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Not my first P0A080...this one strange

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by GS03, Dec 11, 2017.

  1. GS03

    GS03 New Member

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    I tried searching for this, but couldn't find the same issue. If there is a thread, please link it. Thanks.

    Short synopsis: Car threw another P0A80, but some dash lights went away after restarting (still CEL, triangle, hybrid icon on screen). Can low 12V cause this while driving?

    Full Story: About 10 miles in to my commute this morning, my dash lit up like a Christmas tree. I immediately knew what this was, so I turned around and got home. I have had the unfortunate experience of the P0A80 twice before, both in the last 11 months. The first time (last January) was the original battery pack at around 135,000 miles. I got a refurbished pack from a reputable local hybrid repair shop and all was fine. Then, in the early summer, I got stuck in a highway shut down for 4 hours, with the temperature over 90 degrees. The next day I got another P0A80. It was fixed at no cost to me, but the technician said it was probably due to the strain put on the system sitting idle for hours running the A/C. Both of these times, the battery cooling fans got very loud, the system went into "limp" mode and all the tell-tale lights were on and never went off (triangle, VSC, ((!)), CEL etc.), even after powering down and starting up again.

    Now to this morning. It is 35 degrees here, but my car was in the garage all night; however, I had to park it outside for 2 nights this weekend to use the garage for other work (temps in the 20s at night). When I got in, I noticed my charge level was only 2 red bars. When I last drove it (Friday), I think I remember it being more than half full. Because of this, and my past experience, I was nervous when I started out this morning, but no issues. It seemed to charge at the normal level, and I was cruising down some back roads at about 50mph. All of a sudden, the Christmas tree. I got home, turned it off, and immediately turned it back on. Now, only the red triangle, CEL, and the hybrid issue icon on the touch screen were on...which is different than before. Also, while I was going home, the battery appeared to be working fine and there was no battery fan noise, nor did the car go into limp mode (~10 miles). I checked the inverter pump, but it rippling like I see in videos. I decided to drive to Advance Auto Parts for them to pull the code, and sure enough it was the P0A80, but again, during that drive (5 miles round trip), the system seemed to be running fine. I called the repair shop because it is again under warranty and they are sending someone out tomorrow to look at it, but they suggested I look at the 12v battery as well, because, according to them, the 12V runs the onboard computers, so maybe it could have caused an issue. I did touch screen diagnostic and it was reading around 11.5V...so low, but when I turned the engine on, it jumped to 14.1.

    My question is this: Can a low 12V battery cause a P0A80 code? If not, is there any reason some of the lights would have gone away but not all of them? Anything I can check before they get here? I don't have a way to check the battery other than the onboard diagnostics.

    Thanks for any ideas/help.
     
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Sounds like the rebuilt batteries are just not good rebuilds. It has nothing to do with you idling in traffic and straining the battery. It's just an excuse for a bad rebuild

    This can happen to any rebuilt battery, it's just recycled used batteries
     
    edthefox5, Raytheeagle and m.wynn like this.
  3. GS03

    GS03 New Member

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    So they came out and put another one in and I asked the guy if there was something wrong with my car that was causing this and he said noting showed on his laptop software. So that leaves us at bad rebuilds. I also asked if this restarted the warranty and I got a quick "no", so that means I am out of warranty on January 5th. Oh well, the car seemed like all was well again, but today I saw the battery go from ~70% to 2 red bars as I was backing out of my parking space to full charge less than 5 minutes later. I assume it is only a matter of time before this one goes. I didn't think that the 12 month warranty was actually going to come into play when I dropped $1,800 on this last January. I was hoping to get more than an additional 20k miles for my money. Guess I should have just dropped the additional 2k the dealer wanted for a new battery pack and gotten a 100k warranty. I'll probably cut my losses and look for a new car. Disappointing to say the least.
     
  4. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    70% to 2 red bars is bad. In all my 10 years of Prius ownership I have never seen 2 red bars. Just purple. That fast cycling is death.
    Sorry but expect dash codes.

    Its a common story. So many rip off artists out there.
     
  5. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    Wow. $1800 for that and multiple failures? It makes me ill hearing what people are being charged for poor quality rebuilds. It would make you sick what I could have put in your car.
     
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  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    did i miss it? would you share the name of the repair shoppe to save others?
     
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  7. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Right? I'd be screaming there name loud....
     
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  8. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    I wish PC would create a battery forum so we could blacklist all these deadbeat battery rip off artists that prey on people. Stickies so people would have someplace go with battery questions.

    H Battery questions are the bulk of new posters. Its like 12 v battery questions 10 years ago. Wait there still coming lol....
     
  9. GS03

    GS03 New Member

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    Yeah, I fully expect a failure by the weekend...it'll be a Christmas miracle if not! I am actually hoping this one does fail before the new year so I can get them to warranty it again! The company is called Prius Hybrid Battery Repair, based out of Annapolis MD. The shame is that they have great customer service, come to you to install the battery and no hesitation to warranty the batteries. Based on the customer service and the glowing Yelp reviews, I really thought it had to be something wrong with my car that is causing this issue.

    The 1800 seemed like a bargain after I picked myself up off the floor from passing out at the 4000 the dealer wanted. The sad thing is that I am completely gun shy of buying another hybrid after this experience. I bought the car with 55k on it and loved it until I got to 134k last January and this all started. I really don't want to have an expensive ticking time-bomb looming, so I'll probably have to look at non-hybrid options going forward.
     
  10. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    That's a definite sign of a very weak hybrid battery. Mine was slowly losing capacity for year but otherwise still functioning ok, then it started doing exactly what you describe (dropping from 6 down to 2 bars just backing out of my drive) and it only lasted a few weeks after that.

    That's the problem with rebuilds like this that don't even make the warranty period. When they changed the battery this week, knowing that warranty is up in just a few weeks time, there's no real incentive to give you the best battery they have in the shop. They probably just put in someone else failed battery with one or two cells quickly swapped out to get it going. It will probably fail again within a few months at best. :(