Has running out of gas killed my hybrid battery?

Yeppers...you're done. Good job.

 

it's unusual, but the battery may have been weak to begin with. how many miles on her?

 

Before being convinced that it has been killed, get a few more opinions first. The folks I'd trust on this have not yet weighed in.

 

The design logic problem with Gen2, when you run out of gas, the car keeps going on HV battery power. If you discharge the HV battery too low, well, that's the problem. Gen3 I think they fixed this...the car will stop before the HV battery is discharged when out of gas. By all means get the experts opinion but, maybe you ran the battery charge too low.

Here's cool web page of Dorman battery installers, if needed:
Dorman Hybrid Drive Batteries - Installers

 

Have it scanned and checked professionally. I doubt that running it out of fuel would have killed it. Your nearing the end of the batteries service life, sounds more like a coincidence to me.

 

Running out of fuel can kill a marginal battery. Basically you took a few thousand miles off the life of the pack, which means what was maybe barely working can now be not working.

As to "running for 15seconds then shutting off" that sounds very much like no fuel is getting pumped in because remember MG1 spins the engine off of the battery pack. And it gives up and lights up like a christmas tree around that point.

How many gallons did you put in? A "tank" for some means whatever spare change they have instead of fulling up to the top.

If it can't spin fast enough to start it up because your pack is too low, then the gas engine will never start and you have a chicken and egg problem. This is why 1 bar under normal circumstances is 40%. It can start the engine down to about 18% or so. But you can run in EV only when out of gas to that level, well below the safe 40%. Then every subsequent start you lost a little bit of SOC.

Do you have a scanguage or other CAN reader?

 

Do you mean 170K miles on the odometer?

I suggest that you disconnect the 12V battery for a few minutes, then reconnect and make the Prius READY. See if the driveability symptoms persist. If yes, read the DTC again and if you still get P0A80 then you'll have to figure out how you want to replace the traction battery.

I personally would try to buy a used 3G traction battery and move the 28 modules into the 2G traction battery case.

 

I learn a lot from this forum. Great informed answer.

 

Try to make the Prius READY again. When you hear the gasoline engine spin up, then depress the accelerator pedal and see if the engine will increase its speed.

If the engine will not increase its speed, then you will know that it is not actually running. Rather MG1 is spinning the engine in an attempt to start it.

After a while, when the engine does not start, the hybrid vehicle ECU will stop MG1 to avoid draining the traction battery excessively.

 

Assuming the gasoline engine does not actually start, read the DTC again and see what is logged. If there are codes other than P0A80, then post and we can discuss what to do about them.

 

I'm surprised no-one has stated the obvious. Why don't you take (tow) the car to your dealer and have them charge up the HV battery before declaring the HV to be dead?

Just my 2c worth.

 

doj,
There are some dealers that will not charge up the high voltage oack.
Instead they will simply sell you a new one, since you have a P0A80 "replace hybrid battery" code showing.

wideslider,
It's unlikely your battery is completely dead. But it is likely that you drove the voltage down too low for the car to start. And the more times you try to start it, the worse things will get.

After Memorial Day, I could sell you a charger that you can install yourself that would charge up the pack.
(The chargers are still finishing being tested/made ready for sale.) My guess is that you don't want to wait that long.

Where are you located? If you are near me, I can do an emergency charge of your pack.

 

Best avoid these charlatans, IMO.

I thought it was SOP to recharge the pack in this (ran out of gas, ran the HV low/flat) scenario.

 

You would think so, but I had a customer who offered to pay them for this service and the dealer outright refused to do it.

Apparently the dealer does not have a high voltage pack charger on site and needs to get it from some central location. Maybe they thought it was too much of a hassle?

 

Sadly it seems that customer service is disappearing, in favor of big bucks.