I got my oil changed yesterday and the tech informed me my battery should be replaced. I thought 12.4V was okay? Maybe the other values are the reason?
It's good; this car will start all the way down to 11VDC. Check the electrolyte levels and recharge if needed. If it's going to fail, it'll probably do it on a cold winter morning. You can use a cheap jump pack to get it started. If your nervous about it, replace it. I routinely had batteries last me at least 10 years, sealed batteries - not so much. I believe your 2016 has a lead acid battery under the hood, drivers side. Electrolyte access ports using a nickle or quarter to unscrew.
Dealer battery tests measure the "starting amps" which is the maximum current that the battery can deliver. It is an indication of battery health, but has little relevance for a Prius. We do not use the 12v battery to spin start the engine. Our 12v battery just needs to run a couple of pumps and initialize the Prius electronics which is a much lower current than starting a non-hybrid car. My 2020 Prius battery is 5 years old and the dealer has flagged it for replacement for 2 years. It still reliably starts my Prius and I will replace it when the resting voltage falls below 12v and /ordrops more than a volt under load (headlights on). JeffD
According to his picture, it's still outputting >375CCA - more than enough to do it's job. The highest draw on that battery is the ABS and Evap test routines; everything else runs with the DC-DC converter turned ON - unless you kill it by leaving it in ACC mode.
Thank you so much, guys. The battery was installed on 12/2021 and I've never had it draw all the way down, so I figured it was still relatively healthy. My plan is to replace it regardless on 12/2026 -- all I ask is that the battery stays alive for five years!
The battery should last longer than that; if properly maintained. I've had to put mine on a charger about once a year. I check my battery monthly and found it down to 11.75VDC. Whenever I find it below 12VDC, I check electrolytes and put it on a charger. It's never failed to start when I wanted it to.
I took my Gen 3 home from the showroom with a bad battery. I found out when I used ACC for testing, and it only lasted about 10 minutes before going dead. I called the dealer, they tested it, and told me that I was getting a new battery. What I think caused it to fail was that it had been sitting in their showroom for several months. The hybrid charger was plugged in, but on the gen 3, it does not maintain the 12V battery. Customers and salespeople turning on the system, and likely forgetting to shut it off, required it to be boosted many times. This eventually degraded the battery.
