Recently I've been having issues with my keyless entry not working and every time that it happens I get in, step on the brake and hit the power button and the car is very slow to respond then all the wanring lights come on and it will not "start". I have to turn it off again and try a couple times for it to work. I also notice my power windows roll up/down very slowly and such till I get the car moving. It seems to have happened after installing my small amplifier (400w rms). I do drive a lot without the stero at full volume just to allow it to recharge some lik eyou would in a normal vehicle but that is hit or miss since I never know the real charge status on the battery. Anyone else had this problem? Are battery woes common in the Prius? I tried a search but its too hard weeding through the EV battery stuff lol. I'm thinking of getting an Optima or Stinger battery for the car to help with the stereo if this is going to be an issue. Kind of lame considering its a tiny amplifier.
in the morning before you start the car put a voltmeter on the jumper terminal under the hood, tell us what the voltage is before you start the car. Less than 12.4 and you have a parasitic draw on the battery that's kicking the life out of it. Watch the meter and have someone start the car and if it goes below 11.3 that's what's setting the lights. The battery in the Prius is ment to just boot the computer so it can close the H V battery relay to get the car running. Sitting with the car out of Ready and listening to your stereo for 10 minutes will just about have the battery to the voltage level to give the problems your describing. It's not lame it just doesn't need a 800CCA battery to start it so no sense lugging one around.
First, there is not an AUX battery. There's a High-Voltage (HV) battery for the drive motors, and there's a 12 volt battery for the computers, lights, windows, etc. I just wanted to get nomenclature straight. Did you disconnect the 12V battery when installing your amp? Sometimes a loose connection can cause all sorts of weird problems. It does sound like the 12V battery is not fully charged. If you've been driving around for a while, so the 12V battery would be charged fromt he HV battery, the 12V batter may be defective. A few have been reported.
I no longer have a multi-meter so I'm kinda stuck there but I did hook up a charger to it and it was REALLY low. Its charging now and I'll see if I can find a cheap meter to test with. Thanks for clearing up the naming system The battery was never disconnected and the connections are clean and tight with no corrosion on the teminals or the wiring. The amp was off when I checked it. At this point I would say that: #1 The battery is simply too small for what I need. #2 The battery was/is defective. #3 There is some drain on the system or the grounding for the battery to the chassis could be lose or corroded? My guess is #1 and I'm just too hard on the lil battery. I'm used to my GM cars/trucks with 1000ca batteries and 200 amp alternators. :/
well, you've definitely got too much draw on the 12v system. the prius isn't meant to support that kind of sound system, unfortunately. basically, the 12v system is there to deal with the little stuff like the windows, headlights, etc. in a regular car, as you know, there's an alternator to constantly replenish the battery power so you can draw more from it. in the prius there's a DC-DC converter to convert high voltage to 12v power, instead of an alternator, to keep the aux battery from discharging. it doesn't provide much reserve capacity though. the car was designed to have a very small aux battery. you can give the optima a shot and see where it takes you, it'll give you a little more 12v power before the DC-DC converter has to kick in. if you draw TOO much power, you could put too much load on that DC-DC converter, and then you're in trouble. so think carefully before adding more in there. good luck <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Sep 3 2006, 06:23 PM) [snapback]313628[/snapback]</div> the 12v can also be called the aux battery- it runs the auxiliary systems.
Thx Galaxee, I guess I got thr wrong idea from the last stereo thread where I mentioned having too much of a draw on the system and some people were saying its no problem since the battery gets recharged by the HV battery and DC-DC converter so the stock battery was fine and blah blah blah. Guess that doesnt seem to be true afterall. I'll just try out a bigger battery and be more careful when and how hard I play the system.
1) I don't know enough about electronics to say if the current 12v battery is adequate for you new amp or not. Do you have all the power info for the amp? I'm sure someone here could give you a definative answer on that. 2)I would suspect that it's more of a problem with HOW you wired the amp in. Is there continuous power to it or did you wire it such that it only gets power when the car is powered up? If the former then that's surely the problem. If the latter then I agree that it's probably too much draw for the 12v.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Sep 3 2006, 06:36 PM) [snapback]313638[/snapback]</div> it is true... only to an extent. your amp is beyond that extent. :lol: you don't want to draw too much from the DC-DC converter. cause those things are not cheap, as of course stereo mods aren't exactly warranty fodder. smart move. try one of the optimas, a group 51 or 51R battery. he doesn't remember which is which, but the only difference is which side each terminal is on. they're made for honda applications i guess, but are the same size.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Sep 3 2006, 03:45 PM) [snapback]313641[/snapback]</div> You really can only wire an amplifier 1 way. It must be connected directly to the 12v power source with an adequet sized power wire and then to the battery or a good chassis ground with the proper sized cable. There is also a 12v "turn-on" wire that will be hooked up to an ignisiton source so the amp will turn on and off via the radio or the ignition depending on your preference. So in essense the amp is on whenever the car stereo is on but it is not pulling max current at all times. The amperage draw carries with output levels. So sometimes to help recharge I will turn the remote volume control (not a bass boost knob) on my amp way down and leave the stereo fairly high. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Sep 3 2006, 03:47 PM) [snapback]313643[/snapback]</div> I'll look into those on Tuesday then
If you are like most people and play your stereo all the time, I don't think that a larger battery will necessarily solve your problem, not unless you recharge it every night at home. The battery is only a reservoir for power with the limiting factor being the capacity of the DC/DC converter. People who put in major stereo mods typically upsize the battery and put in a heavy duty alternator, but there is no alternator in the Prius to upgrade. In the world of audio 400w may be on the low end, but you have to ask how much reserve capacity did Toyota design into the DC/DC converter?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(8AA @ Sep 4 2006, 08:04 AM) [snapback]313971[/snapback]</div> I agree but logically it should allow me more time to play the stereo before I run into trouble. Then I can periodically charge it and not have as many issues (with storage loss) since its a deep cycle battery.
