Problem with 12v battery on RAV4 Hybrid

[PeteB]

1 minute ago, Catlover said:

I would love to hear what these guys were trying out Pete.

A few examples that come to mind:

• attaching an ammeter to various parts of the Hybrid system to prove, amongst other things, that B mode actually saved less regenerated energy than using the footbrake (because it used engine pumping for some of the slowing effort leaving less energy available for driving the Motor/Generator)
   
• measuring the parasitic 12V Battery drain (the Gen 1 Prius was the worst and only had a 35 Ah battery) and working out which systems were causing it (they never completely ironed that one out)
   
• measuring the State of Charge levels of the HV Battery to produce a graph of the Battery gauge bands (see below)

I may add more as I remember them!

 

[Yugguy1970]

For the Battery thing my normal week cos I mostly work from home will be short school runs so I just plan to do a longer run every cpuple of weeks.

[philip42h]

26 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

For the battery thing my normal week cos I mostly work from home will be short school runs so I just plan to do a longer run every cpuple of weeks.

At the risk of quoting myself:

On 8/2/2021 at 4:17 PM, philip42h said:

If you run the car for around 1 hour a week you'll never notice a problem

It's  time in Ready mode that matters rather than distance travelled. Five minutes to school and five minutes back again, same to pick-up at the end of the day, five days a week would amount to 100 minutes or 1h40 - more than enough to keep the Battery fully charged.

Enjoy your trips out and don't worry about the 12v auxiliary Battery ... 😉

[Saxacat]

Hmm could be interesting; I'm away from home at the moment, when I get back on Monday the car will have been sat in my garage untouched for over 2 weeks!

[Yugguy1970]

Cheers Phillip.  This is going to be my first hybrjid so appreciate any advice around that.  

[PeteB]

43 minutes ago, Saxacat said:

Hmm could be interesting; I'm away from home at the moment, when I get back on Monday the car will have been sat in my garage untouched for over 2 weeks!

As long as the 12V Battery was well charged when you left the car and everything is in good condition 2-3 weeks shouldn't be a problem.

[PeteB]

On 8/20/2021 at 10:51 AM, Catlover said:

I would love to hear what these guys were trying out Pete.

Another one popped into my mind (a little off this topic I know, but read on only if interested!):

This was a long time ago, related to a US Gen 2 Prius owner.  In the US it is (or was then) considered normal to service the car every 6,000 miles (IIRC - might even be 5,000) and to replace the oil and filter at the same frequency.

The couple that owned this Prius were keeping it for the long haul and thought this requirement was, to say the least, OTT.  So every 6 months they siphoned a tiny amount of oil into a tube and sent it to a specialist company for chemical analysis(I think they still replaced the filter regularly) .  I wish I could find the details because it was quite fascinating - what they got back was a report with lots of measurements of various properties, viscosities, contaminants etc. with a comparison with the same brand of oil when new.

It was well over 100,000 miles before anything that was reported prompted them it was time to replace the oil.  Not something I'd try myself, especially as I'm sure my dealer wouldn't go along with it!

They also kept the (Iridium tipped) sparked plugs(*) for a very long time too, with no apparent problems.  In the UK, the recommended replacement time is 60,000 miles (can't remember the US interval), so it's not exactly onerous, but the first time I had a 60k service on a Gen 1 Prius my service manager showed me a new one and one that had come out of my car and they were both equally pristine and shiny.

[(*) My first 60k service was in 2005 and these plugs were not cheap - a dealer near my home at the time (Bedfordshire) quoted £25 per plug, and my Norwich dealer charged just over £15 each.  They got a lot cheaper over time.]

[ernieb]

@PeteB, it’s more or less still the same in the US 5K for standard  oil and filter unless you are using synthetic oil when they have extended that to 10k miles. I’ve seen some comments on a US forum that they are still changing synthetic oils at 7.5K in some places. Seems a massive waste of money and resources?

[TabbyBoy]

After having its 5th new 12v Battery installed, countless firmware updates and a long legal challenge, I've recently managed to successfully reject my 2019 RAV4 and receive £34k (£2k more than I paid due to chip shortage) along with a generous "inconvenience" settlement. It was a stressful process with me paying £3500 up front in legal fees, but I won the case and was fully compensated. It's a pity that I had to do this, but I've had access to my girlfriend's Prius for over 10 years which did similar short journeys, had little use, stood idle for weeks on end, but never had a problem.

Toyota have had nearly 3 years to issue a recall and fix for this widespread known issue, but have failed to do so.

I'm currently leasing a Volvo XC60 which is far superior in every way, and have also been test driving others. One thing is for certain, I will NEVER touch a hybrid again! I'm either going diesel or petrol as I don't have a private parking space for a charger. Since I do under 2,500 miles per year, I don't care about fuel economy, reliability is far more important.

I'm now pleased to say that this was the first and last Toyota that I'll ever buy!

Guys... Don't be fobbed off by having to sit in "Ready" mode every few days, disable automatic parking brake, disconnect Dashcam, do unnecessary extra mileage or carry a jump-starter. The latest RAV4 Hybrid is simply not fit for purpose and you all have a right to reject the car or take legal action against Toyota UK. The CAB and Watchdog are your first steps and they'll put you in touch with a good local solicitor that has experience in rejecting unreliable and dangerous new vehicles.

Sorry to post this, but I feel that others need to be made aware and there is a way to get rid.

[Giedrius]

RAV4 ADVENTURE 2.5 Hybrid 2023 have one drawback, but it is very big. If you leave your car at the airport for 10 days, you will find it with a completely discharged Battery (even in the warm season). At first I thought it was a malfunction. I contacted Toyota dealer and was told me that all Toyota RAV4 hybrids have this problem and Toyota has no way to fix it. In my understanding, Toyota should inform about such problems before purchasing the car, because calling technical support to the airport every time is a big problem for me.