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12 volt battery in 2003 Toyota Prius

I had the 12 volt battery replaced in my 03 Prius with a new 12 volt battery. I drove 4-5 miles, turned the car off. When I started it up again 20 minutes later all sorts of warning lights appeared on the dash (instrument cluster) and on the multi-information display. With the car in READY there was the triangle with ! on both screens. The check engine warning light was on. All these were new to me and all I was used to seeing was gone. I drove directly back to the vender and had him put the original 12 volt battery back in the car. It has been normal since then. The replacement battery is the same brand and has the same pencil posts as the original. The only obvious difference between the two is that the new one has caps and the original is entirely enclosed. Does anyone have a clue what might have caused this glitch? I need a new battery because the original does not hold a charge when the car is not driven every few days. I often have to leave the car in the airport parking lot when I travel. Penleigh

Reply to
penleigh
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Perhaps the replacement battery was bad?

Reply to
Ray O

New battery was bad?

New battery had been sitting on the shelf for a while and was seriously discharged?

Did you read the Owners Manual to see what that warning triangle screen meant specifically? I really don't want to guess, and I don't have a Prius to look it up. You didn't drive the car very far before panicking and going back.

With a normal car it takes a minimum two hours of continuous daytime driving (good alternator and no headlight loads) to charge up a seriously discharged battery - they can only charge at about a 10A to

20A rate (depending on battery size) without boiling and outgassing the electrolyte, so the alternator is sized to not charge too fast.

And outgassing a "Maintenance Free" car battery just kills it faster. (Unless you pry open those "Maintenance Free" cell caps and add distilled water once or twice a year /before/ the electrolyte level drops below the top of the plates - once the exposed plates go dry and sulfate, the cascade failure to the end starts.)

The Prius computer can control the charge rate to the same end. It may have been warning you that the new 12V battery might not have gotten enough charge yet to get the car started again - keep driving, or put it on a trickle charger overnight.

If you leave the car parked for long periods go get a solar-cell trickle charger, and leave it on the dashboard and plugged in when you leave the car in the airport lot parked facing south. The solar charger will make up for most of the parasitic loads, and allow the car to sit for weeks instead of days.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

You are not supposed to install a non maintenence free battery in a car designed for a maintenence free battery. One system is biased towards undercharging, the other towards overcharging based on which type of battery you have.

Reply to
Art

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