Prius (2010-12) :: Installing A Second Traction Battery?
Apr 25, 2013
Purchased a second traction battery and installed it in parallel with the existing battery? Perhaps one from a wrecked Prius.
I'm thinking that would double the Ev range, which would be very handy in my current commute due to long term construction on one of the highways I use. I am in sub-5 mph stop and go so long each day that I wear down my battery and the ice ends up running while stopped, thus killing my hypermiler goals.
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If my traction battery has plenty of 'juice' in it, and my 12v battery is dead....is there any way to 'jump' the 12 volt battery with the traction battery to get the car started?
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This is my first year driving my prius during a hot season, and for past 3 weeks my mpg has dropped from 49 to 41-43 mpg, and the reason is my traction battery keeps getting HOT! I can hear the battery cooling fan turning on constantly at max when i reach 20 mph, my car doesn't want to start in EV mode the engine just kicks in no matter how light you press the throttle, the EV motor is not assisting with the engine, the infamous slow rpm drop keep occurring and I when to touch the traction battery case and it its HOT, Ive open up the case to check for any dust on the fan and ducts but so far its spotless. I really wished they place an AC vent for the battery because the back passenger area with full A/C doesn't t get as cold as the front dose which doesn't cool off the battery.
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How often should the traction battery cooling fan come on? It started to be warmer here in FL, and I hear this fan more often now. I bought my 2011 in December and up until now almost never heard this fan working. Now it comes on at least couple of times a day, mostly under heavy acceleration in Power mode.
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My prius is almost 5 years old and has 88K Klm (49K Miles) My battery has gone down to one bar of late. This never happened until recently, never went below two. The bars seem to fluctuate up and down much quicker than before. My mileage is slightly down but it could be because of other reasons. Does it seem that there is something wrong with the battery? No warning lights are coming on
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I know car likes to shut off at 3-4 bar, but what if I want to keep the battery closer to full in order to get more power. Is there any way to tell the computer to keep engine running?
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Long time since I have posted anything here, but I noticed the fan running far more than normal here. Now the outside temp was fairly warm, but the most recent day I noticed it, the temps were only around 80-85 degrees out.
I usually don't run the AC in my car unless it is terribly hot out - so when I hear a fan running it stands out to me. It is very obvious that it is coming from the rear seat vent area.
The temps here have taken a dip (highs tomorrow are only about 70-75F), so I will keep an ear out for it to continue. Is this something to be concerned about? It is a 2010 Prius IV with about 32k miles...
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So I have searched about engine rattle/knock and I have found lots of results for cold starts but I haven't found it for the issue that I am having. I have a 2010 and anytime the battery is real low, around 2 bars and the ICE fires up to charge it, any time I give it a little throttle input, I get heavy valve rattling. It doesn't matter if its cold or hot, it does it as long as the battery is low. I never get this noise when battery is charged up, only when low. I have a link to the video below and you can see once I give it some input, it starts to sound like an old diesel tractor. Prius has close to 200K on the odometer and all my maintenance is up to date. Please turn the speakers up but the noise is right at 5 seconds in or so.
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I have had my 2010 Prius 2010 for a year now. I have been taking my Prius to a full service car wash with the conveyor belt. They have always seemed ver Prius savvy. But the last couple of times, after getting in the car and driving away, the car seemed to hesitate upon initial acceleration. Then the problem goes away.
The last time I took it to this car wash, I sat in the car, because I only needed the express exterior wash. About a third of the way through, the instrument panel said "Low Traction Battery... put into Park" I did not obey the warning because I was afraid of putting it in Park while the conveyor belt system was pushing my Prius along. So I ignored it. By the end of the car wash, the engine had shut down. I had to start it up and drive out, and I got that same momentary, initial hesitation as I accelerated, like before. The hesitation went away after that.
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I've noticed that after sitting over night my battery for the hybrid system is not charged enough to operate the car in EV or for the first mile or two it does not seem to use as much electric power to supplement the car. After a couple miles it is charged or near charged and I see more use.
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On a hot sunny day, occasionally I have to be stopped for extended periods with the A/C running which means the engine will come on for a few minutes out of every 10 minutes or so. to charge the traction battery. Engine comes on at 2 bars and goes off at 3 bars.
As engine efficiency at idle is low, would it be better to put it in D with the brake firmly pressed and push the accelerator so that the engine speed is in the high efficiency range so as to produce more charge for the fuel burnt and maybe also I could charge it to a few more bars on the battery indicator?
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Today after running several errands, I stopped by the local CarWash to rinse the car. Same as always, parking brake off, shift into neutral and away we go. Half way threw she starts beeping, I see the yellow triangle and to the right a boxed message "LOW TRACTION BATTERY SHIFT INTO P POSITION". There was a sudden rush of anxiety because I could not shift while being conveyor-ed threw the wash. As soon as I was pushed out and the light turned green, I shifted into drive to exit. The warning and box cleared instantly.
I pulled into parking, shifted into P, and noticed the battery indicator had only 1 bar. Did a quick walk around of the car and got back on the road thinking, head directly the Dealership. Before I got to the freeway I was back up 4 bars and climbing. Continued on the freeway and within 2 exits all looked normal. As it is Saturday and the Dealership was 1 hour from closing, I proceeded home. Later we went to dinner and an event, then came home. All is still normal. Owners Manual only states to follow the command on page 515.
I know this is a long story and was intentional to starve off multiple questions. The only thing I can think is that the air conditioner, radio and headlights were on prior to, while waiting my turn for wash (park-roll-park-roll...) and up to the point of the warning (tuned off all at that point) while in the tunnel. However this is normal for me. Will monitor the battery indicator more closely for a while. I'm sure this event latched in a computer somewhere, so will run by the Dealer if anything else acts up again. A/C and radio and lights are turned off now while in "neutral", for whatever reason. The car is a 2010 II and only 27600 miles. Was not a pleasant feeling.
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My 2012 Prius v has a traction battery gauge beside the fuel gauge. The gauge has never shown that the battery is full. It appears as if the indicator is 2 bars below full at all times. Is this by design or should the gauge look full with bars to the very top after charging on a long trip?
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We're on our 3rd hybrid. Our new RX450h traction battery cooling fan under the back seat seems to run consistently after the car is driven for a few minutes. Our previous Prius and CT200h did not exhibit this. Is this typical of the 450h?
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I don't own a Prius, but my parents own two identical 2002 models (each with 120k miles).
My mother's car wasn't driven for nearly a month (hip replacement), and when they tried to start it last week, the ready light would blink 3 times - but no cranking.
After taking it to the dealer, they were quoted $4600 to replace the traction battery and ECU. We did the mandatory research on rebuilt batteries, but with only a vague diagnosis from the dealer, we were not convinced that this was the (only) problem.
So, my brother and I decided to swap the ECU, then the battery from my father's working Prius to my mother's - thereby proving the issue. Upon removing the 'dead' battery from mother's car, I decided to open the module, and check each battery. We measured anywhere from 3.0 to 6.4V on the individual cells - and 7.0V to 11V on the paired cells. It was clear that the batteries had discharged unevenly. The total charge remaining was about 151V - still above the 40% SOC minimum I'd read about.
We then bought 5 x 10A chargers from Walmart, and connected each to a pair of modules. Set the charge to rapid (10A) and waited 30 minutes (or until the charger indicated full). After 2 hours, all 19 pair were charged fully - with each reporting 15.7V +/- 0.5V. The total power was about 295V.
We reassembled the battery, re-installed it, and the car started immediately. We let it sit running, until it cycled off on its own. About 5 min later, the ICE fired again to charge the 12V battery - but it threw a P3006 error code. It showed a PS + MAIN + battery icon on the MFD. Using an OBDII scan tool, we cleared the error, and drove the car for a few miles. The error code did not return during that drive - but did one more time after letting it cycle off/on automatically. After clearing the code a second time, it never repeated again.
My assumption is that the 300V HV charge was above the 80% SOC and it didn't like that. But after a few cranking cycles, and the tendency for the battery to discharge back to it's rated output, the error no longer repeated.
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Over the last few weeks I have noted the following when I first start the car in the morning : I turn on the car, and turn on the A/C (this is Arkansas, remember, and the sun has already heated the car up pretty good). The Traction Battery is usually at 6 bar+/-
Over the next few minutes (driving uphill, maybe stopping for a minute to put trash in our trash cans, A/C on all the time), the Traction Battery goes down to 2 or 3 bars quickly. Then over the next few minutes it pretty quickly comes back up as I start driving faster (40-45) on a main road.
I am guessing this is happening now because of my A/C use. But I don't remember this happening so much in previous summers, which were at least as hot.
BTW, I start driving as quickly as possible after turning the car on (little or no warm up). So maybe some of this has to do with the car using battery energy while the engine is warming itself. But again, I never noticed this before.
Is it possible that a cell or something in the battery is going bad? Or is it just completely normal and I just never noticed it before and I'm having Traction Battery Paranoia?
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Took my C to the local drive through car wash as it was pretty crusty looking from all of the rain we've had lately. I had my A/C on as its a nice and warm sunny Florida day. Pulled inside and put my C in Neutral to go through the wash and half way through my car started beeping like mad and flashing the "!" in a triangle symbol and on the small screen it said something to the effect of "Cannot charge traction battery when car is in 'N'." My HVAC system drained down the traction battery and since the car was in neutral the engine couldn't keep it above the minimum SOC level. Turned the air off and anxiously waited for the car wash to hurry up so I could put it in drive. After I put the car in drive the SOC read 1 blue bar and took FOREVER to charge back (or perhaps it just seemed that way because I was freaking out..)
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I bought a new auxiliary battery online and installed it. I reset the driver's side power window. But my CD changer now beeps four times, all the lights turn green and orange, and I cannot play a CD from the changer or eject any of the discs. Both discs currently stuck in it are store bought Third Eye Blind CDs with no stickers, labels, etc.
I'm assuming that the CD player needs to be reset. Someone in another thread mentioned unplugging the battery for 20 seconds, while someone else said I need to enter a code that I can get from the dealer. I can go without the changer but the beeping is maddening.
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I see this was discussed back in 06 but not resolved. Maybe more owners have had additional experiences with this.
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My hybrid battery is shot and I do plan on rebuilding it when I can afford the cells. I was talking with Mike at xvipers.com yesterday and he said he could disable the hybrid system and make it run on the engine only for $40. He also says it will get 27mpg that way which is not bad. How one could do this?
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I have replaced the Traction battery AND the 12volt battery. I clear all codes by disconnecting the 12 volt battery for a short period of time. I reconnect 12v battery and no warning lights. I drive for 10 miles and RED TRIANGLE, Check Engine and the Brake lights also come on the dash. 2006 Prius 130K miles.
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