Battery level at 30% when i picked up my Prius after car detailing

Do you mean neutral (N) or park? (P) in park, where you hit the P button, yes the car will charge itself when needed. In neutral, for some reason the engine will not kick in to start the car. I'm not sure exactly why (maybe one of the more knowledgeable members does). There isn't much reason to put it in N except maybe some hypermiling reasons for some or to let the car roll through a car wash, but that was the issue stated in the OP.

 

I've detailed my car with music playing before and it shuts off before the battery gets too low. This was in ACC without the engine running though. Takes about 25 mins or so

 

That can be tough on the 12 volt battery. If you're near a 110 volt outlet, consider running out a cord and acquiring an old-school AM/FM portable radio with 110 plug-in.

 

Every time I take my car into the service department, it's returned with 2-3 bars. You know the dealer technicians and car jockeys are cranking the AC without the engine running. These people aren't hybrid drivers, so they don't know how to maintain the SOC. Yes, it's annoying, but it's standard practice for non-hybrid drivers. My focus is on how well they've performed the requested work.

 

I imagine they put it in park when it isn't rolling through the car wash, so it should maintain its own charge then.

 

both of ours drop to 2 bars all the time -- both 2011's -- the one has 150k+ on it. I think nothing of sitting in it for an hour with the AC on .... When we leave the city to go to one of our weekend places -- we often stop for dinner. I love the Prius or CT in this situation -- with the dog I just leave the car on.

 

I agree that he must've been in P or D, not N, if the engine came on to recharge the battery.

Why a Prius can't recharge in N seems obvious to me. By definition, the torque applied by the engine through the planetary "HSD" gearing to the motor-generator tied to the sun gear is zero in "N". Any speed multiplied by zero torque equals zero power generated. At the same time the other motor-generator, being harnessed at a fixed ratio to the wheels, is not rotating, so it can't generate any power either.

 

I was scratching my head and felt the same way as you most of the way through the thread before I figured out that these guys are talking about putting the car in Neutral, not just into Park.

I pretty much never put my car in Neutral so I've never experienced this at all. I've always read on here that putting the car in N while moving isn't recommended for a variety of reasons, and I haven't needed to do it while parked either. I just leave use Park and let the computers do all the thinking for me to keep the battery where it needs to be. In 116k miles/5 years it's never let me down.

I can't imagine a detailer or anyone else needing to put the car in N except under the most specific, free wheeling necessary, conditions. Even at the dealership I'd be stunned if they didn't just put in in Park, or turn it off.

Also, I assume the OP is using a Scanguage or something to see these specific states of charge? Does this take into account that the gauges in the dash don't actually show you 0-100% but more like 20-80% because the computers don't actually use the top or bottom 20%± of the battery capacity specifically to safeguard the battery from total discharge or true overcharge.

 

Yes, the scangauge takes it into account as it is getting the raw data from the car's computer and doing its own math conversions. On mine, 40% is when the ICE comes on and I have not had the charge higher than 71% on the scangauge, which is 7/8 bars on the dash battery indicator. If the scangauge is less than 40%, this is a lower state of charge than the car would allow before turning on the engine unless it was forced by the use of N or the engine was disabled (such as if it was out of fuel).

 

At least with my Gen 3 Prius, I know that when in neutral the HV battery will not recharge itself.
However, if it get's too low, a warning does appear on your dash, warning you that the HV battery is getting low.

I think Toyota has done a pretty good job of protecting us, from ourselves.

That is, I without direct malice being intended, I don't think a shop could drain the HV battery to a point of irretrievable failure or damage.

I've left my Prius off for service and almost always it returns with some HV battery level reduction. I've never worried about it.
I've "recently" driven through a car wash in neutral and got the fabled, your HV Battery is low warning. I was able to exit, normally, and simply drive the vehicle back to a normal state of charge. --This was somewhat surprising as I had never had this happen before, however it was a Hot day, a rather long line, and I stupidly kept the air conditioner blasting. Which is breaking most of my own rules in regards to using a drive through car wash. I'll be more attentive next time those parameters appear.

Usage and "Service" can result in different levels of HV Battery charge. But my approach is "No Harm, No Foul".
30%? ....whatever happened? I'd just drive it, the charge will rebound, and I wouldn't worry about it.

 

this thread is an overreaction

 

I would not recommend to drive through a car wash with the AC on. AC collects moisture from air in normal use so using it in the car wash is like asking for moss or fungus in the AC.

 

Once after taking my car from a mechanic I had 1 bar left. I think it's close to 20%. Car started no problem and I have no issues with it since then. But still, knowing the nature of batteries I would not let them do that again and I would not lot anyone drain the battery to 0%.
Some dealers might not know that leaving a hybrid on neutral is bad but when it comes to me I used neutral only when I went to a "pull through" car wash, besides that I'm always on P when waiting somewhere and I don't know why someone would stay in neutral.

 

do not know why, but I keep thinking of the folks on that space cruiser in WALL-E, lol. C'mon, hook up a hose, get out the bucket and sponge.

 

Are you talking about going to a car wash? Cause I live in a city in an apartment building, so no hooking up to a hose here. On top of that there is an environmental law prohibiting people to wash their cars in the city area.
They allow car wash to work cause they can control them and dictate what detergents to use and so on.

 

Yeah I can see that. So there's no car wash spot, with hose bib? Probably not, with the bylaw.

My main concern: I think regular use of car wash, the mechanical kind, leads to neglect and rust, since the corners and wheel wells aren't cleaned, and minor scratches and dents tend to go unnoticed.

 

I'm not saying full automatic car wash are the best, I know they are not but they are the only possibility for me now. I would love to find a car wash where you just put your money in the machine and a spray hose starts running and you do the cleaning yourself but I haven't found one yet. If anyone near Luxembourg knows such car wash then please let me know.