Battery Dead

[Barry14UK]

I can't advise about the hybrid system but it can take quite a number of hours to coax a flat Battery to hold a fair charge by coupling to another Battery and then charge as here :-

 

[jumbojake]

We had similar on our Rx, so I can sympathise for your problems.  

As far as I understand, the engine charges the traction Battery and  the traction Battery charges the 12v ... but that all needs the computer to manage, which will not start without a good 12v.  

if your traction Battery is dead, you're in trouble... you cannot jump start that, the jumpstart cables only power up the computer that manages it all.

For us, I took the 12v out, recharged on the bench... that was enough to kick the computer into life, and as the traction Battery had enough charge left, it started the engine and all good from there until I could replace the 12v.... I had to do that for 10mins twice a day until the new one arrived.

Note, a dead 12v Battery cannot be recovered, it will never hold charge for long, as it is damaged inside...  so this is only temporary, you need to replace it, which is sadly more expensive that you would think. 

[Herbie]

3 hours ago, KimFeng said:

Tried to jump start it this morning, and it seems won't recharge. Also shows the message 'check hybrid system, which seems a bad news. 

After 10 mins, I tried to jump start again, nothing happened, the car is still dead.

Jump start and recharge are two very different things so let's make sure we've got this bit right first.

First of all, you say that you've bought a charger but have you ordered it and waiting for it to arrive or have you already got it? If you have got it and you've tried to charge the Battery with it, how long did you leave it on charge? At the very least it needs to be an overnight charge, say from 8pm to 8am, preferably a full 24 hours. I don't know anything about that brand of charger but the whole idea of an intelligent charger is that it won't overcharge the Battery so no harm should come from it.

It is possible that the 12V Battery is so badly discharged that it's been damaged and it just won't recover, no matter how long you leave it on charge and this brings us to the second point.

I'm not too sure about this (just a guess) but it may be that your Battery is so flat or damaged that it's interfering with power coming from the jump leads. Try disconnecting your Battery so that it's completely out of circuit and out of the equation, then connect the jump leads directly to the cable clamps. This means that you'll have a 'known good' 12V source for the car so hopefully it should achieve READY status as normal.

If it makes no difference and the car still won't start, it may be that the hybrid system has locked out. I know that if a hybrid runs out of petrol it needs at least 10 litres (preferably 15) putting in the tank before you attempt to restart it. The most important bit and the bit that may be pertinent to you is that if you have more than three unsuccessful attempts at restarting it, the hybrid system can lock out and it needs a dealer to reset it. NB - I don't know if this happens ONLY  with lack of fuel or if it's just a general '3 attempts and you're out' sort of thing irrespective of cause.

[KimFeng]

19 minutes ago, Herbie said:

Jump start and recharge are two very different things so let's make sure we've got this bit right first.

First of all, you say that you've bought a charger but have you ordered it and waiting for it to arrive or have you already got it? If you have got it and you've tried to charge the battery with it, how long did you leave it on charge? At the very least it needs to be an overnight charge, say from 8pm to 8am, preferably a full 24 hours. I don't know anything about that brand of charger but the whole idea of an intelligent charger is that it won't overcharge the battery so no harm should come from it.

It is possible that the 12V battery is so badly discharged that it's been damaged and it just won't recover, no matter how long you leave it on charge and this brings us to the second point.

I'm not too sure about this (just a guess) but it may be that your battery is so flat or damaged that it's interfering with power coming from the jump leads. Try disconnecting your battery so that it's completely out of circuit and out of the equation, then connect the jump leads directly to the cable clamps. This means that you'll have a 'known good' 12V source for the car so hopefully it should achieve READY status as normal.

If it makes no difference and the car still won't start, it may be that the hybrid system has locked out. I know that if a hybrid runs out of petrol it needs at least 10 litres (preferably 15) putting in the tank before you attempt to restart it. The most important bit and the bit that may be pertinent to you is that if you have more than three unsuccessful attempts at restarting it, the hybrid system can lock out and it needs a dealer to reset it. NB - I don't know if this happens ONLY  with lack of fuel or if it's just a general '3 attempts and you're out' sort of thing irrespective of cause.

Thank you for making that clear. 

 

It is all sorted now, it turns out the Battery is not holding the charge at all, and it is completely damaged.

Once the new Battery is put in, everything is back to normal.  

 

Thank god there is a garage near me (50 metres away from my house).

 

Thank you for every one's help!

[LenT]

3 hours ago, KimFeng said:

It is all sorted now, it turns out the battery is not holding the charge at all, and it is completely damaged.

Once the new battery is put in, everything is back to normal.  

So….you now have a new Battery, a new trickle charger to keep it in good condition, a lesson in the complexities of car electrics, a new thread that produced some interesting information about hybrid electronics - and the discovery that sometimes the obvious answer is the answer!

Not a bad day’s work.  🙂

[KimFeng]

11 hours ago, LenT said:

So….you now have a new battery, a new trickle charger to keep it in good condition, a lesson in the complexities of car electrics, a new thread that produced some interesting information about hybrid electronics - and the discovery that sometimes the obvious answer is the answer!

Not a bad day’s work.  🙂

Yes, indeed. Everything odd will come up once the Battery is down. 

Had a great lesson from it.

🤣