Prius (2004-09) :: Sitting Idle For Three Days - Battery Down To Two Bars?
Sep 27, 2011
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?
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I've had this issue for a while now but is seems to be getting worse the older the truck gets. I've had the battery, and alternator tested multiple times and they always receive passing grades. If the truck sits for a period of several days or more without being started, the battery is sometimes dead when I go to start it up and go somewhere. It is really frustrating because it seems to happen and very random times, when I least expect it.
Sometimes I can go start my truck without any problems at all after a week or so. Sometimes it won't start if I leave it alone for only a day or two. Usually after I jump start the truck it will run fine and start for the next several weeks. Is it possible that there is a short somewhere causing the battery to drain sometimes? Also, there is sometimes a buzzing sound that comes from under the hood when it is warm outside with the engine off and the truck at rest... could they be related?
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1995 Volvo 850 stationwagon has been dying when it sits for 3-5 days. At first I thought that it was due to the cold weather, so I was sure to drive it daily when it was snowing. But as it warmed up, my battery still drained after sitting for a couple days. Every time, I would call AAA and they would get it started no problem. I took it to a mechanic who did a basic "used car check" and didn't find anything with the starter, transmission, etc that would cause a battery drain.
My next step was to replace the battery, which I did a couple months ago. But alas, the battery has died once again. My thought is that it is due to an electrical issue? I have noticed that when driving, the speakers fade in and out based on whether I'm going uphill, or turning right or left . I thought that this was just a quirk but perhaps it's indicative of a greater electrical issue? I'm not sure what my next step should be?
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Parked my 2002 sc430 with 6 month old battery at airport for 10 days while I was out of the country. When I got back the battery was dead. It was easy to jump and the clock was still on. I could see nothing that was left on. I have seen some other cars that have had the problem, something about theft lights, gps etc. I drove it home about 30 miles and have had no problem since.
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2007 Monte Carlo has a dead battery after a couple of days sitting. We've un connected alarm, etc still dies its a new battery. They say I don't drive it enough.
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My battery on my 2008 SD goes down sometimes after the truck has been setting for a few days. This doesn't happen very often, and I've checked to see if I left something on that could have put a draw on it. I can find nothing that has caused it. I jump it off and might go a month before it happens again. I've got an add-on voltmeter that show voltage when the switch is on, and it's charging perfect. On older trucks, I would simply put a test light between the positive post and the cable and checked for a draw, but on the later model there is always a slight draw to keep memories alive.
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Yesterday when I went to start my week old PIP, the battery was drained. There was no power to start and no power to the dome lights etc. I got out the owners manual and on page 594 there were instructions to jump start which I did. I drove it to the dealer and they checked it out. They said the 12V battery state of charge was 50% after being jumped and driven for 30 minutes. They then charged it to a full state of charge. They couldn't find any other drain overnight.
I am trying to determine why this happened. The reason was not apparent. No interior lights were left on. There were no other electronics attached. We had driven the preceding two days in EV mode virtually exclusively. I don't recall if the ICE came on. The car sat unused for 36 hours. It had been plugged in to charge the traction battery and it charged via the timer without any apparent errors.
The service tech wondered if the battery had been fully charged prior to delivery. I know the traction battery had not been fully charged because I was anxious to take delivery. Could this be a consequence of driving in EV mode almost exclusively?
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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.
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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.
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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 .
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Within the last few weeks my super duty battery has been dead after sitting a few days. Draw is around 80 ma. When I pull the air bag fuse it drops to 10 ma. Before I tear in to this thing need to know where to start.
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Having problems with a slow drain on batteries? My truck wouldn't start after sitting for 5 days.
After recharging and starting it up once, I pulled the key, and disconnected the battery harness and checked for current on all the red wires in the harness. Only one drew current. I found the small red wire on the drivers side initially draws 470mA for 1 minute, then draws 22mA. In my experience in mobile audio, 22mA can drain a battery over several days.
Has anyone out there checked their 'dark current' draw? I have chased it all over and checked all the aftermarket add-ons and it comes down to something in the factory dash.
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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?
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If I leave my truck sit for a couple of days, the batteries are noticeably weaker. It's fine overnight, but two nights and it's slow to crank. Three and it won't start without charging the batteries. I checked for a drain last night and found that it was drawing 1.2 amps.
That seems like a lot, no?
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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) ?
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Prius was running wonderfully until a few weeks ago. Recently, about 2 months ago, bought a new 12v battery. Everything was working fine.
About two weeks ago, the car wouldn't start. Jump started all good. Drove fine. If left unstarted for a day, it goes flat the next day. If driven every day, car will start fine.
Battery volt reads 14.1V whilst driving. I checked on the MFD screen.
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We have an 02 prius 120k that works fine and dandy for the most part (slightly lower mileage then when new - we get 36-40mpg but I think part of that is the lead foot & AC usage) except now we have got the turtle a few times after it sits unused for a few days.
After driving it around for awhile the turtle goes away and doesn't come back. But this has happened a few times, the most recent after it sat in the driveway for 3 days with no activity. When we use it daily this doesn't occur.
Does this sound like the big battery is giving up the ghost after 11 years? Or is there something I can do to make it a happier camper (other then the obvious of paying attention to it daily)?
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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