Gen 4 Flat battery

[cviclark]

Flat Battery. Yesterday I had a flashing warning "Low12v Battery" Park and refer to manual. Engine would not start interior lights flashing. Ignition off I could see no reason.  Lucky for me the car was outside as I was modifying my garage wall so I could park easier.  My neighbor is a retired RAC patrol man and was there with his booster pack before I could find the manual.  After a quick boost all fired up and off we went to the shops.

However the message Low 12v Battery is not mentioned in the manual.  The problem with a Hybrid and a flat starter Battery is that you cannot move it. Had I been in my garage I would not have been able to get to the battery to do anything.  Headlights coming on on Auto and interior lights when door opened do not help as the battery dies before you have a chance to do anything, which is why I was lucky to be outside. 

Neighbor says " you probably left a light on" or "bluetooth hunting" But the I noticed the segment display on my Dashcam was flashing Fat even when the ignition was OFF.  My Dashcam has two memory cards I have never formatted them which I guess is what Fat means.  It also has an OFF, ACC,ON switch ACC is power from IGN drive mode record only on is Drive and Park. I normally use it in ACC, which it was set to. When I switch off it says "See you" and powers down.  It also has a protection setting in firmware that powers down if the battery falls below 12.5v, so it should never drain the car battery.  Once I did a format from the camera all went back to normal and appears OK , I have sent off e-mails to Lukas  (who are normally very good) but I will monitor it very carefully from now on.  It could well have been in this mode for a while as I do not see the display when driving, its deliberately hidden by the mirror.  The Dashcam manual does say if "forced format" is intiated by the camera it is in Standby Mode.

I will keep you all up to date.     

[Anthony Poli]

By any chance, have you got a obd adapter plugged in?

I have one that was supposed to go into low power mode when not in use, only to find out 2 days later my 12v Battery was discharged.

I would take the car back to mr T and have them check both the Battery and the current draw while the car is powered off.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cviclark]

I do have an ODB adapter but not peramanantly plugged in. I also have a Battery  conditioner (fancy trickle charger) that is left on when I am away for over three weeks. Bought in the seventies it was an expensive bit of kit but essential for servicemen on frequent trips abroad for months on end. I have worked in Battery bays so will monitor  the condition  over a a couple of weeks and check for  current drainage. I am confident it's a clitch in the camera software stuck in format. Once the Battery comes up  above 12.8v off load I will run a software check (easy on the Lukas as it's wi-fi to  Andoid App). I will be surprised if it is a Toyota fault, but I did think the battery  was software protected against long term drain, and would have liked the manual to show the warning message.

[PeteB]

I had a similar thing with my Battery just once in October.

When I opened the door the motor that pressurises the brakes (or whatever it does) was making a very weak clicking, and nothing would fire up.  I keep a modern VHS tape sized jump starter in the seat pocket on the back of the driver's seat, and started the car with that.

I had recently upped the setting in the camera for the voltage at which it would switch itself off when the car was not running, so dropped it back to a lower value and have had no problem since.  It may have been a red herring, as the values are all over 10 volts, which should be more than enough to fire up the computers on a Prius.

 

[cviclark]

Hi Pete

I left my Battery conditioner on 24 hours and it's upto 12.6v. Checked the Lukas software and checked the memory chips via the App. All looks good but the power cut off was set to Auto, not sure how the camera decides what the Prius needs so I set other at 12.2V.  I would think 10v  would be too low as a lot of lights come on when you open the door and hit Start, in the Garage even the headlights. I don't use the camera in Park function and would rather a dead camera than car.

Lukas came back with the standard "you are the first customer with this experience" response but suggested the memory  cards could be failing. Three years old always on with ignition, so they could be correct. At least they responded. I think I was just unlucky the card was full and forced format when I powered down, it could not complete so kept trying. I will check the camera display occasionally from now on.    

[kithmo]

The auto headlights only come on in ready mode so it will have started up and be powered off the hybrid Battery at that stage.

[PeteB]

They also come in in IGN on mode (not READY) adding to the load on the 12V which is really bad

[PeteB]

On 29/03/2017 at 1:58 PM, cviclark said:

...I would think 10v  would be too low as a lot of lights come on when you open the door and hit Start, in the Garage even the headlights...

may well be right.  I know with earlier version 10V was plenty, someone once reported started a Gen 1 with a 9 volt Battery out of a radio or something.