|
Posted by Allen on October 18, 2006, 3:39 pm
Please log in for more thread options
Bill wrote:
> >
> > Bill wrote:
> >> > Driving to work this morning the Red Triangle appeared on the video
> >> > display with a picture of the battery and the word "Main" under it.
> >> > The car run begins to act very strange with the IC engine RPM going
> >> > very high. I pull over and turn off the car, when I try to restart it
> >> > is completely dead.
> >> >
> >> > I get it towed to my local Toyota Dealer and after a few hours they
> >> > call to tell me the main battery must be replaced. The good news is
> >> > that the entire replacement cost is covered by the warranty.
> >> >
> >> > I purchased the Prius in Oct of 2000 and it has about 75K miles. Other
> >> > than the recalls, this is the first trouble it has given.
> >> >
> >> > Has anyone else replaced the main battery yet?
> >> >
> >> > Does this mean the new battery will last 5 more years?
> >> >
> >> I haven't replaced mine. The new battery pack will last until it fails.
> >>
> >> I'd like to hear from the Prius Techs as to whether or not one should
> >> pull
> >> over under these circumstances or keep driving to a more convenient
> >> stopping
> >> point such as a gas station with a towing service.
> >
> > In my case there was no option of driving to a more convenient place.
> > The IC engine sounded like it was running 8,000 RPM and was producing
> > very little power. I was just able to move accross the three lanes on
> > I75 to the shoulder before it lost all power.
> >
> Sounds pretty grim. Eventually, every battery will fail, just like every
> hard disk drive. I was hoping it would fall back to an ICE only condition.
> I suppose the main battery is running stuff necessary to ICE operation. I
> realize Toyota expects the battery to "last the life of the car" but
> practically speaking about half of all cars are going to last longer than
> the average of all cars.
I have read many accounts of people running out of gas and the electric
motor allowing them to limp to a gas station. But evidently the ICE is
not very functional as a standalone power plant.
It would have been nice if the Prius had provided a little more warning
when the battery condition was nearing its end of life since the
battery failure will immobilize the car.
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap