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2006 Prius with strange HV problem - help

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Steven Willis, Jul 18, 2013.

  1. Steven Willis

    Steven Willis New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 18, 2013
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    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I have a prius that I'm hoping someone can help with. The basic problem is that the car/HV battery seem to be happy when it's only charged up to 3-4 bars max, usually 3. When I'm driving the HV battery will keep on dropping to 1 bar and stay there unless I really baby the gas pedal to coax it to start charging and I'm doing a lot of stop/starts to help with the charging. It seem to charge just fine, just is happy with a low charge and drops quickly when driving. I have hooked up a Scanguage II to it and everything looks good. I had a Toyota dealer scan it as well and everything checked out ok. It's not throwing any codes. The battery has been rebuilt and the inverter replaced. The other thing is that the ICE kicks in almost immediately when I hit the gas unless the battery is at 4 bars...then if I'm really gentle I can get it up to 9 or 10 mph before the ICE kicks on. Unless the battery is up a little the ICE comes on almost immediately. The charging indicator and everything on the display look fine (except for the bars). HV battery CPU maybe? Any help would be appreciated.
     
    #1 Steven Willis, Jul 18, 2013
  2. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2006
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    Location:
    Northern VA (NoVA)
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    At the risk of losing saved settings, you might disconnect 12v and reset system. Check your 12v batt following the instructions here: see active old thread Strange Things Happening? Where do you live? (state) maybe you live near a hybrid specialty shop.
     
    #2 wjtracy, Jul 18, 2013
  3. Steven Willis

    Steven Willis New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 18, 2013
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    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have already checked and reset the 12v system. It all checks out just fine.
     
    #3 Steven Willis, Jul 18, 2013
  4. Simtronic

    Simtronic Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2009
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    Location:
    Surrey, UK
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius PHV
    Model:
    Business Ed. Plus
    I don't know what your electrical abilities are so I will try to keep to simple checks for now. you say the 12v system has been checked and reset... by checked do you mean check the voltage? if so was the battery under load at the time? The main battery could be well balanced so not throwing any codes but have a high internal resistance, this would limit its charge retention and limit it's output when required. Temperatures can also affect the battery performance. If I remember correctly there are 3 temperature sensors in the battery pack, if one of these is out of calibration and reporting high temperatures use of the battery may be limited, this can't be too far out though or you would have thrown a code up. Have you set up your scanguage to show HV batt SOC (state of charge) and if so does that seem to agree with your bars on the display? Have you removed the HV battery Orange disconnector and replaced it? ( make sure it goes back properly or you will just the triangle red warning light up ) Sorry if I have added more questions than supplied answers, just trying to get a mental picture.
     
    #4 Simtronic, Jul 18, 2013
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