@ukrkoz

Hmmmm.... so you have gotten the charge down so low that it took some time to charge even a single bar? That is good to understand.
The question here is how was my hybrid battery able to discharge so much in a matter of 4 to 8 minutes? Even when I am driving using only hybrid battery power, I am not able to drain the battery as much as it drained when the car was turned off. I am fairly sure there was no display on the clock or dashboard when I turned the car off.
In what ways is it possible for the battery to short or discharge? i know some people say internally a short inside a cell will cause a rapid discharge. There is no easy way to prove that happens. Is there any other way to rapidly drain a battery that is putting out some 600 volts (I think that is what I remember it is)? Could there be water somewhere shorting terminals together? could there be weak insulation between the wires carrying the high voltage?
I'm just wondering if there is anything i can check and look at. The fact is, the battery went from one bar below maximum charge to 2 bars - nearly the minimum charge, within 4 minutes of the car being powered off. in addition, it seems like it continued to remain shorted (or at least didn't charge any more) - or had already discharged so much that it took about 4 or more minutes to charge a single bar with the engine running continuously as well as brakes being applied during moving between 30 and 45 miles per hour.
The fact that the engine remained running no matter what speed I was going (and the engine was warm!) seems to validate the indication on the display - the battery did not switch in - it is not likely the display was wrong, it was showing exactly how the car was behaving - the engine was warm but the battery voltage was too low for the system to switch to battery. I was driving in a manner to try to get the battery to engage and have the engine go off...this did not happen for a few miles.
The idea of trying to catch this with a tool is interesting. Do you think if I ever did catch this a Toyota dealer would honor my data and do something about this problem, even if they were not able to get it to occur themselves? This only happens once or twice a month so far. i was hoping it would begin to occur more frequently or just outright die on me before the 100,000 mile mark so the dealer could at least find the actual problem. I understand that if they can't reproduce it, they can't do anything to fix it.

Scott

 

Ron, as far as I know the X-guage is extra programming for the ScanGauge-II.
It's done by adding numbers associated with the ecu scan monitor you want to view.

Here check out this nice list that can be added to the 2010 Prius SG-II. A list like that would sure make it easy to diagnosis any I checked many times with the ScanGauge people back in '08. They never could find a X-Gauge pgm to monitor the '07 Camry HV Battery.

http://www.scangauge.com/support/x-g...yota-specific/

This short video from youtube shows how to add the various X-Gauge features.

 

Scott, make sure when you shut off your car that your clock on the dash goes completely black, no digits shown. You might try looking more at your battery, wheel, engine readout in the MID display in the instrument panel. In fact I rather use that all time to monitor my traction battery than having to turn my head to see the navigation screen. I know about two old Prius here in town. One was the very early 2000 model that had to have a removable plug-in cell pack put in the large traction battery. This was due to a couple weak cells that cause the check traction battery indicator to come on.

The other older 2001? Prius had to have the traction battery replaced. This happened on both cars around 245,000 miles. I had ask the local hybrid tech and he gave me this information just after I received my then new '07 TCH. Now that I think about it, over the years from those early Prius the Toyota traction batteries are much improved, more amps and run cooler including the '07 TCH.

Be sure to check for your rear defroster being left on. Check to see if your instrument panel display indicates when it's on. Some cars have the heated front seats, so make sure they are both off. These last items I mentioned run on the 12 volt battery and should not affect the traction battery.

Looking only at the MFD display that shows the battery, wheel and engine. Can you drive it enough to see the traction battery charge all the way up even with the + symbol. On the '07 I had and now the '12 TCH I now have even with the + is the normal 80% charge for the battery if it's in good shape.

Please let us know how it goes as you figure out this problem.

Jimmy rburt07

 

Jimmy,

Do you know if the Scangauge equipment can display HV battery voltage, current, or charge?

 

Scott,

Find a local tech with a Snap-on or Tech Stream scanner that is willing to hook it up. Those scanners are capable of reading the entire battery pack as well as individual modules within the pack. There are several hybrid only scan functions they can do that might help isolate the problem. Most of them will charge you $75 or so for the scan but that will be well worth your time.

Failing that, have you gone to Landers Mclarty Toyota just north of Huntsville? Failing that, if you are ever in the I-24/I-59 split area near chattanooga, drop me a PM and I can hook mine up for you.

You haven't let your car wander off by itself to the JD distillery have you??

 

The HV battery/amps/charge is only on the 2010 prius and some earlier models that was shown in the link I provided. I call the scanguage main man back in 2008 and '09 to ask if he ever found the X-gauge code for HV battery for the '07 Camry hybrid. No he never could. I never did call back after that. When they announced the X-gauge extra readouts I was hoping for a readout for the Camry HV battery monitor.

The regular ScanGauge II will display the voltage of your 12 volt battery as is. Still I rather watch the peak HV voltage at 80% and low end at 20%, so when it gets old you can compare it to when the battery was new. My guess the peak voltage would drop down just as it did on my electric model planes over many years of heavy flying.

It's amazing how electric speed flight has progressed over the years due to improved nickle metal hydride batteries. Read below the video at how this fellow accomplished this absolutely amazing record speed. Listen to the ultra high revs which looks more like he is flying a remote controlled bullet.

click the box in the lower right of the video player for full-screen. use the esc key to return to normal.

 

The reason I suggested your battery charge level display may be in error is that if you used that much of your battery energy over 5 minutes with the car turned off, there should be smoke coming out of your car from somewhere! Perhaps the power consumption is only indicated, and not real?

 

Your right, and if it pulled that many amps it should blow large amp fuse somewhere in a fuse box or maybe located at the traction battery.

 

I should say when diagnosing any single problem in your car, make sure everything else is working ok. I worry about the fuel door being stubborn to open. It may be on the 12 volt circuit and could pull down your 12 volt battery, if the fuel door release mechanism is partly grounded to the metal of the car. This should show a warning on your mfd readout if the 12 volt battery reads lower voltage than it should. The 12 volt battery gets it's charge from the traction battery or maybe the inverter. In a related way this might pull down the traction battery some, but not as much as you say. I still think like Ron said, it sounds more like a false reading.

Jimmy

 

I completely agree. I also think that of the battery has an internal short, even only a couple times a month, and drains as a result, then the diagnostics from the toyota dealer should have caught this event.
So lets say the battery is draining slowly through typical use as I drive and the diagnostic display is just not updating properly...I'd love if that was the problem. Maybe the display needs to be triggered to update by moving a certain distance and for some strange reason when I park the car for a few minutes and come back and turn it back on, it updates and THEN is showing me the actual battery condition.
if this is the case, then other people with 2007 TCH's are certainly experiencing this as well. I should be hearing from others telling me they too see this sort of thing...but I do not.
So lets say the problem is a display update problem that is NOT a design issue, but an actual component problem somewhere in this car. What could it possibly be? Wheel sensor? voltage sensor?
Personally, I'd love it if it was just a reading malfunction and not a hybrid battery issue. But whatever it is, I want to get it fixed.
It is hard to diagnose a problem that only happens randomly about twice a month! I don;t mind trying to get a scan gauge etc if it can help me find the real problem. The question is, can it actually help me read the hybrid battery cell voltage levels? It seems some people here are saying no.

Scott