Hello,
I have been helping my mom out with her car recently, and the thing dies every 2 days and can’t hold a charge. they make lots of short trips, but even if they wanted to idle it to let it charge, the motor automatically stops. I looked through the owners manual and can’t find a button.
about 150000 miles. Hybrid auto
I may have found a temporary fix but I was hoping there was just a fuse or something that I can pull. They want to sell it, but until then want to find a way to keep it from dying.
thanks
It’s a hybrid. It’s a full hybrid, not just start stop technology.
The engine is supposed to start and stop. Don’t worry too much about the start stop on a Toyota hybrid.
They are built well, and don’t suffer as much engine wear like other car makers start stop technology.
If it weren’t a Toyota/Lexus hybrid, I would be concerned about the start stop, but not so much Toyota/Lexus.
Hello.
As I stated earlier I’m not trying to disable it just for the sake of convenience. I live in canada where it is below -20c for 5 months out of the year. The start stop doesn’t just wear the engine but is absolutely killing the battery. I don’t want to have to jump start it every other day. I would be less concerned if the motor didnt have to start 5 times for a trip under 15 minutes.
not to mention it doesn’t save you any gas compared to idling for an extra 30 seconds. not so concerned about the starter as I know they’re built well.
What’s the temporary fix?
Some guy on youtube said something about setting it into a diagnostic mode by starting it with the hood open. supposedly this would have disabled the stop/start feature. This however did not work.
thing dies every 2 days and can’t hold a charge.
Take the car to a shop who works on hybrids and have them check it. Being a hybrid, those have complex charging system.The issue you have is not related to the way hybrid works.
The issue I have is entirely related to the internal combustion engine red light stop/start feature. In -30c (-22f), the engine starting 5-8 times over a 20-30 minute trip is just way too hard on the battery. I have no complaints of the hybrid system. In the cold batteries discharge faster and have poor health, and 8 combustion engine starts for red lights is just way too much for the battery over such small trips. Starter is probably the most draining electrical component in any vehicle. it takes a lot of power to start a vehicle.
I was thinking I'd take it into the shop anyways since I don't want to work on a hybrid.
To me it seems that because the battery can not provide enough energy, the ICE will kick in more, so in my opinion, basically the issue is the weak hybrid battery.
this may help
- "The traditional approach: Know, if you don’t already know it, that there is a start and stop disable button on your center console (depending on the year of your vehicle you may have a button labeled “ECO”, “Start and Stop” or “S&S”) that you can use to disconnect your start and stop on every start. However, this approach necessitates you to redo the manipulation every time you start the motor vehicle."
