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Please help- Prius battery

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Sashiimi, Jun 12, 2020.

  1. Sashiimi

    Sashiimi Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 1, 2019
    12
    1
    0
    Location:
    Portugal
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Hello,

    I've bought a prius one and a half year ago with 250k KM (132K Miles). I've had zero problems since then until this whole covid lockup thing happened. As I haven't been using the car very often, I actually let my 12v battery drain and the car wouldn't even unlock. After I got it jumpstarted and drived a while, everything seemed to get back on track (about a month ago).

    Today when I was going to use the car, I noticed that the ABS, VCS and low tire presure lights on. As I thought it was a missreading fromthe computer, I tried to get it out of the parking spot for a quick run to see if the lights would turn off. As soon as the car started going above 1km/h the car was beeping continuously loudly until the red triangle went on along with the engine light.

    I turned off and on the car and the yellow lights were gone but the triangle was on. As I had a toyota dealership near my place I went there and they weren't very helpful, and I only had a spot next friday.

    Upon further inspection with my OBD generic tool, I got a p0a80 code, which relates to the hybrid batteries.

    After some research it says it's related to the hybrid battery, but it's a parent generic code.
    So, as I drove home, the red triangle too disappeared..

    This car had a new battery installed in 2016/07..

    Google research either tells me it's because of the 12v battery and that the car only needs to be driven more often, or tells me it's going to catch fire. No in between.

    Does anyone have any idea on these issues?
     
    #1 Sashiimi, Jun 12, 2020
  2. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2018
    7,035
    2,783
    0
    Location:
    USA
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius c
    Model:
    Four
    Letting a 4 year old 12 V battery go flat.....and stay that way for a time......no doubt "killed" it.

    Anyway, putting in a new fully charged 12 V battery is WAY less expensive than anything else you can try to do.
    And if you leave that old battery in there.......you will never REALLY know if needs anything else or not.

    Driving more often is one solution to this problem......going forward.
    Getting a battery "tender" is a better solution if you have access to power where it's parked.
     
    #2 sam spade 2, Jun 12, 2020
  3. Sashiimi

    Sashiimi Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 1, 2019
    12
    1
    0
    Location:
    Portugal
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    The hybrid battery is 4 years old.. the 12v I actually don't know, as I already bought the car with it installed.

    Either way, i'll start by getting a good 12v battery.. thank you
     
    #3 Sashiimi, Jun 13, 2020
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