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Moans, groans and tailgate . . . . things.


Peaky Pete
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OK so our Rav4 is approx 8 month's old now and we are slowly coming to terms to certain Rav4 "characteristics" as mentioned previously at a day or so old sat having a coffee in a drive thru car park radio on for what I thought was a short time and the vehicles system shut down completely and would not start, contacted the dealer who was not that helpful and called recovery it was a lesson learnt, whenever we park up now everything is shut down and we purchased a Battery powered portable radio, which after 30 years of having a radio on for at least an hour or so this is is disappointing. Over the month's we are always surprised to hear the rather unique Rav4's strange noises, certain moans and vehicle groans going on somewhere inside the vehicle, the stuttering transmission shunt when taking off is apparently another Rav4 "characteristic", however at around 9.30 am this morning another weird thing happened, probably in jubilation that non essential shops are open for business again hey! who knows, we were sat in the vehicle nothing switched on except the Battery powered radio and the tailgate suddenly opened? no initial opening beeps  . . . . nothing, our key was in a bag on the back seat, my question is with the strange vehicle moans and groans going on and now the mysterious actions of tailgate clearly possessed should I contact a priest?  

Peaky Pete.

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Putting the vehicle into Ready mode when parked will enable you to listen to the multimedia system without draining the 12v Battery and without the need to use a portable radio.

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If I switch my Prius hubris to aux mode and play the radio (for example), as the 12v system deplete I get a warning on the dash somewhere. If I ignore that warning I can expect problems .    However, if I put the car into ready mode, the big hybrid Battery will charge the 12v Battery (silently), but when the big hybrid Battery gets depleted (but way before it’s empty) the petrol engine kicks in to recharge the big hybrid battery, which in turn continues to charge the 12v battery.  I would suspect your Rav hybrid works the same way.             
The principle I outlined ready mode is what Toyota suggests as an easy way of charging the 12v battery during lockdown/cold weather without travelling anywhere.

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What a waste of fuel just to listen to the radio assuming the engine starts which invariably it will in colder weather.

12V Battery shouldn’t go flat in half to one hour just listening to the radio 

my corolla shuts down after 20 minutes but I just switch off and turn aux on again

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Uh uh. I can see someone sometime telling the forum his Corolla hybrid Battery has gone flat for no reason at all.

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12 minutes ago, Catlover said:

Uh uh. I can see someone sometime telling the forum his Corolla hybrid battery has gone flat for no reason at all.

From what I have seen on the forum it seems that the agm batteries seems the ones that go flat why I don’t know the auris had a agm I think and that went flat a couple of times haven’t had a problem yet with the corolla.

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Wheat you do not want to happen is the hybrid Battery going flat. I know it was a couple years ago, but I was told by my Toyota dealer there are not many hybrid Battery chargers on the country, and they have to book it to get it.

it’s been said elsewhere on this forum, the amount of time the petrol engine will fire up to charge the hybrid Battery during an hour will be around 4 times lasting just a few minutes each time.

Now the weather is warmer, and vehicles are getting used more the number of owners reporting dead batteries on this forum has reduced dramatically, and will continue to do so as the year goes on and COVID restrictions are reduced.

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1 hour ago, Rosgoe said:

What a waste of fuel just to listen to the radio assuming the engine starts

12V battery shouldn’t go flat in half to one hour just listening to the radio 

You're in the same boat with some petrol cars - for example some Hyundais (including our i20) and Kias give a Battery warning within a couple of minutes if you have the mulitmedia unit on with the engine off.

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4 hours ago, Rosgoe said:

What a waste of fuel just to listen to the radio assuming the engine starts which invariably it will in colder weather.

12V battery shouldn’t go flat in half to one hour just listening to the radio 

my corolla shuts down after 20 minutes but I just switch off and turn aux on again

Due to the Covid restrictions I have to sit in my car whilst my Sons' do their weekly kickboxing.  I leave the car in Ready mode and put the drive mode into Eco.  Their class lasts around 45 minutes and the longest I've had the engine running for is 5 minutes (I sad enough to note the time!) during Winter months.

I've always been impressed at how little the engine will turn on when parked.

 

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25 minutes ago, duncerduncs said:

Due to the Covid restrictions I have to sit in my car whilst my Sons' do their weekly kickboxing.  I leave the car in Ready mode and put the drive mode into Eco.  Their class lasts around 45 minutes and the longest I've had the engine running for is 5 minutes (I sad enough to note the time!) during Winter months.

I've always been impressed at how little the engine will turn on when parked.

 

Yep, same with the new Yaris. I leave it in Ready mode when i wash it, engine comes on twice or three times an hour, only for about a minute each time

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I once had a need to spend about 6 hours sleeping  in a Gen 3 Prius on a cold January night and just left it in READY with the climate control set to a comfortable setting.  As others have said, 2-3 minutes of engine 3 or 4 times an hour.  Next time I filled the tank, there was no discernible difference in the tank mpg figure.

At least the Gen 3 didn't force me to have the side or head lights on all night like more recent Toyota do!

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If you Battery is going flat in such a short space of time, it may be that you aren’t driving the car enough to maintain a high state of charge. A trickle charger now & again would really help. I top up my Corolla 12v quite regularly - sometimes the charge only takes an hour or so to full. 

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As I understand it the 12v Battery isn't very large in capacity. As it charges direct from the traction Battery very quickly. 

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38 minutes ago, BigR1ch said:

As I understand it the 12v battery isn't very large in capacity. As it charges direct from the traction battery very quickly. 

Yes, it is relatively low, and is one of the few minor issues with Toyota Hybrids.

The biggest load on most 12V car batteries is starting the engine, but the Hybrid system does that with the HV (traction) Battery.  The 12V only has to run a few minor computer systems, interior lights, alarm, door lock sensors etc., and prime a couple of pumps.  Then you press start, it connects relays on both positive and negative sides of the HV Battery and once the READY light is on the HV Battery takes charge if everything including charging the 12V battery.

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As per the Toyota advice (via the pinned thread at the top of this forum): "We recommend you put the car in ‘Ready’ mode for about 60 minutes before switching it off again and repeat the process at least once a week"

From which we can deduce that the car needs to be used for about an hour a week in order to keep the Battery topped-up. This can be while driving (normal use), parked and Ready or simply with a trickle charger attached "for about an hour a week" or, indeed, any combination of the three.

In this case, "very quickly" = "about an hour" ... 😉

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