Weak 12V Battery?

Roland - thank you for your advice.

 

Pleasure.

You and all the other members here on PC have always helped me out in some way over the years (even before I eventually signed up as a member).

Roland

 

That is not quite true. Often the owner will get spurious alarms, seemingly unconnected malfunctions, and for fun even check engine codes. The owner will fret, sweat, pay dumb stealerships for 'diagnosis,' and be seen looking at other Prii through the bus window.

All tell tale signs.

 

FYI, Toyota upgraded their OEM battery to an 8 year warranty. So while it costs more -- IIRC $180 at my local dealership, the cost/year is quite reasonable.

 

84 months = ? years

 

You cannot be asking what I think you are asking.
Not in the age of Google

"years in 84 months"

 

Haha, I was just poking fun at your math

 

No lack of fun there, but even more apparently when it comes to my memory.

 

What is your charger?

With any of the good choices, one hour of charging is not going to be enough. Make sure you've got smart charger, 4 amp or a bit less, capable of assessing state-of-charge, with some indicator lights.

Never mind unhooking the ground, and it's fine (actually safer) to hook up at the jump start point under the hood.

Hook it up, leave it on at least overnight, and keep an eye on it's status lights. If and when it says it's happy with the battery, disconnect, drive it for a few days, and then check voltage. Checking voltage right after charging it'll read falsely high.

Anyway, at the end of this, if it's reading around 12.6 you're out of the woods, for now. OTOH, if it's still not starting, and/or the charger doesn't give you green status lights, or the voltage keeps dropping, then it's time to start shopping.

 

As Mendel may recall, I replaced my 12v a few months ago up here and got reduced tax free delivery to the door of an Optima Yellow Top. Prior to that replacement, I looked at prices and what was available to me, but also looked at this business of battery testing.

Voltage is part of it, but you can be fooled by having a battery that has good voltage, but not a lot of stamina.... some will even pass a load test, but fail to start a car a few days later... an newer type of tester like the one I bought from Solar may be a more reliable guage. It will give you a voltage number, but also gives a CCA reading that is very revealing. We don't need many amps to start a Prius, but the test from this little gadget seems to me to line up with what I see on my cars invoice after I take it to the dealer for it's free oil filter and wash. they do full reports on tires fluids brakes and all that stuff, including the use of some special battery load/health test and attach the readout strip. It includes SOC and CCA with the batterys rated expected CCA listed as well for reference.
I think this is what Welshdog is seeing, a battery that still takes a charge and shows a decent voltage, but no longer has any 'depth' left due to it's age. I hope he will find a good battery at a price he likes.

Roland

 

How does a battery take a charge yet not have depth ?

 

When it has no reserve capacity. Think of it as you would the surface charge issue. The whole battery is mostly sulfated and doesn't do its job anymore. That is why a load test helps.

Roland

 

When my charger (CTEK 3300) completes it's charging, and deems the battery healthy by showing a green light, I wonder: would that be superior to a simple measure of voltage? It does say step one of it's cycle is some sort of desulfating action.

In my experienced it's pulled back a few borderline batteries. Still, I start window shopping batteries once something like this has happened.

 

I have the same charger. But batteries still age.

 

Sorry for that quick reply above Mendel, was just in the line up for take away at the Fish and Chips just west of Barnett Highway near you. Couldn't stand there longer with the iPhone out.

I actually got that charger after reading one of your posts about it a long time ago... thank you it is an excellent tool to have. I mounted the terminal take offs to the replacement 12v in the back of the car so I can shut the hatch on the extension cord and leave the charger connected overnight without the worry of the hood being open. The garage is too full to use for the car so it has lived outside since day one. The charger was helpful when I was good enough between knee surgeries to make up for sitting outside for long periods of time with being started.

think I got my car around the same time as you, but mine was built to order. Toyota informed me when it was started on the line in Japan, then told me of the movement to the shipping terminal, it's passage across the Pacific and to our local port in Vancouver. Even the trip to the dealer where they like my car as it was the first ATP Prius they had seen of Gen3. My battery was new and healthy, guess they minded it on the ship, but it wasn't too long of a wait to get the car after my order.

Thanks for all your good tips and shared knowledge here over the years.

Roland

 

I have a question regarding the 12V battery. I didn't want to flood the forum with a new post. For starters, I have a 2010 Prius that I've owned for about a year.

So, basically, I had just turned off my car and I was about to lock it when it started making a loud beeping noise, then the dashboard tripped out, and it basically stopped working. I was at the mall and I was going to get it towed because I wasn't sure what was wrong with it yet. (I've never had the battery die) I was just sitting in my car and after like 15 minutes, the stereo turned on for 5 seconds, shut off, then turned on again a few minutes later and shut back off again. Then the entire car just turned back on. I was able to drive it around today and I've turned it off and on about 5 times.

I don't think I ever left anything on to drain the battery so it might just be wearing out. Either way, I made an appointment for Wednesday at Pep Boys to get it changed. Toyota was telling me it'd be $400, which is totally ridiculous. Since the car turned back on and has been running like normal so far, do you think it'll last until Wednesday? I live in an apartment with street parking so unfortunately if it dies, it'd be a hassle to jump it or replace it myself.

So, I'm just wondering if you guys think it might last for 5 more days if I drive it at least once or twice a day.

Thanks!

 

Roland, really brings it home hearing words like Barnett hwy, lol.

Ours was built in August of 2009, and we purchased November of 2010. 10 kilometres on the odo. Touring Model.

 

I would think so, especially if you take precautions now that you are aware it is weak.

Just leave the toggle switch for the interior lights OFF for now, don't leave your auto headlamps set to auto position, turn them right off as some have looked at the car hard enough so that they suggest a slightly higher draw due to the light sensor on the dash thing, (but I wonder about that one) and you could even go as far as pressing the SKS button under the steering wheel, assuming you have one by the PCS disable button.
Your car is about the same age as mine, but you get much warmer weather down there than we experience and it all adds up.

If you did need a jump, you could create a cheap cable with some common lamp cord and 4 alligator clips if you had to.

In my case, my never used big heavy battery jumper box is going to be given to a friend one day, meantime, I keep a recently purchased cell phone charger that I keep in my glove box that has a 12v set of battery booster cables attached.

Roland

 

Yup, we were at Como Lake earlier this afternoon and went down through Port Moody on the way back home here.

Got that iPhone into the PC thing as when I joined up I had left email alerts for private conversations turned on, and so when Tideland Prius left me a message as he is in Vancouver it got me typing on the iPhone, when normally I just jump on and off my notebook when I am here. Not sure if he is still out this way but my last message included and offer to sit down for a coffee... if he is and you would like to join maybe we could hit the Timmy on United in Coquitlam?

Anyhow... per 12 volt battery threads, cough.... I should mention that besides only finding a dusty year old Exide when I replaced my Yuasa, that I ended up picking the Optima Yellow Top. Not only was it shipped free to my door, freshly made and charged almost to the max, but it saved tax as it came from out of Province from the Canadian distributor.
Our American friends here have great prices with free shipping from places like Amazon as well. Many times they save on local taxes too.

But, despite seemingly important differences in amp hour ratings... with the newer Toyota and Exide batteries going up to over 40 and the Yellowtops saying closer to the ratings of the original OEM Yuasa... I took note of the construction difference with the spiral design allowing for air gaps in the case; cooling advantage in specific circumstances? Also, the tightly wound cells may be more resistance to vibration, so they use more lead and less alloys according to Johnson Controls comments. Maybe why the off road crowd seem to like Optima's in their bouncy remote from road service adventures. Many people over the years have had good reports of long lives with them, so I still think they are worthy or anyone's consideration when battery replacement time comes.

Roland

 

Okay, awesome! Thank you so much for your help, Roland! Hopefully it'll hold up until Wednesday.