Hello all, The last two nights I've parked my Prius v Five for the evening with the battery display showing 3/4 full; in the morning when I turn on the car, however, it shows only 1/3 full (when I first start it). I thought perhaps I was just mistaken. I noticed it today, too, while my vehicle was parked for the workday in a climate-controlled garage. The morning commute left the battery displaying showing almost full; 8 hours later when I go to leave, however, the display showed less than half full. I just took delivery of the vehicle on Monday, 6/30, and it has about 450 miles. Is this normal? I read in one of the other forums that perhaps this is not; I wondered if the steamy Atlanta nights was a cause, but it happened today in a climate-controlled environment. To be sure I'm not imagining things, I took a picture of the battery display this evening and I'll compare it to what I see when I first start the vehicle tomorrow. Would appreciate thoughts.
Not unusual in a new battery. Worry less and drive more. That said, its normal for charge state to change after the car sits and cools off. In a few thousand miles, if it still troubles you have the dealer check it out.
I don't think that an overnight ~50% change in SOC can in any way or at any time be called "normal". I'd give it no more than a week before taking it in to be checked out. And if anything else strange happens, it would go in immediately. Are you sure that you are turning the vehicle OFF at night ??
First off, a display showing 3/4 full and changing to a display showing 1/3 full is NOT the same as a battery going from 3/4 full to 1/3 full. Leaving aside that there are only 8 "pips" (my term, sorry) on the charge display, it is important to note that this display does not remotely correspond to the full capacity of the battery. My understanding is that ALL pips illuminated corresponds to approximately 80% of a full charge, or 80% SOC. No pips corresponds to about 40% SOC, so each pip is about 5%. It is also somewhat important to note that a change of two pips can be as small as 5% + a tiny amount. So, if I am reading your post correctly, you started out with 6/8 pips lit, which by the way is the target SOC for the car, roughly 60% SOC, and came back to see 3/8 pips (?) lit. That could be as small as a 10% change or as large as a 15% change. It is not a 42% change as you might think. All of that aside, new batteries, hot weather and other factors could all contribute to you seeing that difference. It may even be, I don't know other than you are a new Priuschatter, that the car is "learning" your battery. I would keep an eye on it. I imagine it would reduce over time and average zero or one pip for an overnight stand. One thing you can do is to test it for being linear vs. time. That is, what happens if you leave the car stand for two days, three days, more? The point is, if this is a real drain on your battery, or a problematic condition in the battery, more signal compared to the noise (resolution of the display) would be informative. Good luck and welcome.
in 10 years, i have never read here that dropping more than a pip or two is normal or common, new car, broken in or whatever. i would track and record it for a few days, then take it in. unfortunately, if they don't pull any codes, they won't know what to do with it. how are your mpg's?
How about drain on the 12volt battery? I am going to have to park my car in the garage for four months. Last time I did this the 12v. battery drained to dead as a door nail. Should I connect a trickle charge to the battery? Or just jump start it after the storage? Thanks, Jim Doyle
trickle charge. get a good battery maintainer. see threads here for recommendations. are you on the original 12 volt? the worst thing you can do to them is drain them down dead.
A trickle charger is different from a battery maintainer. The trickle charger frequently lacks circuitry to shut itself off but will charge a totally dead battery. Thus a trickle charger can overcharge/damage a battery if it lacks the capacity to shut itself off. A battery maintainer can be installed and left on for months. But most won't charge a battery that has discharged below a certain point. They do shut off and don't overcharge batteries. And then there are expensive units that do both either automatically or by selection. In another car I've left my 12v on a maintainer for the winter months several years in a row with no downside.
