Adjustment Required?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by George Leatherman, Jul 26, 2025 at 12:04 PM.

  1. George Leatherman

    George Leatherman New Member

    Joined:
    Saturday
    1
    1
    0
    Location:
    Alamogordo
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    II
    My travelings include going over a 5000 ft mountain in 15 minutes. New hybrid battery works great. But at the top or before the battery indication goes into the pink. When this happens I pull over and manually charge the battery as I don't like to drain the battery too much.

    Is there an adjustment or settings that can cause the system to charge the battery more aggressively ?

    The car does well otherwise. On flat ground it never goes below 50% (blue) and charges the hybrid battery well. No problems. New battery this year. Few minor problems (ie.. level sensor for headlights is warn out and occasionally it throws a (bad cat oxygen sensor).
     
    bisco likes this.
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    112,592
    51,245
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    there are not any adjustments available. battery charging is software regulated for efficiency, life expectancy and safety.
    did you buy a new, oem battery from a dealer? mountains can sometimes be a bit of a challenge for prius, especially an old one.
    they are not the most powerful cars in the world.
     
  3. pasadena_commut

    pasadena_commut Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2019
    2,313
    685
    0
    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I don't recall our 2007 dropping to pink bars going up the grapevine (I5 N of Los Angeles, long steep grade) or on any other long uphill grade. I have seen it in other scenarios when the last pack was on its way out. Maybe use Dr. Prius or another app to check the state of the pack? What it should do is force the pack to charge, at which point the car feels like it has lost half its power, and top speed going up drops.
     
  4. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2020
    347
    119
    0
    Location:
    CO
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    One
    Couple questions:

    1. Do you mean purple? The bottom two bars on my screen are purple. Its real easy to get there revving high going up hill.
    2. How do you manually charge your battery?
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    112,592
    51,245
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    put your foot on the brake and floor the accelerator
     
  6. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2020
    347
    119
    0
    Location:
    CO
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    One
    Seems like a waste of time. What would be the reason for manually charging it?
     
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    112,592
    51,245
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    idk, people do it for various reasons, i never did.
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    112,592
    51,245
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
  9. pasadena_commut

    pasadena_commut Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2019
    2,313
    685
    0
    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    It actually does look more (dark) pink than purple to me most of the time. I always drive with sunglasses during the day (and rarely drive at night) and even though they are supposedly just a dark grey they still distort colors somewhat. Red cars, for instance, take on the color of cough syrup.
     
  10. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2020
    347
    119
    0
    Location:
    CO
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    One
    Yep . . . strange indeed. Not really a practical reason. Just a reason. There are probably zillions of them.
     
    bisco likes this.