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One Bar on the Highway

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by qmanqman, Jun 15, 2020.

  1. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

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    Drove the '07 on a 40 mile highway round trip. I had it on cruise control at 80-85 mph and noticed that the battery was at one purple bar. The display would show the engine always providing power to the drive train. It would also go back and forth from charge to the battery from the engine and charge from the battery to the drive train. The battery level stayed at that single bar.

    As I exited the interstate I think I got two additional blue bars on the exit ramp alone. It's a long exit ramp. Then about 8-10 blocks into town the charge was back to the 4-6 blue bars and kinds stayed around in that neighborhood as I made it to my own neighborhood.

    Is it typical on the highway that the bars bottom out?
     
    #1 qmanqman, Jun 15, 2020
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    no, it usually bottoms out during stop and go traffic, and closer to full at highway speeds. how many miles on her?
     
    #2 bisco, Jun 15, 2020
  3. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    the only times I've seen it do anything similar to that is if most of it was up hill.
     
    #3 TMR-JWAP, Jun 15, 2020
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  4. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    A poorly maintained hybrid system in a 13 year old car that's being driven 80-85 mph in the mountains of Colorado is going to exhibit the same symptoms. Assuming you have no warning lights you still have time to get everything healthy again by eliminating corrosion on the outside and poorly conducting crystalization on the inside (replacing hardware - three increasingly deep discharge cycles of the battery aka: reconditioning).

    Currently your pack is probably down near 50% of it's original capacity and you can get that back up to 96%.
     
    #4 PriusCamper, Jun 15, 2020
  5. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

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    285,000 miles on her.

    This was not driven in the mountains. The car has been in Seattle it's entire life until about a month ago.
     
    #5 qmanqman, Jun 16, 2020
  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    With gen3 one bar displayed is never normally displayed, indicates a seriously depletion? Is gen2 similar?
     
    #6 Mendel Leisk, Jun 16, 2020
  7. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

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    I have seen one bar on multiple occasions in our Gen 2. It always worries me some, but so far no codes. I have never seen 0 bars and wonder if the software even makes provision for that. Has anyone else ever seen that? If there is at least one bar showing, does that automatically mean there is enough power to start the ICE?
     
    #7 davecook89t, Jun 16, 2020
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  8. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

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    Someone posted something here a while back that explained the bars. One bar meant 40% charge and full 8 bars means 80% charge. Something like that anyway. They didn't mean zero and 100 percentages.

    Please explain how you conclude all of this?

    How did you conclude the system is "poorly maintained"? How is a hybrid system maintained anyway?

    What is "eliminating corrosion on the outside" mean? Outside of what?

    What is "poorly conducting crystallization on the inside" mean?
     
    #8 qmanqman, Jun 16, 2020
  9. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

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    Right, but how would a 30% SOC be represented on the Gen 2 display is my question.
     
    #9 davecook89t, Jun 16, 2020
  10. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

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    Now that I've read this twice the drive back home is from an altitude of 4700 to an altitude of 6300 ft. over about 35-40 miles. Even though the climb isn't steep it is pretty constant.

    I didn't pay attention to it going the other way. I'll make sure to do that next time.
     
    #10 qmanqman, Jun 16, 2020
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  11. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    There 'ya go.... And if you're doing that climb at 80-85mph, that explains one bar on the charge.
     
    #11 PriusCamper, Jun 16, 2020
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  12. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    It's Toyota's fault... Rather than properly maintaining the nickel-based battery to maximize it's lifespan Toyota decided to get the car's computers to keep running the car even when battery is so poorly maintained it only has 50% capacity remaining so no maintenance is required and they can sell you a brand new battery for thousands of dollars rather than maintain the old one for hundreds of dollars. It's very greedy and wasteful.

    The science that explains this is here: BU-807: How to Restore Nickel-based Batteries – Battery University

    And an in depth explanation of how to recondition batteries specific to Toyota and Honda Hybrids is here: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) | Hybrid Automotive
     
    #12 PriusCamper, Jun 16, 2020
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