Toyota Yaris flat batteries

facade

WellKnownSid said:

facade said:

I thought the advice was to power them up for 30 minutes at a time or so each week whilst you sit inside and read a book or play on your 'phone, then the 12V battery will charge off the high voltage battery. If the high voltage battery gets too low it will start up and charge itself.

Makes sense to me, so it is probably a myth....

60 minutes, actually.

https://mag.toyota.co.uk/coronavirus-toyota-hybrid-car-maintenance/

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, providing you can carry out this procedure while adhering to the government’s advice regarding social distancing and Coronavirus (Covid-19). Please do not leave your car unattended when it is in ‘Ready’ mode.

I was close..

So pretty much it has to be powered up for at least an hour a week, and if the engine starts up to charge you have to wait until it stops before powering down.

Rubbish aren't they, modern cars?

(Says the man who just had to spend £60 on a new battery because charging it once a month with light use apparently isn't enough when you have a smart charge alternator.....)

alanaplin

When i bought a new Toyota Yaris hybrid last Septembet I told salesman I only do  a small amount of mileage and often go away on holidays and he didn't mention problem regarding flat battery. I have now had a flat battery twice in 4 weeks and had AA out to start car for me. AA man says it damages battery every time it goes flat. He did suggest a trickle charger but that is no good when I go away on holidays for 2 or 3 weeks and leave car somewhere without access to a plug.

Bigwheels1111

alanaplin said:

When i bought a new Toyota Yaris hybrid last Septembet I told salesman I only do  a small amount of mileage and often go away on holidays and he didn't mention problem regarding flat battery. I have now had a flat battery twice in 4 weeks and had AA out to start car for me. AA man says it damages battery every time it goes flat. He did suggest a trickle charger but that is no good when I go away on holidays for 2 or 3 weeks and leave car somewhere without access to a plug.

Get a Gooloo gt4000, on Amazon £75.
Would jump start a jumbo jet, holds its charge for over a year.
Keep it in the boot and never need to wait for the AA etc.

Ayr_Rage

Bigwheels1111 said:

alanaplin said:

When i bought a new Toyota Yaris hybrid last Septembet I told salesman I only do  a small amount of mileage and often go away on holidays and he didn't mention problem regarding flat battery. I have now had a flat battery twice in 4 weeks and had AA out to start car for me. AA man says it damages battery every time it goes flat. He did suggest a trickle charger but that is no good when I go away on holidays for 2 or 3 weeks and leave car somewhere without access to a plug.

Get a Gooloo gt4000, on Amazon £75.
Would jump start a jumbo jet, holds its charge for over a year.
Keep it in the boot and never need to wait for the AA etc.

With a self-charging hybrid you only need enough 12V power to start the computers, the petrol engine is started by the traction battery/system.

The HV battery on my Prius and Yaris was left for up to 3 months and never went flat, I did however pull fuses as advised by my Toyota service guru to stop the 12V battery going flat.

Bigwheels1111

Ayr_Rage said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

alanaplin said:

When i bought a new Toyota Yaris hybrid last Septembet I told salesman I only do  a small amount of mileage and often go away on holidays and he didn't mention problem regarding flat battery. I have now had a flat battery twice in 4 weeks and had AA out to start car for me. AA man says it damages battery every time it goes flat. He did suggest a trickle charger but that is no good when I go away on holidays for 2 or 3 weeks and leave car somewhere without access to a plug.

Get a Gooloo gt4000, on Amazon £75.
Would jump start a jumbo jet, holds its charge for over a year.
Keep it in the boot and never need to wait for the AA etc.

With a self-charging hybrid you only need enough 12V power to start the computers, the petrol engine is started by the traction battery/system.

The HV battery on my Prius and Yaris was left for up to 3 months and never went flat, I did however pull fuses as advised by my Toyota service guru to stop the 12V battery going flat.

I know how they work, I have 20 plus friends who drive a prius and are all mini cab drivers with 250k on the clock at least. I have taken them all apart to clean the cooling fans, seat vents and changed 9 Of the high voltage batteries.

Rebuit 2 of them with kits, Now days its cheaper to just get a new replacement battery unit £1300/£1500.

2 Hours to fit.

All my friends carry a jumper unit just in case, Getting stuck at an airport with a customer is not good.

Just attach the unit and 20 seconds later your up and running and on your way.

There cars are around 10 years old and still on the original AGM battery.

Water pumps go at 100,000 / 120,000 miles and take an hour to replace.

Ramjam1

I have a Toyota Yaris Cross 14 months old and have fallen foul of the dreaded low mileage/ flat 12v second  battery. I was encouraged by my dealer to purchase a trickle charger and charge the battery once a month to keep it topped up. But I have still lapsed and suffered again.
I have tried e- mailing the Toyota CEO and advised that this problem could be easily cured by fitting a battery charge readout to the dash. But I wasn' t given the courtesy of a reply or knowledgement. WELL I tried!

Goudy

Bigwheels1111 said:

Ayr_Rage said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

alanaplin said:

When i bought a new Toyota Yaris hybrid last Septembet I told salesman I only do  a small amount of mileage and often go away on holidays and he didn't mention problem regarding flat battery. I have now had a flat battery twice in 4 weeks and had AA out to start car for me. AA man says it damages battery every time it goes flat. He did suggest a trickle charger but that is no good when I go away on holidays for 2 or 3 weeks and leave car somewhere without access to a plug.

Get a Gooloo gt4000, on Amazon £75.
Would jump start a jumbo jet, holds its charge for over a year.
Keep it in the boot and never need to wait for the AA etc.

With a self-charging hybrid you only need enough 12V power to start the computers, the petrol engine is started by the traction battery/system.

The HV battery on my Prius and Yaris was left for up to 3 months and never went flat, I did however pull fuses as advised by my Toyota service guru to stop the 12V battery going flat.

I know how they work, I have 20 plus friends who drive a prius and are all mini cab drivers with 250k on the clock at least. I have taken them all apart to clean the cooling fans, seat vents and changed 9 Of the high voltage batteries.

Rebuit 2 of them with kits, Now days its cheaper to just get a new replacement battery unit £1300/£1500.

2 Hours to fit.

All my friends carry a jumper unit just in case, Getting stuck at an airport with a customer is not good.

Just attach the unit and 20 seconds later your up and running and on your way.

There cars are around 10 years old and still on the original AGM battery.

Water pumps go at 100,000 / 120,000 miles and take an hour to replace.

The Toyota Hybrid system is pretty clever and depending on model/year, the battery chemistry is different.
Newer cars use Li-ion batteries but the older ones use NiMH.

They don't fully utilise their traction batteries.
They'll charge to 80% full and only discharge to 40% to help prolong the battery life and as you say, they have a cooling system that needs to be kept in good condition.

There are some special chargers that can deep cycle these blocks (repeatedly charge/discharge above and below 80/40%) and help prolong the life, but the batteries usually start failing due to imbalance of the modules, usually around the 150K+ mark for the NiMH mark.

The NiMH batteries are made up of around 28 modules, that are then paired in series to make around 14 blocks.
These 14 blocks are then connected in series to make a complete battery.

The middle modules and blocks tend to suffer first due to heat and some have had some success replacing them and reshuffling the pack of modules.

But the problem is the balance.
The onboard diagnostics monitor the difference between the blocks, too big a discrepancy between the blocks causes the problems, so throwing a few new modules or blocks into an older pack causes the same issue you are trying to solve. You are just moving the imbalance between different blocks.

Decent used modules tend to work better as they are nearer in balance to all the others, then all the blocks are usually deep cycled and then sold on as a "reconditioned" battery pack, but decent used modules are now drying up and genuine new batteries are getting cheaper via some specialists.

There are a few companies that sell new modules and you can completely rebuild a battery but the cost isn't in your favour these days.

You'll know when the battery is dying, it'll throw a P0A80 diagnostic trouble code and turn off the hybrid system, but you can usually nurse it along a bit longer by resetting it. Once the DTC becomes a major problem because it turns on so often, then your battery is really useless.

The onboard diagnostics will usually tell you when the water pump is on it's way out as well, with either an under speed or over speed water pump DTC.

The pump is actually an electric motor and the magnetic part is part of the impeller, it's covered in a waterproof rubber coating but water still seeps in, it rust and swells, splits open the rubber and starts to jam in the casing.

Only fit genuine Toyota/Aisin water pumps. 
There are some knock off parts on the market that are pretty ropey.