Prius (2004-09) :: 12 Volt Battery Drain
Nov 17, 2013
I started having a problem last week when my 2007 Prius was setting for two days while I was using my pickup truck. Found the 12 volt battery dead so I disconnected it and tested it with a battery load tester. And it showed it was bad. Well Ok, that figures, since it was an OEM battery and ~6-7 years old.
I have another 2007 Prius here for body repairs so I took the aftermarket (newer) battery out of it and topped the charge off in it. The battery load test indicated it was still a serviceable battery.
Put it in the car and cleared the red triangle, etc.. Everything was fine.
Since I was still going to be short one battery, I contacted Battery Systems, my shops battery dealer and ask them to drop off a new Yellow Top Optima that fits the Prius (FYI my shop price is $159.96). I would be a couple days til their deliver truck would be here and again I left the car sit for a couple days and drove my truck. On the day of the delivery, I had an appointment and drove the Prius, about 15 miles. No problem. Left it at in a street parking space for about 2 hours. Came out and all systems were dead. Nothing. Dome light was the only indication that the battery was so low that it was very dim. Head light were off and I hadn't used them while driving.
I called for road service and got a jump start and the systems came up and I was able to clear the Read Triangle when I got home by turning the car off and back on again.
The new Yellow Top Optima arrived shortly there after and I installed it. Drove the car for 6 days and this morning everything was fine when I drove to church and left it, head lites off (never had used them), came out 2 hours later and when I started the car, I got the Red Triangle and Ready but continued home. I turn it off and on again but this time I got no Ready but the Triangle and the whole sting of check light. Could only get it from park into neutral. Nothing else. Wouldn't clear.
Using my Torque Pro program, tried to read the ECU and it indicate no codes stored, Several tries, no codes or history. Called friend who has reader that will read the CAN Bus and he managed to find an odd P0503 code having to do with a speed sensor. Cleared that and the Triangle went out.
In the end I went and checked the voltage of the new battery and it was only 12.01 volts. I put the load tester on it and the condition is fine. Just the charge voltage is low.
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Im the second owner of a 2008 Toyota Prius (Package II) with 23k miles.
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2009 Prius 36,000. Driven at least 30 miles per day. Two months ago, 12 volt battery wouldn’t boot up car. Crazy messages on MFD like “Park on level surface and apply parking brake.” Jump started and drove car to the dealer. No problems found. Three weeks later, same problem. Again, no problems found but dealer replaced the battery. About three weeks later same problem except this time got the friendly Triangle illuminated. Drove to dealer and left car. I have an extended warranty so Im not too worried about any costs. The next morning the triangle was NOT lit and the only error code was low voltage. No interior lights on and current draw is normal when car is parked.
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I recently discovered that the compartment where the 12 volt battery is located had water inside. I checked for leaks none found. I also found a drain plug underneath, to drain the water out. Where might the water be coming from.
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My Prius has 150k miles on it. We didn't drive it for a few days and when we went to turn it on,it wouldn't work. We were able to jump start it a couple of times, however after that we ended up having to replace the battery. We purchased it brand new from toyota. Then, the car wouldn't do a thing (No sounds, no lights, other than the red amber power button and the flashing check engine light, which was not on before.) We ended up having two blown fuses and we replaced them today, one was for the battery.Now the lights are on, but the car still won't start. It will cost over $200 to have the car towed and I am really trying to avoid that right now. I don't know much at ALL about cars. but I'm trying.
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I've seen this a couple times but always made it home with the Red Triangle and VSC warning. A year ago, I blamed it on the OEM 12 volt battery and eventually replaced it with a Optima Yellow Top. No more problem until today. Day time driving with my Plug-in Supply 10k rechargeable conversion performing normally. City driving raining but normal Western WA conditions. Red Triangle and VSC warning. Other systems operating normal.
I knew, from previous experience that the Prius operating systems would continue to work only until I turned it off. I did turn off the Plug-in Supply controller to isolate that system and observed that the OEM traction battery was at a fairly high state of charge and the ICE was still providing the normal amount of assist to the traction battery through normal street and driving conditions.
I should have driven the 20 + miles to get home, even with the Red Triangle warning. I had done that in the past with the old OEM 12v battery. But I needed gas and went to a station and turned off the system ICE out of habit. Sure enough, the system wouldn't go back into Ready but would go from Park to Neutral. Since it was rain hard now, and I was calling my road service, I ask for a Flat Deck Tow home rather than a jump start.
As soon as I got off the tow truck I put my battery charger on the Yellow Top and it only read 11.7 volts. It's still on charge now. Now I'm wondering why the power conversion system wasn't charging the 12 volt battery or is my 1 year old Optima bad?? Or is there something about my driving conditions/plug-in conversion that is effecting the charge of this battery. I did a 2400 mile road trip to So. Calif and back to WA without any problems. Car has just 98169 miles right now. About 10k miles on the Plug-in Supply conversion.
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A purchased a new 12 volt battery at the dealer. I was getting weird warning lights, so I had them run diagnostics. They said all the codes were voltage and I needed a new battery. Shortly after this I noticed the Smart Key no longer opened and closed the doors.
The car starts ok.
My question is this, could the changing of the battery have caused this? I tried searching for the answer BUT all answers refereed to adding a new smart key purchased on Ebay.
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So our '06 Prius has been very, very reliable, and we have a bit over 105K miles on it now. But we have a problem that the dealer hasn't been able to confirm, much less fix.
Probably three months ago now I began to notice that, from time to time, when I started the Prius, the master caution light (red triangle) would come on for 2-3 seconds. At no point did it stay on, and at no point did the Prius fail to start. So, it was an intermittent caution light of brief duration.
Then we had a bad storm coming (Sandy) and although it wasn't nearly as bad here (N. VA) as it could have been, I put the Prius in the garage, and it sat there for three days. When I went out to start it, the 12 volt battery was dead.
Fortunately I always back into the garage, and so jump starting the Prius - although it was my first time doing so - was no problem, and I got it to the dealer that morning. They tested the battery, and it was fine. They checked the codes, and all was well. It was as if the battery had never died. AND we stopped seeing the master caution light ... until two days ago, when my wife said that she saw the light a couple of times when she was out running errands.
Is it possible to have a problem with the 12 volt battery and/or electrical system that doesn't show up in the codes? And am I wrong to lose confidence in this very, very reliable car??
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We have experience dead car, no start conditions with our 07 Prius at least 4 times. The nearest we can figure is that there is a drain when we place the car in ACC mode, close the power windows then turn it off. This kills the car in less than 3 hours. The last time the hybrid system complained about being in neutral when jumped...we NEVER use Neutral
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At about 92k miles (2 months ago), my 2005 Prius started having a battery issue... When going about 40 mph and above and not having to stop or apply my brakes, my battery would drain (to just 1-2 bars) in about 5-10 minutes and not recharge until I got into stop-and-go traffic (this would happen about 9 out of 10 times). Mpg was still pretty good during that time, but when I finally had to stop, the engine had to kick on to recharge the battery and my mpg just sucked...I went from averaging 45 mph to 39 mph.
I took my car into the dealership for them to have a look and to also perform my 95k service. When I told them that I feared the battery was dying, they said that the good news was that I had another year on my warranty (not sure if the battery warranty is extended in California). The service advisor eventually came back and stated that they had also observed the battery charging problem and that they had to pinpoint the exact problem (either an igniter, a battery cell, or something else that I can't remember). They even started the process of getting me a rental car for a couple of days.
However, the service advisor then came back and stated that no problem was found...he even walked me back into the garage where they were working on all of the cars just to ask the technician working on my car if there was a problem...he also stated that no problem was found. When I asked how initially a problem was found and then suddenly not found, I really didn't get a straight answer (I should have pressed harder). Anyway...after 10 hours in the shop, they pulled my car around and the manager came out to speak to me...stating how the 95k service showed no problems and how no problem with the battery was found. When I asked about how to prove to them that there really was an issue, he stated that if the problem kept occurring I could bring it back in and they could have one of their tech leads drive it home for the night as kind of a road test.
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I go over a mountain pass, to and from work. It is about a two mile up and down incline/decline. On several occasions while going up the pass,the gas motor has rapidly accelerated at a high rpm. I back off the gas pedal and check the 'battery indicator bars' and there are none. I then drive very slowly to the top of the pass and the batteries quickly recharge on the decline to a color of all light green bars, indicating a full charge. Same experience coming home. Once I do normal town driving, the bars settle around 'four or five blue bars.' Local dealer says there is on problem. I am driving at 55 mph when this happens.
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I have had this happen before (and drove right to the dealer but it was fine when I got there) and it happened again today. Its a very hot day and I had forgot to turn off my AC and radio when I shut the car down. So I started it up put it in drive (or reverse) and it would just jump to neutral and the battery was drained (purple lines) because this had happened before I knew that if I held it in place and turned off the AC I could drive and be fine in a few minutes and that's what happened. Is it just because on a hot day it drains the battery too fast. Its a 2008 Prius with no other problems but this. Its just an annoying thing that makes me crazy.
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Well, since I had to fix the traction battery. The car I bought was a salvage vehicle that had been rebuilt.
On pesky problem was found after I'd had the car for about 4 months. I let it sit for three days. When I went to start it nothing happened. The 12 vdc Aux battery died. It tried charging it and it wouldn't charge. I bought a new aftermarket battery at WalMart and installed it. Merrily being led down the garden path I figured I'd not see that pesky problem again.
I was wrong. It continued. About the time I was going to tackle it, I moved and that took the next 4 months and the Prius sat idle when the HV Traction battery error cropped up.
This week I figured since all the carpets and shrouds were out of the trunk for the battery repair I'd look at the luggage courtesy light, it was the most obvious cause of an error. Sure enough the lamp would not shut off even though it seemed to operate correctly. It pulls up ground and turns on the light.
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I got the ECU Update Friday.. Today my 12 volt battery died. (got it started after a jump)..Any correlation?? Toyota service days no. Is there any kind of a warranty on the 12 V battery? 2011 with about 40k on it seems way low for the battery to die. No changes in driving habits since ECU update either...
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My dad's Gen III has been sitting garaged for almost a year now, and of course the 12 volt battery is dead. Firstly, it's sitting in a one car garage, and secondly I have a Gen II so a straight jump isn't possible. I have a trickle charger that should be able to bring the 12 volt back up in 15-19 hours, but here's my question:
Maybe I'm being lazy, but I'd rather not deal with climbing in the back to release the hatch and running an extension cord so I can get the charger close enough to hook straight up to the battery..
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As our Pri age, sooner or later the 12 v battery will fail and at exactly the wrong time. So perhaps preventive maintenance means replacing it just before failure. What has been the experience of other owners of 2010's as far as failure goes?
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We accidentally discharged the 12 volt battery in our 2010 Prius with an interior light. By the time we noticed the car didn't have enough power to turn on. I removed the battery last night and charged it with an intelligent charger and have since reinstalled.
Will this have any long term effect on the battery? It seems these 12 volts are sensitive compared to a standard car battery. I have discharged numerous 12 volt car batteries with no major long term consquences after a recharge.
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I got the ECU Update Friday.. Today my 12 volt battery died.(got it started after a jump)..Any correlation?? Toyota service days no. Is there any kind of a warranty on the 12 V battery? 2011 with about 40k on it seems way low for the battery to die. No changes in driving habits since ECU update either..
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If the Prius 12 volt battery (the one that is like all other car batteries, not the hybrid battery) goes out, can you use jumper cables to start it like any other car?
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I know there are battery "thingies" that plug into the lighter, which supposedly preserve the settings, but since the lighter is not "hot" when the car is not running, I don't see this working. How to do?
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Will it drain the battery to leave the rear hatch open for extended time? i.e. for tailgating or camping (2008 Prius)
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