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Hot temps and Prius battery questions

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by GaryHere, Aug 4, 2014.

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  1. Former Member 68813

    Former Member 68813 Senior Member

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    How about starting the car 5 minutes before driving and wait for 5 minutes with windows rolled down and outside air fan at high setting (no AC) to air the car and let the battery fan kick in before driving? In my testing, there is no MPG penalty for warming up engine by idling in summer and battery is stressed less by avoiding the mandatory EV while engine is warming up.
     
    #61 Former Member 68813, Aug 12, 2014
  2. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    That is an option but I would prefer to be moving with windows down to cool car quickly and get AC cooling.
     
    #62 jdcollins5, Aug 12, 2014
  3. Former Member 68813

    Former Member 68813 Senior Member

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    But if you move as soon as start, you are running both propulsion and AC from battery losing charge and heating it up. Not good for battery longevity in hot climate.
     
    #63 Former Member 68813, Aug 12, 2014
  4. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    When I start the battery is typically about 95F. By the time I have the cabin cooled down and AC cooling the battery temp has only increased to about 99 F before the cooling fan comes on and begins lowering the temps.

    I would not think 4F is going to make a lot of difference in the overall life of the battery.
     
    #64 jdcollins5, Aug 12, 2014
  5. Feri

    Feri Active Member

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    #65 Feri, Aug 13, 2014
  6. Former Member 68813

    Former Member 68813 Senior Member

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    Right, I was referring to HTMLSpinnr's issue.
     
    #66 Former Member 68813, Aug 13, 2014
    jdcollins5 likes this.
  7. Okinawa

    Okinawa Senior Member

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    You are sure doing something right, 271k on original HV battery. I am going to follow your advice.
     
    #67 Okinawa, Aug 13, 2014
  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    After a decent drive, about 30 km, stuck in construction bog down, I finally saw the BFM (battery fan mode) move from zero. BT2 varied between 36C and 38C. BFM went to 1 for the most part, and 2 for a bit.
     
    #68 Mendel Leisk, Aug 14, 2014
  9. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    That is about what I typically see with city stop and go driving in heavy traffic.
     
    #69 jdcollins5, Aug 14, 2014
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  10. HTMLSpinnr

    HTMLSpinnr Super Moderator
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    To follow up, I asked a local dealer to look at the car today while getting it aligned. No DTCs, and no known TSBs, but if it keeps up, they'll dig further.
     
    #70 HTMLSpinnr, Aug 16, 2014
  11. HTMLSpinnr

    HTMLSpinnr Super Moderator
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    Another followup - looking at my fuelly data, and graphing some moving average/trendlines, it's easy to see the impact summer temps have on MPG, especially over the past 2-3 summers. A couple of the low MPG outliers would be road trips into headwinds and/or high speeds.

    Prius MPG Trend.png
     
    #71 HTMLSpinnr, Oct 15, 2014
  12. Former Member 68813

    Former Member 68813 Senior Member

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    Or cheating gas stations or variation in pump shot off..
     
    #72 Former Member 68813, Oct 15, 2014
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