Prius Battery 12.19 Volts

[barrycoll]

my Prius shows 12.19 v at the fuse box under the bonnet....good/bad/dont know????

what are my chances of it surviving 5 weeks unattended....although I will give it 24 hours of Ctek 5.0 charge before leaving

[timberwolf]

Don't know. 12.8V is good and 10.4V is very bad.

Edit:

By the way, no one can say with any confidence whether your Battery will last 5 weeks. In my experience, two separate dealers with their Battery testers reported my Battery as good when it was iffy about starting the car a few days later.

You'll need to charge the battery fully and then see what voltage it has retained after 12 hours, etc. If it manages to retain 12.8V then it may last 5 weeks, if it drops back to 12.1V quickly then maybe not.

Also when you test the battery, you are measuring with the battery still connected, so there is a possibility that various ECUs and the brake hydraulic system or other systems could draw power because they sensed your key fob or you opened the driver's door. My method of testing is to pull the bonnet release cable, lock up the car and then wait 3 or 4 hours before measuring the voltage.

[barrycoll]

thanks timberwolf...

that keyfob has a lot to answer for, doesn't it......I park my car on the forecourt, walk up the driveway and up a step, then through a small entrance lobby, and through a pair of 6mm double glazed innner doors, and put the car key on a hook behind the wood frame of the inner door....

.......out of interest, I pressed the Open icon on the keyfob while the key was concealed and hanging up, and saw the hazards flash on the Prius with no delay

so it now looks like the key/car are chatting to one another day and night, although it seemed to be well out of range, especially with the obstructions

I will do as you say....with many thanks

[kithmo]

Pressing the key fob caused it to talk to the car at that distance, normally it isn't communicating when it's more than 6 ft away after a short period of time. But the car and will periodically look for a transponder key and if it finds one within range, that is, anyone's car key fob, it will try to communicate with it which uses juice out of the 12v Battery. This means that if you car is parked in a public place, every time someone with a smart key walks past your car the car interrogates it to see if it is yours and uses a bit more juice.

[johalareewi]

I pressed the Open icon on the keyfob while the key was concealed and hanging up, and saw the hazards flash on the Prius with no delay

That isn't the SKS, that is the more traditional remote lock/unlock.

That works over quite a distance but you have to activate it by pressing buttons on the keyfob.

If you leave the keys hanging up with the car locked and try to open the car door, it won't because the key fob is not close enough for the SKS to work.

[barrycoll]

yes, that is what I thought Alan....Smart entry didn't work at that distance, but could still have been sending e-messages and wasting the Battery

I have now used the Ctek 5.0 for 8 hours, and the Battery ended up at 13.08v, but now must check it again in a day or 2, and see just how much it has lost

a great little machine, the Ctek....dead easy & foolproof