problems with Optima D51 yellowtop

My commute is similiar to yours and I don't have this problem. I am on the original traction battery though. I do have the optima in my '01 and my son has a similiar commute as well. We have not had any issues like this on it either.

If I were in your shoes, I would put the battery on a charger and watch it charge (not literally but monitor it). I have a Schumaker charger that lets you watch the charge percentage rise as it charges. I have heard that short trips do not allow the battery to fully charge but, I haven't personally experienced any problems.

 

We have a gen3 with the OEM battery, but I'm responding since I have a short commute.

We have a 1.5 mile commute, but do a fair amount of additional driving most of the time. When that's not the case for a while, I use a BatterMinder Plus overnight.

Measured under the hood or on the NAV screen, voltage looks low (11.7V on NAV), but measured at the battery itself, resting voltage is 12.6V after sitting overnight even though I have not used the BM+ on it for months now. Wondering if I have a poor ground to the NAV's measuring point?

We have had no problems, but I think our battery was struggling a bit prior to using the BM+. We've had the car 2.5 years and gone 34,000 miles.

 

My wife's 07 Prius with a month old Optima battery stopped working last night and I had to jump the battery. She barely use the fan while parked outside the mall when it happened.

I drove it home around town for awhile and did the diagnostic on the Prius Display. It showed 12.4 v when I turned on the Acc and increased to 14.1 when I powered on. The battery should be fine.

She also has very short trips to the office less than 1/2 mile and we rarely use the 07 or for longer trips after we got the 2012 PIP.

It's never healthy for the battery or engine with those short trips and left unused or little use for days.

 

There was a bad batch of Optima batteries. Keep a eye on them. Short trips should not drain the 12V battery. Almost no charge is used to start the car. Do check for lights left on. The hatch light is the most likely to be left on. It's hard to tell it's on in daylight.

 

Hoary old question: do you *always* lock the car?

 

The hatch light should automatically go off when hatch is closed, even if the hatch light switch is on.