Dead battery(s) iForceMAX

[TacoFreak]

My reply to that would be: What's defective in the charging system that the truck isn't maintaining a full battery charge?

Sorry, but that dealers response BS. A properly operating vehicle, under normal usage conditions, should keep the battery at or close to full charge.

Exactly!

I hear you. I got very let’s say firm with them to say the least. Didn’t change the result as they claim they can’t do anything (about the battery) unless it fails the test after charging. Toyota warranty rules….

If my dealer tells me that I will probably replace the battery myself, and then be sure to tell Toyota in great detail how much they suck. Toyota today is definitely not the same company that I bought over a dozen vehicles from in the past.

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[tstonemaggie]

My battery died on my 2024 TRD Pro Hybrid and took it to the dealer today. They checked the battery and after testing the battery needed to be replaced. Dealer replaced the battery. We will see if that corrects the issue.

 

[Tsturbo]

Mine goes into the dealer Wednesday AM. No problems so far after the jump and drive home yesterday. Will update after appointment.

 

[goin2drt]

My reply to that would be: What's defective in the charging system that the truck isn't maintaining a full battery charge?

Sorry, but that dealers response BS. A properly operating vehicle, under normal usage conditions, should keep the battery at or close to full charge.

I filled out the after service survey. I gave them all 1’s. They called but still said nothing they could do if the battery passes. He said if I bring it in and leave it “for a day or two” and a master tech will put load on the battery and then re test it after they charge it. IDK. We will see if I decide to take it back or not.

 

[TacoFreak]

I filled out the after service survey. I gave them all 1’s. They called but still said nothing they could do if the battery passes. He said if I bring it in and leave it “for a day or two” and a master tech will put load on the battery and then re test it after they charge it. IDK. We will see if I decide to take it back or not.

I call bs on the load test schedule and why would it need a master tech to do such an easy test? They just want to make it all such a PITA that you go away. Does Toyota even care that you rated their factory service at the lowest level possible?

They should be able to fully charge the battery in no more than a couple of hours and the load test takes literally about 5 minutes. Whether the battery passes the load test or not the truck should still be able to maintain the 12 volt at a normal state of charge, like @gpburdell said.

I don't think these hybrids can maintain a normal state of charge in their 12 volts and I think that is why the batteries eventually fail. No matter how long I drive or how I use my truck my battery sits right at 12.2 +/- .5 volts all of the time - maybe 60% charged at best. That alone will kill a storage battery and it doesn't take a master tech to know that.

 

[SnowmanJPS]

My battery died on my 2024 TRD Pro Hybrid and took it to the dealer today. They checked the battery and after testing the battery needed to be replaced. Dealer replaced the battery. We will see if that corrects the issue.

What battery did they replace it with? If you have the capability, could you take a picture of the new battery?

This is the one my 25 came with

 

[Jt2024]

2024 Limited iForceMAX, 4,000 miles. Went camping over the 4th of July for 5 nights. Did not drive truck during that time. Started 1 time, doors open and shut during the day, same for auto tailgate and power running boards. Go to leave this morning and completely dead, tailgate and power running boards wouldn’t work, no lights on dash. Had to jump it, fired right up and we drove home no problems.

Calling the dealer tomorrow, but doesn’t it seem weird that the truck would not start from the hybrid nor the 12V. Could 5 days or opening doors left power running boards active so they come out when door opened and power tailgate open/close a few different times per day. Could this have killed both batteries or……??
Thanks

Had similar issue. My TOYOTA APP was open and I did not sign out. After taking to the dealer and having it charged, I made sure I signed out of the APP and no more issues.

 

[djevans]

So can you put a charger/maintainer on the hybrids by connecting to the jump post in the engine bay? Can you install a permanent trickle charger connected the same way? I asked the dealer and the answer I got was….we don’t know. We will have to find out. I’m still waiting to hear from them.

Tom . . .

Do not make any decisions based on my reply...

I don't have a HYBRID model Limited. So, I am just talking "generally."

There are 2 batteries under the back seat of a GEN 4 Tacoma.
One is the 288v NiMH and the other "should be" a 12v AGM. (neither battery chemistry should "off-gas" so I am unsure why Toyota would say to open windows - but I digress)
If you're referring to the correct post under the hood, you should be able to charge the 12v battery from that post to vehicle chassis.

Now, as to permanently attaching a charger. I permanently left 2 separate chargers on our RV (between trips while in storage (which was most of the time)) for over 12 years. (We recently sold the RV) But, we had both 2 - 12v diesel starting batteries in parallel (and 4 - 6v in series / parallel to run the coach. The chargers were "LOW AMPERAGE smart chargers," and I frequently monitored them to make sure they worked properly. (never more than a week without checking them, "to make sure they stayed smart.")

Now, "ONLY" referring to the 12v AGM. If you're under warranty, (1) I wouldn't recommend giving the dealer any reason to void or compromise the warranty by leaving a "foreign" device attached. (2) unless you're storing the vehicle for extended intervals, it really shouldn't draw a great deal of battery amperage when the ecm goes into quiescent mode. (generally in the low milliamp range) Remember though, the ECM may have constant on "engine startup circuits" and any "house keeping" tasks can start the ECU up again even when the engine is off. This definitely can run even a properly functioning battery down after a couple weeks without the engine running.

Even if you did connect a charger to the 12v battery post, it's my understanding that this action would NOT start a charger for the 288v battery if that's what you're asking.

Again, this information is just general info. Don't make any decisions based on this post. That's a VERY expensive machine if yours' cost anything like my LIMITED did. Unless you're not driving the vehicle much, curious why you are thinking about doing this ?

 

[Tom Sellick]

Tom . . .

Do not make any decisions based on my reply...

I don't have a HYBRID model Limited. So, I am just talking "generally."

There are 2 batteries under the back seat of a GEN 4 Tacoma.
One is the 288v NiMH and the other "should be" a 12v AGM. (neither battery chemistry should "off-gas" so I am unsure why Toyota would say to open windows - but I digress)
If you're referring to the correct post under the hood, you should be able to charge the 12v battery from that post to vehicle chassis.

Now, as to permanently attaching a charger. I permanently left 2 separate chargers on our RV (between trips while in storage (which was most of the time)) for over 12 years. (We recently sold the RV) But, we had both 2 - 12v diesel starting batteries in parallel (and 4 - 6v in series / parallel to run the coach. The chargers were "LOW AMPERAGE smart chargers," and I frequently monitored them to make sure they worked properly. (never more than a week without checking them, "to make sure they stayed smart.")

Now, "ONLY" referring to the 12v AGM. If you're under warranty, (1) I wouldn't recommend giving the dealer any reason to void or compromise the warranty by leaving a "foreign" device attached. (2) unless you're storing the vehicle for extended intervals, it really shouldn't draw a great deal of battery amperage when the ecm goes into quiescent mode. (generally in the low milliamp range) Remember though, the ECM may have constant on "engine startup circuits" and any "house keeping" tasks can start the ECU up again even when the engine is off. This definitely can run even a properly functioning battery down after a couple weeks without the engine running.

Even if you did connect a charger to the 12v battery post, it's my understanding that this action would NOT start a charger for the 288v battery if that's what you're asking.

Again, this information is just general info. Don't make any decisions based on this post. That's a VERY expensive machine if yours' cost anything like my LIMITED did. Unless you're not driving the vehicle much, curious why you are thinking about doing this ?

We tend to travel a fair amount. Sometimes it might be a week or two but other times could be three months. The last trip was two weeks. Came home and the battery was dead as a door nail. My understanding is it’s not good to let these AGM batteries run down to often. So I need a solution and didn’t realize it would be so complicated . My first thought was have a Battery maintainer installed. This seemed easiest. I guess, you could remove the battery but that’s more trouble and who knows what settings you then lose.

 

[gpburdell]

We tend to travel a fair amount. Sometimes it might be a week or two but other times could be three months. The last trip was two weeks. Came home and the battery was dead as a door nail. My understanding is it’s not good to let these AGM batteries run down to often. So I need a solution and didn’t realize it would be so complicated . My first thought was have a Battery maintainer installed. This seemed easiest. I guess, you could remove the battery but that’s more trouble and who knows what settings you then lose.

Yes, a decent smart maintainer will “solve” things for you as a bandaid.

It however doesn’t address the underlying issue - there’s a problem if the truck can’t sit for two or three weeks and start right up. Whether the problem is a bad battery, a faulty charging system, a fkd up app/cellular system, or something else, there’s clearly a problem given the reports.

Hopefully Toyota will get it sorted out.

 

[Tsturbo]

Just returned from dealer, battery was checked and they said it is good. They recommended drive it a little if out camping every couple of days. Said I may want to consider a battery tender when the truck sits for more than a week, I called BS as the truck recently spent 18 days while we vacationed in Italy. Came home and it fired right up.

I think we put too much usage on power tailgate, power running boards (several times per day) without actually driving the truck, add to that is my Thinkware 2 Channel dash cam hard wired into OBDll outlet, which goes from a parking mode into active mode when truck or tailgate is opened.

We now will limit tailgate and door openings to a minimum and turn off power running boards, will also plan to drive it a little when camping and will carry a jump box. Glad the battery checked out good.

 

[TacoFreak]

@Tsturbo Unfortunately limiting power use when parked is probably going to be necessary for these trucks. If your truck works like mine though, driving it a little while camping will not help. I have been checking my battery before and after drives and it often goes down after I drive it, and even stranger it will go up some when it is parked.

Toyota should not have put so many powered accessories on a truck that struggles to keep its battery charged IMO. Once mine has been off of an external charger for a while the battery sits between 12 and 12.3 volts, which is way too low. The battery needs to be above 12.4 volts to avoid early failure, and my truck can't maintain that. I love the power that my hybrid has, but it was not well designed if it can't maintain the charge in its 12 volt battery.

 

[CrispyTacoLover]

I think it does say that, but if you disconnect the neg terminal you couldn't jump it, so maybe only to charge it? If Toyota can't make hybrids that keep their batteries charged they need to provide better information about how we are supposed to keep them running.

I totally agree. This seems like it’s a design defect.

 

[CrispyTacoLover]

Just returned from dealer, battery was checked and they said it is good. They recommended drive it a little if out camping every couple of days. Said I may want to consider a battery tender when the truck sits for more than a week, I called BS as the truck recently spent 18 days while we vacationed in Italy. Came home and it fired right up.

I think we put too much usage on power tailgate, power running boards (several times per day) without actually driving the truck, add to that is my Thinkware 2 Channel dash cam hard wired into OBDll outlet, which goes from a parking mode into active mode when truck or tailgate is opened.

We now will limit tailgate and door openings to a minimum and turn off power running boards, will also plan to drive it a little when camping and will carry a jump box. Glad the battery checked out good.

Parking mode dashcams are notorious for killing batteries. It’s the reason I stopped trying to get parking mode working with my truck and cam.

I think your dash cam puts your truck outside the problem area other hybrid owners are having.

 

[maxx075]

Sounds like these hybrids and the Toyota app have some issues that are draining/killing batteries. And on top of that the dealers don't want to deal with it.

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