12v battery maintenance

Toyota: advice on battery maintenance during lockdown or lack of use. - General Discussions - Toyota Owners Club - Toyota Forum

Great offer for Battery charger here. https://www.aldi.co.uk/auto-xs-car-battery-charger/p/813260585046300

Amazon has 15% off solar car chargers. Just ordered one for myself. If anyone interested. 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AA-Essentials-AA1432-Battery-Charger/dp/B084M5ZL5L/ref=sr_1_6?crid=39V2XP1ATFN47&keywords=solar%2Bbattery%2Bcharger&qid=1649863122&sprefix=Solar%2Bbat%2Caps%2C73&sr=8-6&th=1

I bought a similar one from Lidl. Ultimate Speed brand. Like Auto XS. It’s a superb bit of kit. Here are some photos and the model number. You can also find these on eBay too. Useful for the little 12V Battery located in the Auris Hybrid boot. Hope this helps someone. 🙂👍🏻

*** BREAKING NEWS ***
These are now in Lidl for just £13.99 so buy while you can people….

Good price, excellent product with proper microcontroller. The cutoff voltage is pretty high, about 15V vs typical safer product like NOCO genius2 14.3-14.5 V.  LIDL/ALDI charger will do trickle charging when the voltage is drop below 12V at maximum charging 0.7 A after the fully charged was ever reached. More expensive NOCO charger will still trickle charge at max 5 A when the voltage drop below 12V, not 0.7 A. 

Lidl charger is much better than any unknown brand 10A charger in Amazon. 

we should have a page,odd things about hybrids. you could leave your car unlocked,but safe. How much stuff is live ,in ready mode,[parked up I mean] a drain on the 12 v Battery,leaving it flat.

On 11/15/2022 at 9:40 AM, loz8 said:

we should have a page,odd things about hybrids. you could leave your car unlocked,but safe. How much stuff is live ,in ready mode,[parked up I mean] a drain on the 12 v battery,leaving it flat.

For the Auris2, All the electronics turned off after about 15 minutes. Even if you forgot to turn off the interior lights, they will be off when the car goes to sleep mode.  There is no difference if the smartkeys are active or not.   If you do not leave the car more than 2 weeks, you can leave it as is.  If you leave the car more than 2 weeks, removing the D/C Cut in the Fuse box helps and much easier than removing Battery negative terminal. 

On 11/25/2022 at 4:34 PM, AisinW said:

 removing the D/C Cut in the Fuse box helps and much easier than removing battery negative terminal. 

Where it is? Can you share a photo, please?

Thanks.

In the engine bay. Open the lid,  the diagram is on the lid. You can unplug it with the plastic tool inside the fuse box. 

With winter just around the corner and yet another key fob Battery replacement done (twice a year it seems), my thoughts turned to the 12V service Battery in my Auris Hybrid and to this thread. I bought  a 12V booster pack just in case I get caught out by a fully discharged service Battery this winter. But that got me thinking about why the traction battery doesn't  trickle charge it (if the service battery falls below a minimum voltage, for example). Apparently, even a fully charged traction battery isn't set up to trickle charge the service battery! Why not? It's certainly big enough. Surely it could be done without compromising the traction battery's ability to start the ICU?   

5 hours ago, mintymiller said:

With winter just around the corner and yet another key fob battery replacement done (twice a year it seems), my thoughts turned to the 12V service battery in my Auris Hybrid and to this thread. I bought  a 12V booster pack just in case I get caught out by a fully discharged service battery this winter. But that got me thinking about why the traction battery doesn't  trickle charge it (if the service battery falls below a minimum voltage, for example). Apparently, even a fully charged traction battery isn't set up to trickle charge the service battery! Why not? It's certainly big enough. Surely it could be done without compromising the traction battery's ability to start the ICU?   

The hybrid Battery required the ECU and other controllers to be powered to manage the DC to DC converter.  It takes at least 10 Amps to be on and it does not make sense powering so much wattage. The key fob on smart-keys need to be far enough to bring the remote system to sleep.  At least 10m from the car. If it is too close, thief can use signal ampiflier to steal your car.   My Battery is 7 years old, the open voltage is 12.2V in winter and 12.4 V in summer when I use it daily for 10Km commute.  It never have troubles starting the car even if I parked it for 2 weeks.  Everytime I test it with ACC mode (2x power button without pressing the brake pedals), the voltage is 11.7-11.9V, with the HIR2 headlights on it drops to 11.3V.  Generally, if the Voltage is always above 10.5V, and never drop below 10V when we start the car (60 Amps), the car will just start without problems.  If it ever droped below 10V at any moment, error trouble code is usually show up or the car will not go to READY mode.  Our car needs very small amperage compared to regular car with starter motor. 60 Amps vs 200Amps or more.    Yes, keeping 12V booster pack is always helpfull because things happen but we only need decent safe booster pack, at least with TÜV approval. Some unknown chinese charger are fire hazzards.  The one from LIDL or ALDI are actually really good including their 5Amps Battery charger €15 with microcontrolers.  It has 1 optocoupler just like CTEK that is sold 5x more.   

dear oh dear,here we go again,page after page,all hybrid models flat 12v Battery. Mine had 3 jump starts in a week,a friend used his mini jumper as my Maxtool JSL240 was'nt doing anything,staying fully charged. AA did the job yesterday,but could'nt test my Maxtool. He sugested metal foil over both sides of fuse box terminal.[if the Maxtool works]

4 hours ago, loz8 said:

dear oh dear,here we go again,page after page,all hybrid models flat 12v battery. Mine had 3 jump starts in a week,a friend used his mini jumper as my Maxtool JSL240 was'nt doing anything,staying fully charged. AA did the job yesterday,but could'nt test my Maxtool. He sugested metal foil over both sides of fuse box terminal.[if the Maxtool works]

footnote,on rereading instructions,if not used for a while,the tool may be discharged although reading full charge leds.How !Removed! stupid is that,it could need acharge just when you need it.

Lawrence, you may need to prepare a new  12V Battery. Get the original Yuasa battry. When it is flat well below 12V, the Battery loose the capacity sognificantly from sulphation. It may hold the charge for couple hours but not days anymore.  I have similar bad Battery symptoms, need jump starts after not driven for 18 hours on my 06 Prius. One of the cell failed. I still have my original battery on my Auris 2016 Jan, 7 y old battery and 0 issues since it was new. In winter I do daily short trips < 2 x 3 miles per day but 20-50 miles in weekend. 

just an update on Maxtool,tested the amp on boost,16v only for over a second then dead. 3 mnths old used succesfuly once. Back on to Amazon,the site said only returnable 1 month.  Oh well its still a torch,ha that went too.

Now waiting for Noco gb70. 2000 amps. picked for it's high purchesers.

sent email to head office,reply was see your dealer,so sent another how long this has gone on and its effect on owners plus the poor showing for Toyota. If I hear back anything of interest,I'll post but don't hold your breath.

On 12/13/2022 at 8:00 AM, loz8 said:

dear oh dear,here we go again,page after page,all hybrid models flat 12v battery. Mine had 3 jump starts in a week,a friend used his mini jumper as my Maxtool JSL240 was'nt doing anything,staying fully charged. AA did the job yesterday,but could'nt test my Maxtool. He sugested metal foil over both sides of fuse box terminal.[if the Maxtool works]

Once a car need jump start, the 12V is already screwed. 80% chance you need a new Battery since the sulphation is already done. There is nothing you can do beside just stretching legs with welder or any tools. It is just simply broken. 

Get a good Yuasa AGM Battery and it should last a decade or more if you don't neglect the car by not driving it for weeks anymore. I never need to do any trickle charging in the first 6 years. I did it last year just for curiosity and never do it anymore.  It is just unnecessary for my driving habit. 

1 hour ago, AisinW said:

Once a car need jump start, the 12V is already screwed. 80% chance you need a new Battery since the sulphation is already done. There is nothing you can do beside just stretching legs with welder or any tools. It is just simply broken. 

Get a good Yuasa AGM Battery and it should last a decade or more if you don't neglect the car by not driving it for weeks anymore. I never need to do any trickle charging in the first 6 years. I did it last year just for curiosity and never do it anymore.  It is just unnecessary for my driving habit. 

Hi John,there are more threads on 12v ,all models.On one I related,main dealer passed Battery as ok last yr. Nothings changed,so I could have binned a Battery each of 3 yrs.  Have you allowed for the alarm may be not helping,it has interior motion detection too. Regular use ,as you do is the key,when I did too ,had 3 trouble free yrs.

Hi Lawrence,  I do not have alarm system but if it is factory alarm, it does not consume much Battery when standbye.  I think I had one long ago in my Sienna, and the Battery last normally 5-7 years.  But it was not  a hybrid.  Sometimes if the discharged Battery was not too deep and we charge it right away, the sulphation is not that deep and can be recovered with slow charging. That's what the 20% is about.  However, I usually need a complete new battery within 1 year once the battery is overdrained. 

What's the best way to remove the Battery in my Auris?

Do I disconnect the negative terminal nut first, or the positive?

Thank yoiu

  Yes, negative terminal first, then positive, after that the Battery itself.

  After putting the new Battery, positive terminal first, then negative.