"Check your vehicle's charging system"

[PUNISHER VETTE]

I sat my car outside today so I could wax it(not wash as it was clean). Had the stereo running most of the time until it shut off on its own.

Didn't think much of it at the time, figured it was just a safety or timer issue.
It was only on for less than an hour.

Went to go start the car up just now and it didn't start. light popped up that said check your vehicles charging system.

I put a charger on the battery for a few minutes and still nothing. It's still on there right now so i'll see what it does in an hour or so. The lights and everything else come on just fine... so it's got me worried there's actually something really wrong with it.

Any helpful advice? Prayers?

 

[domin8]

If not the battery, then the alternator.

Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk

 

[PUNISHER VETTE]

Just went out after it having charged for 30min or so and it fired right up.


I'm not out of the woods yet as the check engine light is still on.... So maybe something is still wrong.

Is there a way I can check what code it's throwing or will Autozone check it for me?

I took it for a short ride and will keep the charger on it for another hour or two. It's still charging 13amps so it must have been dead.

---------- Post added at 07:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:03 PM ----------

I was just reading a google search on the check engine light and it said "don't disconnect the battery" ....oops...too late!

I hope I didn't mess things up worse by disconnecting the battery.
Still seems weird that this is all happening. I'm hoping a good hour or two charge on the battery will fix things... but maybe we're beyond that..

---------- Post added at 09:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:20 PM ----------

Just went out and it was only charging 4 amps so I said that should be good enough. Started it up and no check engine light....so it looks like I should be okay.


I'll drive it around some tomorrow and test it because I'm leaving tuesday for home trailering my sisters car(700 miles one way) so it better be in good shape to make that trip.

So I guess the key to learn from all this is don't leave your radio on. Or at least not in the "Run" mode....as I'm guessing there are tons of other stuff drawing power in that mode to drain it in less than an hour.

 

[domin8]

Eh, it happens.

 

[rdstrattan]

accessory battery will wear out - replace

Check condition, or better yet replace your 12 volt accessory battery. If it is 5 years old, its time for it to fail and it will cause strange problems that the fancy on-board diagnostic codes won't figure out and tell you about.

Recently my '08 Tahoe Hybrid wouldn't start one morning. Just threw up error messages - Stablizer, Hybrid, ABS, etc. Finially after many tries with different messages every time I noticed the navigation screen fading and the solution hit me. I had one of the very early Prius and the same thing happened at about 5 years age. The 12 volt accessory battery was going bad.

Replaced the accessory battery and all is well.

 

[Nashoba]

We have a 2008 Tahoe Hybrid and it is driven about 40 miles every day during the school year as my wife, a teacher, commutes to work and back. Have about 96,000 on the clock and have had few problems with it since it was new. In April of 2016 I will start driving it as my vehicle and we will get her something new. I don't drive a lot so I am wondering if the hybrid battery will get run down if it is not driven every day or two? I have a trickle charger I keep on my truck as it may sit for a month at a time without even being started. It has 7,469 miles on it and I bought it new April 18, 2011. Gonna give it to my grand daughter when she hits 16. Anyway, I know the trickle charger will keep the accessory battery fresh but I wonder if it will keep the HYBRID BATTERIES charged, too? Anyone have any idea about that? Should I trade it off when I get it to avoid electrical/hybrid issues?

 

[Nashoba]

As I was re-reading rdstratten's post I thought I would check my battery replacement and some other repairs. Here is my 2008 Hybrid repair history right quick. Installed at cost of $811.19 a new accessory battery and new water pump on same visit at 80996 miles. Check engine light saying "oil pressure low and stop engine" at 88976. Replaced manifold gasket kit under intake manifold, replaced oil pressure sensor. Parts and labor were $1,013.41. Engine was 3 quarts low on oil. Failure due to not changing oil often enough, according to dealer shop manager. We had religiously changed oil when it hit 20% value left, according to the manual. Now we change every 3,500 miles. At 89016 we spent $1,268.09 to have rear air actuator repaired so air would blow in back seats; new spark plugs and a new valve cover assembly on left bank; replace all four door locking actuators (if one breaks, all four have to be replaced). Nothing else major done to it. Still averages 20.2 mpg as most is highway driving by the wife.

 

[soulsea]

The trickle charger so far as I know will only charge the 12V battery ... it'd have to be a plug in hybrid in order to be able to recharge the 300V battery. Plus that's not the philosophy behind the system as it isn't intended for driving any significant range under electric mode, so the batter was never designed to be externally charged.

These 2 mode hybrids are pretty stout considering all the new tech that went into them at the time, but I wouldn't want to own one past the expiration of the power train warranty ... anything related to the electrics and get real expensive real quick, especially on the 08s which are well known to be much more fragile than the 09s and beyond.

You might also want to check out http://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f69/ ... that forum moves slow cause there's not that many of these vehicles out there, but there'll be a few more folks there with more experience than in here.

 

[ccapehartusarmyINF.(ret)]

dont run your stereo wih the vehicle off unless you have a yellow top or a second battery
even the factory stereo systems these days pull quite a bit of juice especially if you got premium sound