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Had to get new HV Battery, 2007 FEH

Just to document in case someone else has a similar issue:

Starting about 3 weeks ago, my 07 FEH with about 32600 miles on it wouldn't go into electric only mode after it was "hot". It would work fine in the AM, i.e. after a few miles of warm-up, it would go into electric only mode for about the next 15 minutes when it should, but then it would never go into electric mode after those 15 minutes were up. In the hot Las Vegas afternoons, it might never go into electric only mode. There was also a very loud sounding rush of air in the back that I'd never heard before that loud. It appeared to me that the battery door was functioning normal. Of course, we weren't in the "orange/red" settings on the A/C, and I replaced the battery filter (for the third time since new, not an issue), and there were no "codes" displayed to me on the dash.

So, reluctantly I took it into the dealership (and provided a one page writeup describing exactly the issue, and how it wasn't normal since I knew what normal was after driving it for 3 years, and I gave them instructions on how they could duplicate it). I figured they would "CND" it (for you non-Air Force types, that means "Could Not Duplicate"), but low and behold, they duplicated the problem with diagnostic testing and said I needed a new HV battery :omg:

Fast forward one week, and they got the new HV battery delivered and installed it and ran diagnostic tests on it, and it is "clean". I picked it up just now, drove around for a while, and it seems to work normal (even with it being close to 100 deg outside). Hopefully it is fixed (knock on wood).

Total cost to me, $0 :), but the receipt says $6895 for parts and $242 for labor :omg:.

At first I was P.O.'d about it needing a new HV battery, but perhaps I should feel lucky, in that I got a new battery for free after about three years on the old one, and hopefully the new one will give me an extra three years of use out of the vehicle.

Moral of the story: Since it didn't throw any codes or warnings on the dash, had we not known what normal was or had we not paid attention, we would have driven it around like this for a long time, thinking it was normal. It helps to pay attention to your vehicle and learn what is normal.