I put a new battery in and believe it wasn't charged all the way or I didn't break it in properly. Would putting a "conventional" charge on the battery hurt it? I believe when I first got it that I put it to work right away with our hot AZ summers and didn't give it a proper chance to get going or charged all the way(I could be wrong also).
What do you mean by "conventional charge"? Is this like conventional current flow? Or do you mean conventional charger, which is a whole different thing? If you are going to use a charger on your Prius 12V battery, it is best to disconnect the battery first. Some of the primitive battery chargers can damage expensive electronics. If you just need to charge, power up your Prius and leave it in Ready for a couple of hours. Tom
Interesting..... I'm trying to see if the vehicle is charging the battery properly when I use electronics. I want to start off with a battery that is good to go and then see if my electronics(AC/Radio) wreak havoc on the battery in a way it effects my fuel mileage. I'm just now seeing my AC beat the hell out of the battery(a lot worse than last summer) and would like to know why. Thanks for the advice.
I can't remember if we asked you to check your battery voltage or not. This will help you determine if your battery is losing capacity.
it's an 05 prius... you're originally battery was past it's life span. you really should keep all of this in your other post. clean the fan ... if your hybrid battery getting too warm, it takes everything else down with it... (go back to your other thread... there are hundreds of post on here about 12v charging... just do a google search.. anything prius usually points to priuschat)
*UPDATE* The 12v battery that I installed is displaying the VOLTS on diagnostic fine. So I ran the car without AC in here in AZ and the fuel mileage went up considerably. Usually in the afternoon the BATTERY BAR LEVEL is around 2 BARS and struggles on the ride home to get back up... So the next step is to clean the fan and try diagnosing to see if that helps when I have the AC on. Thanks!
What was the voltage reading? If you have been driving around on the freeway then you should have closer to 65% SOC or 4+ bars. Driving in the city with the AC on high could cause SOC to drop quite a bit and the engine will run more frequent ly as a consequence.
I think it was reading 12.4 and 14.3 for the 2 output readings. I run the ac at MAX LOW, re-circulate, and 50% fan.
Change it to something like 75 or 78 degree F should save fuel while keeping you comfortable. Good luck!
I bought one of these and permanently wired the unit onto the car batery. http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B000FQBWCY?tag=priuschatcom-20 just run an extension cord to the car if I need top the battery off. I could not drive for 3 months earlier this year. I left this unit on the car 24/7. 3 months later, my Optima battery was just fine, my baby started right up! I also have a second unit I keep on my 4Runner. I do not drive it that much now, but the Optima I put in the truck is always ready to start it up. It keeps the battery topped nicely. http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B000FQBWCY?tag=priuschatcom-20
