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2007 Prius Battery question

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by irfanlai, Nov 12, 2023.

  1. irfanlai

    irfanlai Junior Member

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    Hello,

    This is for my friend who is trying to use a 2007 Prius of a colleague which has been sitting idle for more than a year now.

    The car is not starting so we jump started using the battery in the trunk. We drove for 30 minutes and then tried again but it's not working.

    So questions.
    1. What is the front and back battery used for?
    2. Can I use the front battery to jump-start?
    3. If the car is not starting and we need to replace the battery which one should I replace front or back?
    4. How do I check if the Hybrid battery is good?
    5. What else we can check to make sure the car is back running normally
     
  2. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    There is no "front" battery, the jumpstart point attached to the engine room fuse box is merely a connection point to the 12 V battery that is located in the RR wheel well.
    As above there is no "front" battery, it is a connection point and is exactly for jumpstarting if that is more convenient than connecting in the back. The only consideration to making sure the front jump point works well is to ensure the battery terminal clamps on the battery are sitting correctly and are clean and tight. The earth strap connection to the body should also be clean and tight.
    As above, there is only one battery so the battery in the back is what would be replaced.
    You would need a capable scan tool and that would be best to use initially. A review and discussion of some options are in this thread: Gen2 OBD2 app review. With that, you can see battery voltages and observe battery behavior. I wouldn't bother though unless there were drivability issues.
    Check for codes. If there are none and the car runs okay then nothing further to do.
     
    #2 dolj, Nov 12, 2023
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2023
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  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Don't use the front jump points that's the best advice I can give you at this point they're very weak they'll make your charger leads heat up You can even feel the fuse box taking on heat I don't use it the red jump point up in the front of the car where your headlights are and your windshield wipers are just don't open the hood go to the trunk remove the little plastic tab and put your jumper cables where they used to go in the front of your car where the battery was do that in the trunk It's a smaller battery than the cars you've always owned but it's still a 12 volt battery just like in the front of all of your other cars over your life they just put this one in the trunk. Once you get the car running and you're driving it if you put the display in the center of the dash on consumption or energy what do you see the battery in the middle of the screen doing not looking at the batteries in the trunk the one on the screen while you're driving the car Do you see the blue bars going up does it go from blue to magenta or red color and then to green fairly quickly like within a minute minute and a half You see it go from blue bars moving up filling the battery then it drops down to one or two bars of magenta red and then all of a sudden it's 3/4 full of green If you see that going on you need to be dealing with the hybrid battery taking the case off looking at the bus bars playing whack-a-mole all of that stuff You can read about all that here for days My personal opinion is don't do it figure out what you need to do to get another battery that's working properly get somebody to build you one You want to try to build your own fine learning curves reasonably steep you need hobby chargers and all this kind of stuff It's not that much fun so there's always that refurbed batteries now are cheap hell even a brand new one from Toyota is fairly reasonable I know it's hard to wrap your head around but it's just the way it is thank God you're not trying to go electric yet that's even worse. So check that out I'm sure you didn't notice when you were doing all this just by what I've read so far so get the car running again go for a drive don't worry about turning it off and turning it back on we're barking up the wrong trees here. Get the car driving notice your energy monitor film it if you like whatever trips your trigger then you going to try and get that sorted out that going from magenta to blue to green and so on and so forth that shouldn't happen that fast that should take 12 to 22 minutes or something like that I watch this stuff all the time just to see differences I own six of these cars generation 2 '06 to '09 Prius right here looking at them out my window.
     
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  4. Primetime Paul

    Primetime Paul Junior Member

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    You need to replace the 12 volt battery, the one you jumped. This battery runs the accessories and lights.

    1. What is the front and back battery used for? There are 2 batteries, High voltage traction battery for driving and 12v battery for the accessories lights,radio,power steering starting etc.
    2. Can I use the front battery to jump-start? If you're referring to the HV battery, no.
    3. If the car is not starting and we need to replace the battery which one should I replace front or back? The back battery the one you jump started.
    4. How do I check if the Hybrid battery is good?
    Dr. Prius app, this is the easiest.
    5. What else we can check to make sure the car is back running normally. Start by scanning for OBD2 trouble codes.

    Pixel 7 Pro ?
     
    #4 Primetime Paul, Nov 12, 2023
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2023
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    1) where is the front battery? i can't find it.
    2) you can use the front jump point in the fuse box, it is attached to the rear battery
    3) try replacing the front and let us know how it goes
    4) tech stream
    5) check for trouble codes
     
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    read this thoroughly, a lot of good advice here
     
  7. Kiwi7910

    Kiwi7910 Junior Member

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    Expect to replace the 12v battery every five years. The car won't start without it. It should have a date of manufacture on it, so you can check if it has been changed recently.
     
  8. irfanlai

    irfanlai Junior Member

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    Thank you for the details reply. This helps a lot.

    Thank you for explanation.
     
    #8 irfanlai, Nov 12, 2023
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 13, 2023
  9. irfanlai

    irfanlai Junior Member

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    UPDATE:
    So we tried today jump starting using Noco jumpstart kit and also connecting with another car (CRV) but the battery is totally dead. Does not even show any dashboard lights.
    So next we will switching the battery.

    How easy it is to replace the Prius battery?
    Does Costco sell Prius batteries?
    Which is the recommended battery and from where we should buy it?
     
  10. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    You need to not be piggy backing jumper cables with your noco GB70 not a good idea

    You're just trying to get lights to come on and computers to boot up You're 12 volt batteries using maybe a whopping two amps for this at best three possibly just to get you lit up nothing is doing anything except the electronics so you shouldn't need to be stacking a bunch of cables on your battery post to make lights to be honest about it
     
    #10 Tombukt2, Nov 13, 2023
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 14, 2023