2021 RAV4 4.5 hev battery issues ?

[powerman]

Does the latest model RAV4 suffer from the flat auxiliary 12v Battery issues as mentioned with Corolla , Yaris and Auris models?   Just wondered if the British supplied models suffer with it as it appears quite prevalent in the USA and Canada.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Moved to the Rav4 club.

[ernieb]

There are threads on here that discuss the potential issue. It depends on how you use the car, if you regularly use the car     then there is unlikely to be an issue. If you don’t use the car regularly or only do very short trips then you may want to use/install a trickle charger or turn the car into the READY mode which enables the traction Battery to start the inverter and charge the 12v Battery for 20mins. 
I don’t think that anyone with a PHEV has reported a problem but they have only been in the UK for less than a year.

There always scare stories but it really does depend on how the car is use. One of my neighbours, not a Toyota, does school run every day which is only less than a few minutes away and of course after a few months when it’s very cold and frosty is surprised when the car will not start complaining that it’s new Battery less than 12months old.

[ColinB]

I had this problem with my C-HR during lock down a couple of times as I hardly used it. I did buy myself a Battery booster pack just in case, which worked well when I tried it, plus a solar charger to keep the Battery topped up. I haven't had this problem with my RAV4 that I picked up at the end of October, but I have been using this car more now things are slowly coming back to normal. 

[powerman]

Is the 12v Battery on the 2021 rav4 an AGM or an EFB. Had a look at mine today, the top is black and the case is clear opaque plastic with high and low marks for the acid level, the acid of which is just visible through the case. There is no markings or labels to indicate that it is AGM. Battery is manufactured by Yuasa Japan and has 345LN1-MF written on it. Surely a AGM battery  would have AGM clearly marked somewhere on the case/top.

[roadster-rav]

LN1 is a size reference and MF stands for Maintenance Free. Not sure about the 345. As there is no starting current or stop-start requirement none of the conventional measures  have much relevance.

[Stopeter44]

On 1/22/2022 at 2:40 PM, ColinB said:

I did buy myself a battery booster pack just in case, which worked well when I tried it, plus a solar charger to keep the battery topped up

I was just looking into the solar charger option. Did you use it on a regular basis, and how did you use it ?

[Hayzee]

On 1/22/2022 at 1:16 PM, ernieb said:

There are threads on here that discuss the potential issue. It depends on how you use the car, if you regularly use the car     then there is unlikely to be an issue. If you don’t use the car regularly or only do very short trips then you may want to use/install a trickle charger or turn the car into the READY mode which enables the traction battery to start the inverter and charge the 12v battery for 20mins. 
I don’t think that anyone with a PHEV has reported a problem but they have only been in the UK for less than a year.

There always scare stories but it really does depend on how the car is use. One of my neighbours, not a Toyota, does school run every day which is only less than a few minutes away and of course after a few months when it’s very cold and frosty is surprised when the car will not start complaining that it’s new battery less than 12months old.

Ernie can you charge the 12v Battery at the same time the traction Battery is being charged when plugged in to the mains?

 

 

[Flatcoat]

My previous Volvo PHEV suffered from lack of use through Lockdown 1. The car had sat on a dealers forecourt from mid March to late June and after we bought it had constant electrical glitches, mostly solved by fitting a new 12v Battery (under warranty). 

[Roger_N]

Just a thought, If the Battery is in the boot and the 220v outlet is live when the car is switched off, could you not run a low output charger form it?

[nlee]

21 minutes ago, Hayzee said:

Ernie can you charge the 12v battery at the same time the traction battery is being charged when plugged in to the mains?

 

 

It would be good if it did do that but I believe the Battery only charges from the traction Battery when it's in ready mode (i.e. ignition on). Wouldn't be applicable to the HEV.

[philip42h]

13 minutes ago, nlee said:

It would be good if it did do that but I believe the battery only charges from the traction battery when it's in ready mode (i.e. ignition on). Wouldn't be applicable to the HEV.

As you say, the auxiliary Battery charges from the traction Battery when the car is in Ready mode. This applies equally to the HEV and PHEV.

I imagine that when the PHEV is charging it's traction Battery, it can not be put into Ready mode? So there's a sort of logic to the situation.

And in 'normal' / 'every day' use the auxiliary battery doesn't need charging explicitly - it just happens while the car is being used.

[nlee]

1 hour ago, philip42h said:

I imagine that when the PHEV is charging it's traction battery, it can not be put into Ready mode?

That's right. It won't go to ready mode to prevent you driving off with the charging lead attached! In fact, it won't go into ready mode with the charging port flap open so that's probably where the interlock is.

[ColinB]

9 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

I was just looking into the solar charger option. Did you use it on a regular basis, and how did you use it ?

I haven't used it on the RAV4 yet, on the C-HR I clipped the solar charger leads onto the Battery terminals. It did come with a short fixed lead to connect to the Battery terminals to simplify this but haven't fitted them yet. It's a shame that the 12V socket in the boot is switched by the ignition as this would be an ideal place to plug the charger in. 

I did use it for a while, but it's one of those things that you don't know whether it's working or not unless you suffer from a flat Battery again. The battery doesn't need much as it isn't required to give a high starting current as per a normal I Wave I successfully used one similar for years on my motorbike at the time.