12 Volt Battery

All good points except the thing about being locked in the car.

Which brings me to repeat my custom of plugging in a permanently attached Battery Tender. That requires no disturbing of anything. When the light on it turns to green, the battery is fully charged. This is more than a test. It is assurance that the battery is in good health. They are not expensive and will add years to the life of this small battery.

 

My Gen 3, not PIP, says 11.2v on service screen and measures 12.75v both at the battery and the jumper point under the bonnet, quite a difference.

 

On my GenII, I had 12 gauge wire and a set of Anderson PowerPole connectors wired permanently into the 12v aux battery.

I used this primarily to power a 2m/70cm amateur band transceiver. If the 12v batt went out, which it did about 4 years in, i could easily use the powerpoles to connect to an Optima blue top marine battery in a plastic battery case and set off without waiting to charge. I also have a battery tender jr. rigged with power pole connectors that could use the same connection to maintain the 12v charge overnight.

 

In the 7+ years I owned my 2005, I never once had a 12V battery problem. The car still has the original 12V battery and is still going strong.

 

About two years ago the 12v battery in my 2002 Prius died.All sorts of very intimidating fault indicators on the MFD with lots of big exclamation points. I was having visions of a dead traction battery. The dealer replaced the 12v battery and reset the fault indicators, and everything has been fine since.

 

Few short trips and no parasitic drain and we should be fine. But this is a weak spot and it is painful if the 12v battery fails. You are stuck. If you have an available 12v battery, a "jump" is simple. It doesn't need to be a large battery.

But I have peace of mind with a Battery Tender available for an occasional charge. It is not hard or expensive. Any lead acid battery is happier if it is kept at a full charge.

 

By the way, SOC (State of Charge) is a Percent and applies to the Traction Battery.
Maybe you have the Basic Trim PiP.
Mine is the Advanced Trim PiP. Here is my INFO button:

 

I did some measurements and verified that the 12v battery charges while the pip is plugged in. So if you plug in daily you shouldn't need a battery tender


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?5jc4sm

 

I suspect that there is some drain from the smart key proximity features. Those would all be active if I am near the car with my keys. Next time I am experimenting I will hook things up and take the keys inside the house.


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?icbn3b

 

Anyone know how to do this on the PIP Base Model?

 

On my base model, I followed advance directions except instead of pushing INFO, I pushed the Audio button. Also, I only turned on the daylight running lights, not the headlights.