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Discharged EV Battery in new Plug In

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by rflopez, Apr 7, 2012.

  1. rflopez

    rflopez New Member

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    I'm looking for help. I picked up our Prius plug in on Thursday evening, fully charged from the dealership in Oakland. We drove it home, about 4 miles, in EV mode and then plugged it in for the night. In the morning the car was fully charged. At 8:00 a.m. I drove the Prius up hill about 1.5 miles in EV mode to our car pool pick up point and left it parked on the street for the day. Car was parked on up hill slope. I believe all lights were off. When I got back at 5:30 p.m. to drive it home the battery was apparently discharged and there was no charge or EV range when I selected EV mode. I drove home on ICE in hybrid mode. Any comments on what discharged the battery? Thanks
     
    #1 rflopez, Apr 7, 2012
  2. LenP

    LenP Member

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    There is no way this should have happened. Driving up a steep hill will use a lot of charge, but not all of it in 1.5 miles. Something must have been left on to discharge your traction battery, yet you had enough charge left to use HV mode. If it was very hot out that will also effect battery charge, but this sounds like a major discharge. How many bars were left on your EV charge when you parked your PIP? If this happens again go to your dealer
     
    #2 LenP, Apr 7, 2012
  3. Paradox

    Paradox Prius Enthusiast / Moderator
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    See if it happens again and make sure you turn it off properly etc. Unless a condition was met as mentioned in the manual to keep it from entering EV mode such as temperature, this should not happen. If it happens again with no reason for it to do it that you can see goto the dealer.
     
    #3 Paradox, Apr 7, 2012
  4. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Do you remember what range was indicated (or charge level) when you parked the car? If it's like the regular Prius, which I assume it is, the traction battery is disconnected when the car is shut off and cannot discharge further unless there is a serious fault somewhere. Even leaving lights on would discharge the 12-v battery, so the car would not boot up, but would not discharge the traction battery.

    OTOH, I know that steep hills drew a lot of charge from the Xebra. I have no idea how much is used in the PiP, or how steep your hill is. I'd suggest an experiment: From home, on a full charge, drive that route and then see how much charge is remaining when you arrive at the car-pool site. If you find (or remember) that there is (was) adequate charge remaining, then there is something wrong.

    One other possibility, which I hate to suggest: If you left the car in Ready (i.e. on) but in park, the traction battery would run down, and eventually the ICE would run to keep a minimum charge. The car would beep at you if you tried to lock the door with the sks while it's on, but if you didn't notice, you could leave the car parked, on, and unlocked.
     
    #4 daniel, Apr 7, 2012
  5. pfile

    pfile Member

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    the first day i drove my 2006 prius to work, i got out of the car without fully shutting it off. when i came out of work the 12V battery was dead. this is a symptom of leaving the car in accessory mode all day.

    having the traction battery discharge like that would be a symptom of leaving the car in READY all day... which is strange because the car should have beeped and complained if you got out of it and tried to lock the door while it was still in READY.

    some of the hills in piedmont are quite steep and it is at least conceivable that all the charge was depleted by driving up those hills. oakland avenue between grand and highland is particularly long and steep...
     
    #5 pfile, Apr 7, 2012
  6. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    See if it happens again. No point in worrying about it, and they can't fix what can't be repeated.
     
    #6 Rebound, Apr 12, 2012
  7. rflopez

    rflopez New Member

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    Today was the first day I repeated my uphill drive to the carpool pick up point and left my PIP parked for the day. (Last week was spring break and we drove to LA. PIP performed beautifully). For the trip in the morning, I drove1.0 mile and the battery discharged to 10 miles from fully charged. Good News. The was no apparent loss of charge at the end of the day. Thanks for all the comments. I'll post if it ever happens again.
     
    #7 rflopez, Apr 18, 2012
  8. Paradox

    Paradox Prius Enthusiast / Moderator
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    I honestly think you inadvertantly didn't turn the car off properly and it ran the battery down while sitting there. Just be sure to turn it off and all should continue to be good :)
     
    #8 Paradox, Apr 18, 2012
  9. rflopez

    rflopez New Member

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    I agree. Thanks
     
    #9 rflopez, Apr 19, 2012
  10. bfd

    bfd Plug-In Perpetuator

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    Over the past two years, I've seen this happen several times to different people at work...but it's happened to no one twice!

    You would think the double safe of the insistent beeping would trigger some momentary pause. I know I've been guilty of almost leaving the key inside. The beeping is insistent. But people do get in a hurry or have a thousand things on their minds.
     
    #10 bfd, Apr 19, 2012
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