Power Pack to Jump Start Car

I remember you mentioning it and thinking it would be a nice little challenge to fix... (I do know a fair bit about the electrical systems on Toyota hybrids now)

Indeed. These kind of problems can be pesky to track down, and garages paid by the hour aren't interested - they just want to pump out servicing (nice money spinner), discs/pads, suspension fixes, ... all day long. If they put the time in the bill turns into four figures very rapidly, and the risk is the customer just walks away. You need a proper auto electrician who knows how to diagnose to begin with, and if the garage doesn't have one on staff then you need to take it somewhere else.

I would be tearing my hair out in short order about that...

I'm guessing it's a fault in one or other module if it's been there since (nearly) new. A garage that's used to throwing parts at problems is not going to be randomly swapping £1k worth of modules with new ones.

Yes, earth faults can cause all kinds of weird stuff. Once (an older car) had all the lights go dark while driving, which I think must have been an earth fault. I stopped, and it came back and worked forever more afterwards.

Nice thing about hybrids is they don't have heavy jump start currents -

Theo

Did it not have manual override for the door locks, using the key blade in a hidden hole, typically on the underside of the handle? My Peugeot is old enough that it has conventional keyholes in the handles as an alternative to the remote control. Just as well because the remote has failed in the spare key that I give the garage when I take it for servicing. My wife's much newer Honda doesn't have on-display keyhole but it does have little flaps underneath the handles which you open with a flat-head screwdriver and insert the key, though I've never had to use them. Neither car has keyless ignition; we deliberately went for a trim level that didn't have it because we've heard too many reports of it making it easier for the car to be stolen.

It seem an inherent weakness if a flat battery means you can't open the doors to access the bonnet release to charge the battery...

I suspect you're right, it's 4.5 years old and not used anywhere near enough. The charger indicated that it wouldn't take a charge so a new battery would probably give it a new lease of life.

They're like computers, never really turn off.

My Nissan Leaf charges its 12V battery with a solar panel built into the roof, but failing that (parking in the garage) it charges from the traction battery.

Yes. I have a Ford S-Max hybrid and I have been using it intermittently. The battery sometimes gets low enough that only the driver's door will 'touch unlock'.

There is always plenty of juice to operate the contactors. However, I carry a jump start pack that was adequate for the previous diesel S-Max, so I should be OK.

The transmission is basically a modification of the original Toyota one - very simple and smooth. It worried me for a while until I found a motor engineering video that explained how it worked!

Got a recall notice this morning for the EVAP Canister purge system, I'll get a new battery fitted at the same time.

Some even automatically charge the 12V battery from the traction battery, if it starts to get too low - although they won't if the traction battery is below a certain charge level.

Teslas do that I think, though many of them have a much smaller 12V battery, lithium-ion rather than lead-acid, and drain it quite a lot with things running while "off".

nib

Just bought a Ring charger.

Prior to that I bought

HTH

Dave R

That seems to be the situation I am in. If the power pack (arriving tomorrow) gets it going then I'll live with that until the recall works is one when I'll have a new battery fitted.

What you have is a modern, intelligent charger. These test the battery voltage, and if the voltage is too low, they refuse to try to charge. There are two ways, to start off the charge - Either try an old fashioned dumb charger, or temporarily connect another 12v battery in parallel, with your flat battery, to increase its voltage, to an acceptable level for the charger you have.

Even more of a problem, if you can open the car door, but the bonnet release has an in built weakness, where it becomes detached.

My car, has two bonnet latches, and has a plastic splitter box, to split the single release cable to operate the two releases. The plastic splitter box, can become detached, so pulling the release does nothing. Luckily, there was a known way to get access.

You have to jack the car up, remove the wheel, pull back the wheel arch liner, and grab hold of each cable end in turn, with a pair of long nosed pliers. via a small hole in the inner wing. Basically keyhole surgery at it's best, and no way to see what you are doing.

The trouble with only looking at fuel costs is that you aren't allowing for depreciation on the car, or for servicing cost etc.

I paid £12,000 for my car, and it's probably worth about 6k now. Not bad after 20 years... but it's a bit thirsty, and the servicing is getting expensive. But that thirsty? It's not on the radar for the costs. With the low mileage it does I think the road tax is more than the fuel.

The AA used to publish tables with the overall cost per mile. Fuel was never a very large proportion.

Andy

when I started owning a car, petrol was just 5/- per gallon. Now it's nearer £6.50.

Here's a chap who bought a 238,000 mile EV for £3000. It cost £200 in parts to do all the fixes that needed doing due to that wear and tear, and took a couple of hours. The battery health is at 91% (original range was 160 miles).

Efficiency about 3.7 miles per kWh, so a lifetime energy usage of roughly 64 MWh. If you managed to use a home charger at 7p/kWh for that, we're talking £4500 in lifetime fuel costs.

If it was a petrol and got 60 mpg, that's 3967 gallons at £1.40 a litre, ie about £25000 in petrol costs.

Obviously not everyone drives that kind of miles, but it does show how electric makes sense on fuel costs alone. Insurance, tax, etc can be assumed to be similar.

(if you use motorway chargers electricity is substantially more, but then so is petrol. Starting every day with a full 'tank' of electricity can reduce the amount you have to buy power when away from home)

Theo

That car had frequent MoTs from 2020 (averaging 110 miles a day in the first year), so was used as a Taxi, and unlikely to be 7p/kWh.

On 15/06/2025 21:50, Theo wrote: > The battery health is at 91% Is there a way to find the SOH via an OBD2 reader and are the codes generic?