Hybrid Battery

I am going to ramble aimlessly.

You see phenomenal battery life in Taxis, they never turn off so the computers can always pamper the battery.

Taxi drivers want to stay cool, and the batteries are in the passenger compartment with you, so keeping you cool keeps them cool. In Florida, a car that is off is a hot car. (tinting windows and sun shades can help, parking indoors helps more)

Heavy load hurts battery life, so Colorado has shorter life than Florida, there are more hills to climb. Another reason I discourage towing with a Prius. I would discourage drag racing a Prius, but fortunately it loses to everything, which is discouraging enough.

 

unusual to say the least, no worries!

 

I'd agree with Jimbo on all accounts (especially the drag racing)...I wonder if the Florida battery was owned by a beach lover??? I grew up in a beach town and batteries didn't last long with that salty air!

Jessica

 

I do not know we do have a FL college student recently complaining about that..her batt went bad the day the warranty expired with lower miles. We had a survey on Gen2 batt life recently ended, but I don't think we had anyone saying that specifically. I am not aware of an systemic issue (other than heat in FL) although seems to me the smaller 12v battery might lose charge on a Gen2 just sitting there, due to the smart key system drain.

 

I am always leery of low mileage hybrids.

It is good for the battery to get some exercise!
Not so good for it to be left sitting for long periods of time. Especially in very hot, or very cold climates.

I'd be surprised if the 22K miles battery really needed to be replaced, though.
Most likely would have responded to some refurbishing, or rebalancing. I have equipment to provide this service, but most shops, including Toyota dealers, do not have the equipment to do that kind of service.

 

I still say the low mileage battery probably did not need to be replaced.
It may have self discharged below the minimum voltage threshold.

This would throw a code that would initially make you think the battery needed to be replaced.
But, if the dealer would have simply recharged the high voltage battery, it would have likely quickly recovered.

Unfortunately most dealers do not even own a high voltage charger. They need to go get it from somewhere else at a regional office. Even then, it often is not supposed to be handled except by a tech with special training.

Easier to just order a new battery and swap it out than to try to recover the self discharged one.
This may be fine when the car is under warranty. Not so good for the consumer when the car is out of warranty, though.

 

I suggest you buy a 12V, 4A battery charger suitable for AGM batteries and use it at least 2x per month to keep the 12V battery charged.

Toyota usually refreshes its models after a six-year product cycle. If they continue to follow that pattern, the G4 would be introduced in the 2016 model year.

 

...well that's the $64000 question. I am thinking 2016.

 

unusual to have problems with the hybrid battery with low miles.