Driving on a dying battery

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by hershey1203, May 20, 2025 at 10:18 PM.

  1. hershey1203

    hershey1203 New Member

    Joined:
    Sunday
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    Location:
    chicago
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    hello all! been looking through this website and trying to discover whats wrong with my 2005 prius, just to find out my battery is on its last legs, but ive seen lots of questions on “how long” you can drive with a dying battery and wanted to share my experience (although, this is NOT advice and i do NOT recommend doing this). the red triangle of death came on in February (which i ignored), in March on a long highway trip my cars dash lit up like a christmas tree, and up until now ive been driving the car. i drive about a collective 2 hours daily between my commute to work and home and daily tasks my job requires and havent stopped this since my car problems started. once again, i DO NOT recommend this, and every situation is different, but in my case the car has lasted since february til now with this level of usage. the car hasnt fully died yet, but considering i can feel it worsening (heavy forced breaking, high revving after a complete stop, constant LOUD rear vent noise, VSC light on, limp mode about every 15 minutes, etc) im refraining from driving it out of pure fear. thats all! do with that information what you will! (i do not believe i made smart choices here i just want to share, would not do this again!)
     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2020
    11,740
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    Location:
    Durham NC
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    I did this for a month or so on a dying battery in February when it was cold out and drove up to the dealership with the dead battery and picked up the new battery and drove back home still with the dead battery in the car because I didn't want to change it in the parking lot and I mean it was bad like what you got going on but didn't seem to affect the car any soon as I drop the new battery and it went from 36 mi to the gallon right up to 44 and everything acting right and all of that and then I don't know about a week later the break actuator went out and lit up the car Christmas tree slow breaking all of that change the brake actuator car's been like that for about 5 years now no problems nothing