12v battery maintenance, issues, etc.

[CJA2002]

👍

Love the place - my wife is from there

[PortlandBill]

Just a thought, and a question - if the car is left, say, at an airport for a couple of weeks slowly depleting the Battery, could the remote "start climate" control on the MyToyota app be used? I just tried it for the 1st time this morning on my wife's car. The engine started to heat the car so presumably it was also charging both batteries. If so, a couple of remote starts during the 2 weeks would keep the batteries topped up? 

[hind]

Yes, it is a possibility. You can lower the temperature when you leave it so it will not heat up the interior that much and will only run A/C which uses just the HV. Anyway I'd be cautious about this feature, if something goes wrong and, eg. car won't shutdown for any reason, it will run out of gas and then deplete the HV which will require towing it to the service which has the HV charger. So a bit risky if you ask me. 

[152bobby]

When I came back after 8 days away, I tried to start my YC remotely to warm the car up when I was waiting to collect my bags.  Would let me do it !!  But the car did start when I got in.

[PortlandBill]

3 minutes ago, 152bobby said:

When I came back after 8 days away, I tried to start my YC remotely to warm the car up when I was waiting to collect my bags.  Would let me do it !!  But the car did start when I got in.

Did it give a reason for not doing it? 

[PortlandBill]

37 minutes ago, hind said:

Yes, it is a possibility. You can lower the temperature when you leave it so it will not heat up the interior that much and will only run A/C which uses just the HV. Anyway I'd be cautious about this feature, if something goes wrong and, eg. car won't shutdown for any reason, it will run out of gas and then deplete the HV which will require towing it to the service which has the HV charger. So a bit risky if you ask me. 

"if something goes wrong"? Surely not 😉

[152bobby]

No, just that it could not complete the request.  I was so worried, as I thought it was because the Battery was flat 😄

Typo, I meant "wouldn't"🥺

[dash]

16 minutes ago, 152bobby said:

No, just that it could not complete the request.  I was so worried, as I thought it was because the battery was flat 😄

Poor mobile signal in the car?

[152bobby]

Possibly, the car was in the multi storey 

[Roy Gladwell]

Just went to start my new 24 plate Yaris Cross Premiere Edition, came up with all sorts of alarms, would not start, then everything went dead and now I cannot lock the car. Obviously the auxiliary Battery is flat. How can this happen to a car only 4 month's old, do Toyota claim these cars fit for purpose???

[PortlandBill]

5 minutes ago, Roy Gladwell said:

Just went to start my new 24 plate Yaris Cross Premiere Edition, came up with all sorts of alarms, would not start, then everything went dead and now I cannot lock the car. Obviously the auxiliary battery is flat. How can this happen to a car only 4 month's old, do Toyota claim these cars fit for purpose???

How long was it since it was driven? 

[yarn Dave]

18 October 2024. 6 weeks after purchasing Use is cross the Battery is totally flat. I even visited Toyota prior to this as I was concerned about posts on this problem. I was assured problem was fixed and different batteries were used in new models

[Dala]

Replace the car Battery and recharge it regularly. Driving will never recharge the car Battery. Smart charging of new cars only maintains the car Battery.

[152bobby]

25 minutes ago, Roy Gladwell said:

Just went to start my new 24 plate Yaris Cross Premiere Edition, came up with all sorts of alarms, would not start, then everything went dead and now I cannot lock the car. Obviously the auxiliary battery is flat. How can this happen to a car only 4 month's old, do Toyota claim these cars fit for purpose???

If that was a mobile phone, you'd be asking for a full refund or full replacement!!! Toyota owners need to set an example with Toyota and do something drastic like take the car back to the forecourt, hand over the keys and say, my solicitor will be in touch !!

[Roy Gladwell]

19 minutes ago, PortlandBill said:

How long was it since it was driven? 

I last drove the car on Monday, previous to that I went away and left it 8 days and it started when I got home, but that was in the summer, so I assume it's the colder weather causing this issue. I mentioned the Battery issue when I was thinking of buying the car and I was assured I would have no problems, obviously they were wrong.

[Roy Gladwell]

2 minutes ago, 152bobby said:

If that was a mobile phone, you'd be asking for a full refund or full replacement!!! Toyota owners need to set an example with Toyota and do something drastic like take the car back to the forecourt, hand over the keys and say, my solicitor will be in touch !!

The test for Toyota is, is the car fit for purpose, well obviously if it will not start and cannot be driven it's obviously not.

[MC1216]

Just now, 152bobby said:

If that was a mobile phone, you'd be asking for a full refund or full replacement!!! Toyota owners need to set an example with Toyota and do something drastic like take the car back to the forecourt, hand over the keys and say, my solicitor will be in touch !!

I agree...this is really poor from Toyota along with not sorting out the theft issues on the RAV.

A better Battery fitted on production would solve most of these issues and would cost a few extra pounds.

[PeteChat]

3 hours ago, Roy Gladwell said:

I last drove the car on Monday, previous to that I went away and left it 8 days and it started when I got home, but that was in the summer, so I assume it's the colder weather causing this issue. I mentioned the battery issue when I was thinking of buying the car and I was assured I would have no problems, obviously they were wrong.

At a guess I would think the Battery was depleted after the 8 days idle, and due to the strange “charging” system on these cars never got fully changed again, I have a Maypole smart charger that I used to keep connected to my Harley between rides, and could use this to top up the Yaris Battery - but didn’t expect to have to do this on a brand new car 😡

This is my first hybrid car and I bought it on PCP just in case it was problematic. Guess I won’t be keeping it!

[Yaris_Cross]

1 hour ago, PeteChat said:

At a guess I would think the battery was depleted after the 8 days idle, and due to the strange “charging” system on these cars never got fully changed again, I have a Maypole smart charger that I used to keep connected to my Harley between rides, and could use this to top up the Yaris battery - but didn’t expect to have to do this on a brand new car

I have said this before in the thread and no doubt will say it again, if Toyota sales staff were decent people instead of the money grabbing most of us think they are  they would ask potential hybrid car owners how often and far they drive each week if the answer is twice and a 3 mile round  trip to the shops each time they would tell the customer a hybrid probably isn't for them but because they are the aforementioned money grabbing they don't and its not because they don't know this is an issue.

[152bobby]

4 minutes ago, Yaris_Cross said:

I have said this before in the thread and no doubt will say it again, if Toyota sales staff were decent people instead of the money grabbing most of us think they are  they would ask potential hybrid car owners how often and far they drive each week if the answer is twice and a 3 mile round  trip to the shops each time they would tell the customer a hybrid probably isn't for them or they could explain you can use ready mode to look after the 12v battery but because they are the aforementioned money grabbing they don't and its not because they dont know this is an issue.

Yep, I've got to agree with all of that 👍👌

[Yaris_Cross]

7 minutes ago, 152bobby said:

Yep, I've got to agree with all of that 👍👌

I edited my post and took out "or they could explain you can use ready mode to look after the 12v battery" but you posted before i edited, it still stands.

[Heidfirst]

10 hours ago, Roy Gladwell said:

Just went to start my new 24 plate Yaris Cross Premiere Edition, came up with all sorts of alarms, would not start, then everything went dead and now I cannot lock the car. 

I presume that the YC comes with a concealed mechanical key blade in the fob as per other Toyotas? Obviously doesn't resolve the Battery issue but you should be able to lock/unlock even with a dead 12V Battery. 

[PeteChat]

23 hours ago, Heidfirst said:

I presume that the YC comes with a concealed mechanical key blade in the fob as per other Toyotas? Obviously doesn't resolve the battery issue but you should be able to lock/unlock even with a dead 12V battery. 

Yes it does, there is a key slotted into the fob. I know you can unlock the driver’s door with it, but am unsure if you can unlock/ lock the other doors mechanically from inside the car. As for the boot 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have now stowed my jump pack under the passenger seat.

[r44flyer]

On 10/18/2024 at 10:41 AM, Dala said:

Replace the car battery and recharge it regularly. Driving will never recharge the car battery. Smart charging of new cars only maintains the car battery.

I don't agree. Driving does indeed charge the 12V every time the engine & generator kicks in.
Also you can sit with the car idling in Ready mode and it will often kick in to charge mode.

The root of the problem is the poor quality 12V Battery that is factory fitted.
Ours was a low capacity 35Ah poor quality Battery.

Our Mazda 2 Hybrid (a Yaris really), new in November 2022, suddenly had a totally dead Battery in January 2024.
It was jump started, parked in the garage and then charged fully with a mains charger unit.
24 hours later it was dead again.

The photos below show the original and replacement battery (the replacement found with help early in this thread from Derek.w posts).
The Yuasa replacement was obtained from our local Halfords for £93 and has worked flawlessly ever since (9 months), often with the car parked up unused for many days.
We have never had to use an external charger since January for the 12V system.

[hind]

12 minutes ago, r44flyer said:

Driving does indeed charge the 12V every time the engine & generator kicks in.
Also you can sit with the car idling in Ready mode and it will often kick in to charge mode.

The thing is, it will not charge it to 100%, by design. You can charge the Battery to 12.7V, drive a car for 100 miles, let it rest and after 30 minutes you will read 12.5V. Meaning that this drive effectively discharged your Battery. This is the issue which with addition of the poor quality Mutlu Battery, causes problems when you leave the car for the longer period, even if you did very long trip before.