Prius (2004-09) :: Low Bars On Battery Gauge After Idling A While
May 9, 2016
I am a relatively new 1st time Prius Owner. I have a 2007 Touring Model, [69k miles] that I love so far, and have only had it about 3 months. I do Night Watchman work part time as a retiree, and mostly sit around equipment yards in my Prius. I've noticed that although everything seems fine on the road with no problems or unusual occurrances, that when I do start my Prius and let it idle, the Battery Bar Gauge will after about 5 minutes or so, begin to drop, until there are only 2 bars left, which causes me to panic and start driving around to get the battery bars to start coming up again. If the bars go to 2 or lower , [1] and I don't do anything, will the Pius go dead on me, or will it eventualy kick the gas engine in to start charging the battery and make the number of bars go up? I don't want to get stranded in the middle of nowhere, and when I do idle, it's just to throw on a little heat, or have the radio on, no lights .
View 9 Replies
Advertisement
So I met my wife after work. I was killing some time with my son. We drove across the street, then to a neighboring shopping center. I changed the display to see the more accurate instant MPG and noticed my battery was at 2 bars. This is the first time that's happened, that I'm aware of. During normal operation, it stays at 2 bars above the halfway mark, or above.
View 6 Replies
My 05' with 130,000 miles has been acting weird lately. It likes to charge up to 8 bars all the time now. Before it was always around 5-7 bars. It goes down to purple 2 bars on a 2 mile hill climb. I see the bar from 6 going down to 3 or 2 immediately.
When I am driving on a flat road at constant speed. The battery is charging or being used continuously. Never does it stay at discharge or charge for longer than 2 seconds. The arrow goes green then orange then green, on and on and on. Besides that, it seem to drive ok. No dash lights what so ever.
View 12 Replies
I had my 2005 Prius sitting idle for three days and when I last used the car it had 6 bars of battery (blue). Today I turn it on and it has only 2 bars of battery (purple) and the engine stayed on about 10 minutes to charge the battery. After about 10 minutes it went all the way to 7 bars (green) and the engine did its normal idle stop. Is it normal for the battery to drain that much in only a few days?
View 4 Replies
2004 Car has 106,800 miles and for the last several weeks, when I'm stuck in traffic, like trying to get into the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel, the battery seems to go from 7 blue bars to two pink bars within five to seven minutes. Used to be that it took 3 five-minute bars of traffic, running fully electric at 100 mpg, to then go down to 2 pink, when the ICE would run and charge the battery. Today the battery indicators went down to 2 pink after sitting in traffic with the AC on and stayed there for the remainder of the time we sat in traffic - another 45 minutes or so.
The ICE would run at idle sometimes, but didn't seem to bring the battery back up unless we were really moving. A couple of times I held the brake with my left foot, revved the engine with my right, and that seemed to bring the battery up a couple bars. After we finally got going on the highway, the battery recovered. I got no warning lights, no triangles. But I'm wondering if these are symptoms of the battery failing. Time to get it tested at the dealership?
View 12 Replies
When battery is low (purple bars IN DISPLAY) EV mode is not allowed, obviously; but WHY is it not allowed when the battery is full or nearly full (green bars on display) ?
View 6 Replies
I'm new to the Gen 1.
All has been well in just over a month of driving the car and about 3300 miles logged. The 12v, Aux battery was dead from the car sitting on the lot for so long (I replaced with a new OEM Toyota 12v battery) After a week of the car experiencing dim headlights, and various other electronics
No codes or CEL though.
Now that the 12v battery has been replaced, the car runs exceptionally well, aside from an intermittent fuel gauge issue where it only reads full bars (completely full) if I let the tank get to empty (Flashing single bar) or close to that. If I fill the tank from s
View 4 Replies
I have a 2006 Prius, 149,000 miles. The gas gauge has just become stuck on 2 bars. I discovered this after attempting to fill the gas tank. I was unable to pump the gas into the tank. The pump kept clicking off immediately. I was able to slowly put about 3.5 gals of gas in the tank, but very slowly. I also tried to add gas from a gas can, and the same problem occurred: the gas would go in very slowly. I have never had the fueling problem where the pump repeatedly clicks off. I tried several gas stations that had pumps that worked for me in the past, and didn't have any luck. The fuel gauge failure and the gas pumping problem have appeared simultaneously.
View 1 Replies
In the past I have had my fuel Gauge go down 1 bar after about 60 miles traveled. Since my last fill up my fuel Gauge has only gone down 1 bar (9 still ON) after 185 miles travel. The gauge appears to be struck with 9 bars ON after 185 miles traveled!, Any fix to a stuck fuel Gauge indication?
View 18 Replies
I'm a new Prius owner and don't know if this is normal. Sometimes after being parked for a while and restarted, the icon shows the battery is down to 2 bars. It charges back up after a mile or so of driving. Also if I sit and idle for a while, the battery will drop down, and once going thru a car wash (car in Neutral), a message came on the screen that the Tractor Battery was in trouble (I don't remember the exact words). When I put the car in gear and drove off, the message disappeared and the battery charged up. What's the deal?
View 11 Replies
My 2008 recently had auxillary battery replaces. My display (seems to me) that the battery bars on the display seem to be low or go low much more often. At freeway speeds the battery appears to be charging, that is, the number of bars get more numerous.
View 1 Replies
I have been driving my new 2011 prius for a week now and have noticed that in stop and go traffic I occasionally get down to three bars before the engine kicks in. Is this normal?
Also today I was in a traffic jam for a half hour and got to 2 bars a few times(lots of stop and go). Is this normal also? When driving on the freeway the bars are always 6-8. There are no colors on the bars, just white.
View 10 Replies
Just got a used 2012 Prius TWO, NOT II, yesterday, I noticed that the battery on the dashboard was down to two bars when I was driving at one point. What happens if it goes to zero bars?
View 10 Replies
I have a 2002 Prius with about 150,000 miles on it. A couple weeks ago, I noticed that the parking brake light on my instrument cluster didn't light up when I engaged it. Soon, all 10 bars on the fuel gauge started blinking. The seat belt reminder, open door warning, and headlight indicator lights aren't working, either. Any clues as to what could be causing all these malfunctions, or have I had more than one problem develop in close succession?
View 6 Replies
I recently purchased a used 2007 prius. The car has not been driven for some time. I won it in an auction from a used/wreaked car lot and am in the process of fixing it up. I need to know if it is possible to charge the hybrid battery when the car is idling or will this only discharge the hybrid battery and if so, is there any way to charge the hybrid battery other than driving the car?
View 6 Replies
I notice on my MFD that my battery level never fills up to the top. I've seen purple when it's low, blue, and green when it's in a high charge state, but there's always a missing 'never filled in' space for another bar, though always blank.
I can let off the gas downhill with it already green and that blank space for an extra green bar never fills. It just stays blank. Is this normal?
View 4 Replies
Lately when I turn the AC on my battery runs all the way down to two purple bars. The temp here is hot and it happens when I'm traveling at low speeds. The battery finally gets back up once I drive faster.
View 14 Replies
I Have a 2010 Prius With Solar Panel, when i drive the battery will charge up to 6 or 7 bars and quickly it drope down to 3 bars bar. i like to know is this normal
View 4 Replies
Should I be concerned..I have been noticing my battery is charging down overnight. I checked and all lights are off. It does charge immediately in the 10 mile I drive to work..but I am concerned why overnight it should be discharging.
Another Question - The right/left indicator sound is very muted..is that normal? Like, if I have the indicator on to merge into traffic, I am not sure it is as I can barely hear it chirping..
View 19 Replies
Is it normal that over night parking battery looses charge from 7 bars down to 2 bars? I never lock the car and leaving my key in it.
View 10 Replies
My wife left her newer 2013 Prius "on" at work....by this I take to mean she did not hit the on/off button when leaving the car. to turn off the car I asked if it started ok, and she reported yes; however on return from the gym about 3 miles away, she says she noticed the Hybrid Battery bars going down very quickly now and the gas-engine on almost the whole time.
View 12 Replies
