2012 Prius v with 144,000 miles. Never had a P0A80 until now. This week I went through a carwash in neutral with the AC on & I came out with lots of errors including P0A80 I bought the Dr Prius app and got a 33.9% on battery life so it looks like I have a new battery in my future. How long can I drive on a 33.9%?
The first thing is the Dr Prius calc is a guess rather than an accurate view of capacity remaining. Especially coming off a deep discharge which can result in a different guess after further driving. But regardless you will appreciate the increased mpg and pep a new battery will give. Be smart and buy an oem unless you just want to flip the car.
Are you a DIY person who feels comfortable working on the high voltage battery? If so, a grid charger and discharge will greatly extend the life of your battery. See this very long thread:https://priuschat.com/index.php?posts/3434610 If not, you could try to find someone to do the grid charging and discharging for you. OR you could just ignore this post and buy a new OEM HV battery.
Thanks. We’ve done 2 days (40 miles) of driving since I did the car wash drain. I’ve seen the battery go low and driven in B to charge it back up. I thought that the deep drain had worn off. Thoughts? I’m pretty comfortable with tools but certainly not a mechanic. Also I can carry my 50 pound dog but not thrilled about a 100 pound battery block. We plan to drive this car into the ground and we drive New Orleans to New York City round trip twice per year. My biggest fear is getting stranded at the mercy of some dealership.
Thanks. We plan on driving this car into the ground, and the discharging is outside my skill set and might or might not work. I just did sway bar links, a new coolant reservoir, a water pump and head gasket job (thank god the engine and cylinders are still good) so I feel like I’m committed. I don’t think the OEM battery would be throwing good money after bad. It will take 2 weeks to get the battery in because they are back ordered and no one is discounting. If the car suddenly improves, I will have a new really expensive iPhone charger.
B mode is not necessary and costs you mpg in almost all driving. It is designed for long mountain descents when the battery is completely full and regen charging is no longer a method to indirectly slow the car. At that point the hybrid system will go into a no fuel engine braking mode. The ironic part is the system will do this in D mode when needed as I and a couple of others verified in early July. The reality is weak hybrid batteries do pretty well in highway driving where they are not constantly charged and significantly discharged as in stop and go city driving. Even city driving is better than N in a car wash or anywhere especially with the AC on which runs on the hybrid voltages. When in N the car can’t charge the battery. With that said, I would get long distance towing coverage before taking my old v on a 2600-3000 mile road trip. Not because of the hybrid battery but concerns like brake boosters, inverters or some previous or new engine part that decided it was its time. The Prius stayed home on our July roadtrip to the Colorado mountains
Do not drive in B mode. Driving in B mode will reduce the amount of regenerative braking, and it will not charge the battery as much as D mode. Put it in D and just drive it. Hopefully, the SOC of the battery block will equalize and the Delta SOC will reduce down to 0% Drive it for two to four weeks, and then check the Delta SOC.
It will do so in D, when needed, but the difference in B is that it will begin earlier, doing less regen into the battery and trading it off for more engine braking, whereas in D that only comes when the battery gets near the upper charge limit. So the battery will be protected from overcharging either way, but the point of B is that you might know that you're at the top of a very long descent where the battery will end up fully charged no matter what, and by selecting B you can be extra gentle with the battery by not charging it as hard.
