Battery recharge

This seems quite normal, it will never reach a full charge unless you are going downhill for 5 miles straight. It MIGHT at that time go completely full.

 

I have read that it stays 1 or 2 bars below full to allow for energy from the regenerative braking or coasting to have a place to go. My Prius C has only ever been full during a long downhill run where my mpg read 99.9 for over 8 miles as I coasted and used the brakes a lot. Once on flat roads again it only took a short while for the battery to go back to the familiar 'almost full' display.

 

6 bars, that is exactly where the car tries to keep.

You don't list a location. Many flatlanders will never see the top bar. If you are in Florida, the highest 'mountain' descent probably is not be enough to push it all the way to the top.

 

dj2,

I agree with the other posters. Nothing to worry about. The Prius hybrid system is designed to keep from "filling" up the battery. At 6 bars it really is only about 65% full. At 8 bars (Top of Battery in Display) the battery is only 80% full. Toyota designed the system to not fill the traction battery more than 80% or drain it less that 40%. This promotes battery longevity. That is why you will read posters saying deep discharges of the traction battery excessively or completely filling the traction battery excessively is not good for the battery. For best longevity it is suggested to keep the battery basically somewhere around 60 to 80%. That does not mean to freak out if you see two bars either. The Prius computer system will take care of the traction battery for you. It will automatically turn on the ICE (gas engine) as needed to recharge the battery IF it gets to 40% or below. Also, if you get it above 80% the ICE will begin to run a little faster than normal while the system bleeds off the excess current. This will happen if you go down a long mountain road and fill up the battery. It will sound like the engine is racing and revving up real high. Again, don't worry about it. It is all normal. To sum it up, the battery is the least of your worries with the Prius.

As long as you do the required maintenance on your Prius, you should get many trouble free miles out of her. I do suggest you "regularly" check all fluid levels under the hood, especially the ICE oil. For some reason folks today seem to forget to check the oil when they buy fuel. The engine oil is the ICE's blood line. Just like your body, the blood in your body provides life to you, your heart and organs. Whereas the oil in your ICE provides life to all the internal parts within your ICE. If the oil gets low, damage can happen which can get rather expensive to repair and or replace. If you regularly check the oil level, you will have an idea if the Prius is using any oil. If it is not using oil, DO NOT stop checking it. Keep on checking it. Because at some point your Prius will start using oil. If you don't catch it when it starts using oil, you will likely damage the engine. Oil is a lot cheaper than a engine.

Best of luck to you and welcome to Prius Chat!

Ron (dorunron)

 

Owners manual has a section on things you can easily check - one of them being the oil level when you pull out the oil dipstick and see the reference marks on it.

 

Totally normal as already clarified but I would like to add some battery related advise

I have not had my gen 3 long, I achieved excellent mileage but I was trying to use the battery as much as possible. I would lift and glide back into battery mode to provoke it back onto battery.

The hybrid system is actually much more intelligent than I am. Simple continue to pulse and glide and get up to speed relatively quickly primarily using the far right of your Eco bar but once the car switches from battery back to ice let it, don't provoke it back. Depleting the battery is not the way to go, the engine has to recover those losses and your mileage will suffer.

I run mostly on ev under 30-35 mph and sometimes up to 45 mph on the flat, let it go onto ICE when it switches.

My mileage got better after understanding this.

 

I have my second GenIII and I saw full battery about 5 times combined

This is quite normal unless you live in a hilly area .

 

So far I have found that on level streets at speeds of 30 or less my Prius C is very happy to run on battery power until it gets to 2 bars where it restarts the car and I can't force it back into battery mode - so it's much smarter than me if I wasn't paying attention. Only time I have seen all bars full was on a 9 mile leg of a 40 mile trip where we were all downhill coasting and using the brakes.

 

JP, you will actually get better mileage and more longevity of the traction battery if you "Pulse and Glide" rather than EV'ing as you are doing. All that power coming out of the battery has to be replaced by burning fuel in the ICE.

Try a tank of fuel both ways doing the same commute. I believe you will see a difference.

Best of luck to you,
Ron (dorunron)

 

The areas where I do run by EV I have tried that but it's mostly areas where the speed limit is under 30 so I can't get up enough speed to get that to work - car routinely shuts down the ICE after a few seconds and goes straight to battery. As these spots are only a few miles in distance and not a routine part of my daily driving it would be difficult to attempt enough mileage using both methods to make any useful meaning of any results.

 

Normal

 

Interesting. My 2011 gen III used to never show a full topped off battery and when I got the software recall update I see the battery full completely after going down hills while lightly braking. Does not last long but it's the only thing I noticed in the 3 years I have owned it. Getting about 44 mpg too. Gets higher when I reset the display but gradually it will bottom out at 44 mpg.


iPhone ?

 

I was worried the last few days about my battery charge. Normally, at least for me, it was always one bar from FULL. Now it seems to want to stay 2 bars under the full mark. Today it did go to the one bar below full but only stayed there momentarily.
The car has only 28k on it and I am in Pa. there are some hills and some flat. But it just seems to have changed to the two bars below full condition recently. I was sure the thing was crapping out on me. After reading these posts I guess I am OK.

Should I just ignore it as normal or go to the stealer and have them check it, if they can?

I have only ever seen it full to the top once in the 2 years I have had it, one bar below was normal for me.

Thanks,

ES44AC

 

I live in a "hilly area". My daily commute takes me from 950 feet above sea level to near zero above sea level in 18 miles round trip.
I see full bars on the battery level indicator every day on my way to work. I notice sometimes when hitting 1 bar below full on the battery level sometimes the ICE will fire up to burn off excess energy(no fuel burned). This is usually in the morning when the battery and ambient temperature is cold(55f). During the day when ambient temperature is closer to room temperature, AC is being used to cool the cabin, the battery will indicate full bars and the ICE will sometimes run near the bottom of a hill to "burn off" excess charge with no fuel being used, and when coasting the the HSI will briefly indicate no regen.
I used to use B mode when descending some hills around here but now just leave it in D. I can easily tell when the regen braking no longer functions;(No inverter whine and touchy brakes). I notice the excess battery charge will be used up very quickly when acclerating on the flat or ICE spin, and regen will resume normally after a short time, so unless your descending a very long hill where you think your brakes will melt, B mode is pretty useless.