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Cheers,
MidCow
After painfully skimming through the user's manual I found this.
1- On page 10 : "If the hybrid battery becomes fully discharged and the vehicle will not start even with a jump start to the 12 volt battery, contact your Toyota dealership." This is what you did.
2- On page 306 (Jump starting procedure) : "During jump starting, run the engine [of the helping car] at about 2000 rpm ..." DON'T DO THAT FOR THE FIRST 2 MINUTES - This creates a risk to burn the rectifiers of the helping car ! It will also exceed the 5-ampere charging recommendation by a large margin. LEAVE THE HELPING CAR'S ENGINE STOPPED for the first 2 minutes and then you can ramp up slowly to 2000 rpm.
3- Page 307 : "If the first start attempt is not successful...
...Recharge the discharged battery with the jumper cables connected for several minutes and restart the hybrid system in the normal way...." This is what you ended up doing.
I always like to know how and why things work (yes, I am an engineer ). We already knew that the 12 volt battery normally gets its power from the the 244 volt battery. Your mishap confirms that the 12volt-to-244volt converter is bi-directional, and that, when in need, the 244 volt battery can be recharged by the 12 volt battery.
If the traction battery charge falls below it's safe range, it will not reconnect to the system and it's time for a tow to the dealer for diagnostics (something is wrong!) and a direct recharge.
Just to clarify, Toyota has never made a claim that the traction battery will last 15 years. Perhaps you mean 150K or 10 years, which is the CARB state warranty on emissions parts?
Droid13, your statement does make sense.
May I ask where you got the information to assert this ? Or do you just put forward a hypothesis ?
I would like to be sure before I change my mind.
"you cannot get the keys out" of what? :confuse:
We're a bit confused. The only "key" that the Camry Hybrid has is a little bitty stick of metal that's used to open the driver's door and/or trunk in the event the SmartKey fob fails. There is no physical keyhole or key-socket inside the car anywhere. No physical key is used to start the car or to turn it off, just the Power button.
Thus many Camry Hybrid drivers DO stick the car "key" (i.e., the SmartKey fob) into their pocket to drive. I keep mine in my purse and never have to take it out.
I started to ask the same question. Now that you've answered it I still don't know what you're saying
Oh, come on! I would not stick the car key into my pocket to drive!
Uhh, that's where I keep mine when I'm driving.
I also keep the keys in my pocket when I drive.
From now on, I will keep printed instructions in the glove box, to put them on the instrument lens when I leave the car, and I will also make sure the radio is ON (it stays ON if you push the POWER button before shifting to PARK).
1. The high voltage Totem pole Up/Down converter which raises the HV battery pack voltage to the main HV bus up to 650v max. from its low of 244volts while accelerating ( something to do with maintaining volts/Hz)with MG2. And then while decelerating must lower the HV bus voltage to the HV battery pack voltage to enable it to absorb the recaptured energy.
And then there must be this other converter that gillesmtl was referring to earlier.
2. A bidirectional converter which allows power to be exchanged between the 12 volt accessory battery and the HV battery pack. This must be about the schematic I saw on the ANL goverment site which shows how the galvanic seperation for the two battery systems is attained. Until now I didn't know which car this was intended for. I'm pretty sure the Gen 1 Prius does not have this. Anyway for those interested they use two H-bridges connected via a high frequency step up transformer. Obviously only one bridge can be enabled at any one time.
So the sequence must be that during boosting of a discharged 12volt system, the low voltage H-bridge must turn on thus charging the HV pack which in turn precharges the HV bus enabling MG1 and it's inverter to start the engine.
Though it does sound dumb that any drain on the 12volt will cause a domino effect to the loss of the HV battery as well. This is a repeat of the old adage "computers are dumber than people but smarter than programmers" !
And then you have to hit the START switch to shutdown properly. Now who else in their right mind would expect you to do a thing like that. Alright, who else besides Bill Gates then ?
T2
It's hard to believe any dealer would say something so foolish. It's nonsense. If true, millions of cars left at home while families go on vacations--by plane or another car--would return to find all their car batteries dead. Needless to say, this isn't happening.
Your problem was likely caused by a defective battery, or an electrical drain of some kind, or possibly your battery was at low charge when you left for some other reason.
Odd this should come up; I just saw an article on how new cars need to be run more often because some of their electronics have a small current draw. Apparently it is due to the way the auto companies are designing their computer subsystems.
Most older cars are not affected because their electronics do not draw current unless the car ignition is on.
Sorry, I can't remember where I saw the story, it was either on excite or reuters sites.
I was thinking it was "suggested" that the car be started every two weeks.
IMHO the person who told you that should be fired.
My 2007 TCH was rear ended by an 18 wheeler and pushing us into a car in front of us, crushing the trunk lid up to the rear window almost. My problem is that due to some insurance problems the car is still is in our driveway and the Hybrid Batt is now at 1/5th. I disconnect the trunk light but the airbag lights are still on.
The adjusters estimate shows the following (which I think many might find interesting) "HYBRID VEHICLE:BATTERY IS TEMP SENSITIVE, DO NOT CURE PAINT, AIR DRY OVERNIGHT SHOP MUST CHECK BATTERY CHARGE TO PREVENT DISCHARGE THAT MAY REQUIRE REPLACEMENT" Well, I can see the chances of this happening is almost a certain.
Any comments or cautions would be appreciated. I just love this car.
Right now all we have is experiences from Prius owners and while there may have been a bad battery here and there, there doesn't seem to be any talk of batteries failing with age. The Prius taxis owners put 300-400k on their cabs before replacing the car and they have not had any battery failures, nor have they worn out their battery packs.
When a load is applied , like the starter motor, for example, 2 things happen. First, Current flows through the starter, Current is measured in Amps.
The second thing that may happen, depending on temperature, battery capacity, and how long you crank the starter motor, the internal resistance of the 12 Volt battery will increase. The current flowing through this internal resistance will cause the voltage to drop slightly from the current flowing through it. So the output voltage may drop to a nominal 11 Volts.
Power is Volts times Amps. The power necessary to run the starter will be the same. At a lower voltage, more Amps are necessary. This is why batteries can only crank a certain amount. After awhile of not cranking the starter , batteries seem to recover a little with no charging. This is due to the internal resistance going back to its original state.
Does that help ?
I love this car!!! I have a minor question.
I have never observed the main battrey fully charged - always one or two bars less than full. Is that normal?
I have a 2009 TCH which has about 69,000 miles on it.
Thanks,
A
GR
The engine did not come on because you turned on the nav, but rather because it had been ~7 seconds after you pressed the Start button. That delay will be skipped if a) the battery charge is low, or b) the outside temperature is very low.
The battery gauge just reflects the current charge of the traction battery. If you drive the car in electric mode for the last mile or so before parking it the traction battery will be down and stay that way until the engine is running again to recharge it. So finding the car with a 60% charge does not indicate any issues with the battery, just that it was somewhat depleted before being turned off.
The battery pack has a long warranty so you should not have to worry about the battery at all from a financial perspective. How long has this TCH been 'inactive'?