cell in your 12v the traction battery will constantly try to charge the 12v through the inverter because it thinks the 12v is too low. This constant charging lowers your MPG.

 

Mine is at 6 years now but it has only 82k miles. Not bad at all.

 

just purchased an optima battery from jet.com using a new member 15% coupon it came out to $125 free shipping no tax.... will be reporting back regarding mpg's ...

 

After reading this thread, I went ahead and replaced my OE battery from 10/09 with an Optima. Better be safe than stuck

 

good deal. did you have to modify the terminals?