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Battery Dead. Anything to worry about? How to jump & not go into EV mode?Use hybrid battery to jump?

Discussion in 'Prius v Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by wstt, Jul 23, 2013.

  1. wstt

    wstt Member

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    After 2 days of not using my Prius V, the 12v battery was dead. I couldn't figure out what I accidentally left on. I jumped it following the instructions in the manual but right after, it went into EV mode and then it required to be jumped again. I finally got the engine revving enough that it stayed on. I had never really listened to the engine rev before, but while revving it sounded higher pitched and tinny as compared to my old 6 cylinder, German car.
    Is this higher pitched, tinny, electric sounding revving sound normal?
    Is there anything to worry about after jumping the car?
    Is there a way to see the charge on the battery? (In my old car if you hit specific buttons when starting you could enter a diagnostic mode where you could see many readings, live the current battery voltage. It would also be great if the tire pressure reading could be accessed this way.)
    Also is it possible to use the hybrid battery to jump the car?
     
    #1 wstt, Jul 23, 2013
  2. wstt

    wstt Member

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    I should also add, I was able to access the car to jump it in its current location. If I had had to roll it out of the garage so another car could jump it, how would it be possible to do that? The parking break is electric and couldn't be turned off right?
     
    #2 wstt, Jul 23, 2013
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you can't roll it without connecting jumpers to get it into neutral. i would have the dealer take a look at it, something doesn't sound right. no codes?
     
    #3 bisco, Jul 23, 2013
  4. wstt

    wstt Member

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    If I left the inside light on, and it drained the battery, would it provide a code?
     
    #4 wstt, Jul 23, 2013
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    no, but when you jump it, the ice should fire like a regular start up, not ev mode.
     
    #5 bisco, Jul 23, 2013
  6. wstt

    wstt Member

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    Oh, it did start right away. Then I disconnected the jumper cables and because it was just idling, it went right into EV mode from which it couldn't start up again. After the second jump I gave it some gas for a minute or two and then it was fine.
     
    #6 wstt, Jul 23, 2013
  7. rdgrimes

    rdgrimes Senior Member

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    Until you can identify a reason for the dead battery, assume its a bad battery. There's a lot of possible ways a battery can get run down, but absent one of those a 2 yr old battery should never be going dead. And it *should* be able to power the dome lights over night without going dead. 2 days - maybe not.
     
    #7 rdgrimes, Jul 23, 2013
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    if the V battery is like the liftback, they are very small and run down quickly. a few drains can spell death. perhaps you need to trickle charge it overnight.
     
    #8 bisco, Jul 23, 2013
  9. rdgrimes

    rdgrimes Senior Member

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    True dat, they are wimpy little things. Assuming the dealer is no help, I'd trickle charge it over night then drive it for a day, and check the voltage before during and after.

    Someone else mentioned running the windows down and up with the system off to test the battery's oomph.

    I rarely drive at night, so I turned off all the dome lights to avoid just this problem.
     
    #9 rdgrimes, Jul 23, 2013
  10. kithmo

    kithmo Couch Potato

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    I'm confused by your description of what happened.
    After you started it the first time, it went into EV mode from which it couldn't start up again ?
    Do you mean the petrol engine (ICE) cut out and the EV light next to the HSI lit up, not the EV light that comes on when you press the EV button ?
    This is normal and the car does this after the initial warm-up stage, which is about 30 seconds. In this case, the car is still in ready mode and the 12v battery is no longer needed to start the ICE. You could have driven off in EV mode and it would have restarted the ICE by itself when you exceeded 25 mph or pressed the gas pedal a bit more whilst travelling. Even when stood, the 12v battery would have been charging from the HV battery even when the ICE was not running and the ICE would have come on by itself when the HV battery ran down to 2 bars, to recharge the HV battery.
     
    #10 kithmo, Jul 23, 2013
  11. wstt

    wstt Member

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    I jumped it to start it, disconnected the cable and the engine then went off as it went into EV mode. I can't remember if after it went into EV mode, the dash went dim as it didn't have enough power, or if I pressed power to try and start the motor again and the dash lights went dim then. All I know is I tried to start it quickly again and there wasn't enough juice again to start it.

    I guess I didn't think about just driving off because all I did was picture the car needed to go into ICE mode and that not being able to start.
     
    #11 wstt, Jul 23, 2013
  12. kithmo

    kithmo Couch Potato

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    It sounds like you turned it off thinking it had gone off. You don't need to have the ICE running to charge the 12v battery, the HV battery does it, once you've got the car into READY mode everything looks after itself. You still need to look into why the 12v was flat in the first place.
     
    #12 kithmo, Jul 23, 2013
  13. wstt

    wstt Member

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    Thanks. I didn't realize the HV battery could charge the regular battery. (Of course the dealer didn't know this either because the only way they said to charge it was to be driving around with the engine on.)
    I guess there is no way to use the HV to start the car if the regular battery goes dead.
    Is there a way to look into reason the battery went dead? The only thing I can think of is that the overhead light was left on unless there is a problem with the car. The throw of the overhead light switch is so short that maybe I thought it was in the middle and walked away when it was all the way to the right.
     
    #13 wstt, Jul 24, 2013
  14. kithmo

    kithmo Couch Potato

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    There is no way AFAIK to start the car from the HV battery if the 12v is dead, the 12v trips the relay to connect the HV to the system. The overhead light could flatten the 12v battery if the charge was low but I left my overhead light on on the Gen 3 I had overnight for about 9 hours and the car still started the next day.
     
    #14 kithmo, Jul 24, 2013
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