Does 12V auxiliary battery in Auris Hybrid need to be AGM?

[Catlover]

Wife has a 2010 hybrid Auris and the 12volt Battery is in the boot.  The reason that the Battery in the boot is AGM is because if the vehicle is hit from behind and the Battery splits then acid could be thrown over driver/passengers.  Fitting a normal acid battery into the boot of an Auris would compromise safety.

[Dave Da123]

I am wondering did you try the alternative Battery and if so were there any problems or not? Mine recently went flat on me and I was boxing someone in. Had to get the AA out which luckily they arrived very quickly. Said very little problems with Auris except with 12v going flat. So it is a common problem. With being at home during the lockdown my Battery went as flat as a pancake. I checked it down to 3 volts. So tried to charge it on the car which did not work. I suspect the charger had not got enough to do the car and Battery as it raised the voltage to about 6 volts and the car made some noise. I took the battery off completely then which was a little difficult as I could not open the rear hatch so had to climb in through the front. Sadly how I parked at home made a jump difficult. Anyway charged batter up over night and put back on. Almost got my ears blown out as the alarm went off so if you do this keep the key fob handy. Once back on everything seemed ok but not taken out for a run due to the isolation seeing how long it lasts now. Half suspecting I might need a new battery so looking at options. To be fair till recently it has been great and it is  13 plate so not excessive to change a battery after such a time. Though it is a little worrying to read so many reports on battery problems and I must admit has put me off a replacement hybrid. I will be looking up electric cars next time and wonder if they use a 12volt battery to so could suffer the same problems. Why there is no circuit to give a 12 volt supply from the drive battery is surprising. Also a worry when driving with the battery which I knew was low is that it can stop to conserve energy say at lights or a railway crossing leaving you stranded surely it should keep the motor going if you have a low 12 volts perhaps something that at least should be looked at. when just off the charger I measured 13 volts which quickly dropped to 12 after an hour or so. So put on for a few minutes longer before refitting back on the car. So far it seems ok.

Dave

 

[Dave Da123]

Just seen the AA and RAC offer an alternative fitted. The AA do one for members at £76 something fitted a Bosch with a 5 year guarantee so might be worth considering will have to see how mine goes shows there are alternatives out there. Noticed the one they offer is 40 Amphour not 35 Amphour like the original so holds a little bit more in reserve. I assume that it takes the breather pipe that is fitted.

Dave

[flash22]

It has to be an AGM Battery the charging system is designed for this type of Battery, as for charging the Battery off the car it needs to be charged low and slow as it's a deep cycle battery it can take 30-50 hours unless you use an AGM/EFB intelligent charger/battery tender

as the battery is in the passenger compartment is also has to the AGM type for safety reasons

https://www.yuasa.co.uk/info/technical/agm-efb-explained/#agm

[Gerg]

Hi,

An AGM Battery identical to the original fitment (Yuasa brand), supplied from a Toyota dealer spares counter was (still is?) £125.  But that's if you can find a dealer open - are you an essential worker?  You might get them to sell you one if you are, even if the dealership is partially closed.  The Toyota price is competitive for that Battery.  There are loads of posts on this forum on this topic of hybrid 12v batteries.

A suggestion for next time around; the keyless door locking can be turned off via the setup menu in the radio head unit, but this will turn off the keyless start also.  So if you do this you have to start the car by holding the key fob right against the start button, after opening the doors with the fob button.  You can turn the keyless mode back on on the dashboard menu when the car is back 'on'., although you can drive the car normally with the keyless mode left set to off.

Having the keyless mode turned off reduces the 'parked-up' current loading to less than half (~0.055amps reduced to ~0.020amps), giving the 12v Battery an easier life.

I also read from a forum poster here that removing fuse 44 has a similar effect of disabling the keyless entry.  I've not tried this.

[BigRedSwitch]

21 hours ago, Gerg said:

Having the keyless mode turned off reduces the 'parked-up' current loading to less than half (~0.055amps reduced to ~0.020amps), giving the 12v battery an easier life.

I took my car, under warranty, for an investigation by Mr T into the 12v Battery not holding charge.  I don't think much investigation occurred but when it was returned I was told that "all the cells were ok" and that they'd given it a top-up charge.  I was both surprised and disappointed that no fault had been found.  Anyway, the point I want to raise is that they had buckled up the rear seatbelts; why would they do this?  Is there any history of unbuckled seatbelts being a possible parasitic drain which together with the quoted 0.055 amps is enough to cause the Battery to discharge over a short time?

[BigRedSwitch]

21 hours ago, Gerg said:

Hi,

An AGM battery identical to the original fitment (Yuasa brand), supplied from a Toyota dealer spares counter was (still is?) £125.  But that's if you can find a dealer open - are you an essential worker?  You might get them to sell you one if you are, even if the dealership is partially closed.  The Toyota price is competitive for that battery.  There are loads of posts on this forum on this topic of hybrid 12v batteries.

A suggestion for next time around; the keyless door locking can be turned off via the setup menu in the radio head unit, but this will turn off the keyless start also.  So if you do this you have to start the car by holding the key fob right against the start button, after opening the doors with the fob button.  You can turn the keyless mode back on on the dashboard menu when the car is back 'on'., although you can drive the car normally with the keyless mode left set to off.

Having the keyless mode turned off reduces the 'parked-up' current loading to less than half (~0.055amps reduced to ~0.020amps), giving the 12v battery an easier life.

I also read from a forum poster here that removing fuse 44 has a similar effect of disabling the keyless entry.  I've not tried this.

 

21 hours ago, Gerg said:

A suggestion for next time around; the keyless door locking can be turned off via the setup menu in the radio head unit, but this will turn off the keyless start also.

Just checked my car and I couldn't find any way to turn off the keyless door locking - was this perhaps for post-2015 cars?

[FROSTYBALLS]

1 hour ago, BigRedSwitch said:

Anyway, the point I want to raise is that they had buckled up the rear seatbelts; why would they do this? 

Probably part of the safety check, which they do whenever a car is taken in. Whenever I've taken my Toyotas and our Hyundais in for service, the rear belts have always been fastened

[Gerg]

1 hour ago, BigRedSwitch said:

Just checked my car and I couldn't find any way to turn off the keyless door locking - was this perhaps for post-2015 cars?

I have done this on our 2013 Excel, which should be absolutely identical to yours.  With the car 'ready', try pressing the 'setup' button (a real, physical, button!) at the top right hand corner of the radio fascia, then select 'vehicle' from the 5 option boxes in the next menu.  That will take you to just two menu options, it is the upper option, I think, which needs toggling.

I know I mentioned it before, but, be aware of needing to hold the key fob next to the start switch to start the car up next time (to change it back, if required, or drive the car)!

Edit: I might have suggested turning off the keyless entry before (to save Battery power), but I only got around to measuring/trying this 8 days ago!

HTH

[BigRedSwitch]

Thanks very much Gerg. On my car, 'Setup' is a selection from the Touch and Go head unit and not a physical button.  What I hadn't done before was select the 'Vehicle/Customization' option which would have taken me to the 'Turn off Keyless Locking' option.  All done now and I look forward to a healthier Battery.  Thanks again.

[Gerg]

Ah! I was quoting the procedure from my (not very good, evidently) memory. 

The current loadings are as measured with a current clamp meter, as per an earlier post I put up last week. Basically, after just over 20 minutes the car descends to the quoted levels of current draw.

That is, unless you walk right next to the car with your key (when 'keyless' is enabled, obviously) in your pocket, at which time it wakes up again for another 20 odd minutes! 

[Catlover]

On 4/20/2020 at 11:28 AM, Dave Da123 said:

............ Why there is no circuit to give a 12 volt supply from the drive battery is surprising. Also a worry when driving with the battery which I knew was low is that it can stop to conserve energy say at lights or a railway crossing leaving you stranded surely it should keep the motor going if you have a low 12 volts perhaps something that at least should be looked at. 

Dave

I can’t see how you can be stranded in such situations, unless you turn your car off, which you wouldn’t do at traffic lights, and no need to do at railway crossings.  The 12v  battery is used to light up the car computer which also kicks the big hybrid Battery into action. There is no starter motor in the Auris hybrid as you no doubt already know, so that’s not a worry. If you come to a stop the car engine may stop, but not always (ie engine cold). So, even though you may be stopped for  seemingly lengthy time and the engine is off there is no need to worry - the hybrid Battery is actively charging the 12v Battery, and if the hybrid battery itself gets to a low charge level, or the engine gets cold, then the computer kicks in the engine. So I can’t see any reason for you to be worried in the circumstance you talk about.