#PRIUS 12 VOLT BATTERY DRIVERS#

#PRIUS 12 VOLT BATTERY DRIVERS#

One example would be when you first open the drivers door. Concerning loads, various loads are applied even in OFF mode to the 12 volt battery. Because of that fact, the product you ordered is useless IF you want to measure the voltage of the 12 volt battery with NO load being applied. IF the power outlet were hot when the Prius is powered down (OFF), the item you purchased from Amazon would be great, but unfortunately the engineers who designed the Prius elected to have the power disconnected to the accessory outlet when the Prius is powered down. I would estimate you would read somewhere in the area of 12.2 minimum to 12.6 maximum while in accessory mode. Bare in mind that when you are in accessory mode, a small 'load' will be applied to the battery, therefore the battery might measure slightly lower than you would expect. Because of that fact you will need to be careful that you only check the voltage in accessory mode to get a 'fairly' accurate idea of what the voltage is on the battery whereas you can determine it's amount of charge. However, if you were to check the voltage at the power outlet while in 'Accessory' mode (one push of power button WITHOUT the brake being held), you will notice that the voltage is much lower. When the Prius is in 'Ready' mode, (normal driving) the voltage at the power outlet should measure in the 13.8 to 14.2 volt range. When you use the product you ordered from Amazon and plug it in, you will notice different readings depending on how you 'push the power button' on the Prius. That only happens at two different times of a possibility of three options available to you. Seems like quite an oversight.Ĭlick to expand.Be aware that the product you purchased will only measure voltage when the power outlet in your Prius (under the flying bridge) is powered up. And didn't cars used to have a gauge that measured battery readouts right on the instrument panel? I wonder why they don't anymore.

Why did they use this new battery that seems to have all these problems, anyway? Why didn't Toyota use the same sort of 12V battery as the one we had in our old 1997 Corolla? That one only had to be changed once in 15 years.

That's why we go with Toyota, for reliability. Is there some procedure to check the 12V battery status on a Prius 2011 II with no NAV, or do you have to buy some aftermarket part to do it for you? We're not big car mechanics, we just want a car that's idiot-proof and can be driven while only occasionally taking it to the dealership for maintenance.

So since we now have a battery that mysteriously seems to discharge itself, and the dealership has done nothing to fix it, I'm now worried about future dead battery incidents. We took it to the dealership on Monday, and they said that the battery was fine and sent us home. I'm not sure how it was drained, as I'm pretty sure we didn't leave the headlights or the dome light on (and have since turned the dome light off, instead of leaving it on auto), and IIRC the Prius turns off its own headlights and/or yells at you if you forget to turn them off. We called roadside assistance, and they gave it a jump and said that its battery was totally drained. On Sunday, its battery went dead, and prior to that the last time we drove it was on Friday. This is a 2 month old 2011 Prius II that we got on Black Friday 2011.

Prius 12 volt battery