Hello, Going through a car wash, I had an error message come up requesting that I place the car in Park, it was in neutral. After getting through the wash, I put it in drive and the error went away. I noticed that the bars only went up to 6 not the full 8. I have just over 100K miles on the car. Should it still be going to the 8 bars? Does 6 bars mean that the hybrid battery is damaged? Thanks!
The battery will recharge to normal as you drive, don't worry about it. As I understand, in neutral, the battery will not charge and if you have any accessories on they will use battery power ...the car knows this and asked you to put it into park.
it sounds like you're okay, the battery doesn't always go to 8 bars. however, at the age of your battery, you risk running it dangerously low in a carwash that requires neutral. if you must, try to go in when the battery is fairly high, and don't use a/c.
What @bisco said. And welcome, BTW. The car washes that require you to be in neutral are a little risky if your traction battery is low, especially in hot weather with the A/C running.
The EXACT same situation happened to me yesterday at the car wash. Nice to hear that it doesn't sound like a huge concern or that there's anything wrong with the battery.
