A couple of weeks ago I experienced an odd behavior with my 09 NAH. I was going through a car wash, with the car in neutral. It was a very hot day, so I had the A/C running. About halfway through the car wash, the car shut itself off and an alarm from the dash began beeping. The info center on the dash indicated to shift the car to park to restart it. Since I was rolling through the car wash I couldn't do it, but when I got to the end of the tracks and rolled off, I shifted to Park and restarted. The engine started, but as I went to pull out of the lot, I noticed that the HV battery was completely drained! The needle was hard against the bottom pin. The car had NO power. It reminded me of the 'limp-home' mode that other cars have if the engine computer fails while driving. I drove the car for about 20 minutes, babying it as best as I could, but the battery voltage never came up. I parked it over night and the next morning the voltage started climbing, and after two days of driving it was back up to normal. I brought the car into the dealer to be checked out. He told me the hybrid system checked out fine, but he had no explanation for what happened. My suspicion is that the gas engine is programmed to not start with the car in neutral, and since I had the AC on 'high', I pretty much drained the HV battery. I asked the dealer about this, and he just shrugged his shoulders and said 'maybe, maybe not' (I'm finding that my dealer doesn't have anyone who is really good with hybrids). My question is - has anyone else experienced this problem with the battery discharging if the car is left in neutral for too long?

 

I've not experienced that. In fact, my engine has come on while in the carwash and in N.

 

cant say I've ever needed to leave my car i neutral much for very long except a few hypermiling runs downhill.

does sound like the car went in to "limp home" mode, but i suspect the next day you should have been able to start it up and the gas engine would immediately start charging and thats it. bit mysterious but i think the theory is probably right.

 

It sounds like the SOC (state of charge) on the Altima's HV battery was low when you entered the car wash. I find I can run the A/C in my TCH for about 5 minutes before the it depletes the traction battery enough to start the engine (when the initial SOC is normal)

Neutral disables charging of the HV traction battery. Leaving the car in neutral for an extended period of time can deeply discharge the HV battery. The next time you go through a car wash, put the climate control in recirculate, and turn off the A/C after a minute. It may get a little warm, but you will prevent HV battery from being discharged deeply.

 

Agree with all of the above. The design of Toyota's HSD is that the HV battery CANNOT charge when in neutral.

The electric AC (at least on my Prius) when idling, puts a huge drain on the HV battery compared to when it's off. By huge, I'm talking about 1.3 - 2 amps (@~220 volts) when "idling" w/AC off. If AC compressor is on, that can be 6 -11 amps.

 

I copied the following from the downloadable owners manual for the 09 hybrid

"The Hybrid System recharges the high voltage
battery as necessary. However, the Hybrid
System can not charge the high voltage
battery when the transmission is in the N
(Neutral) position even if the engine is running."

I noticed the same thing going through the car wash just not as bad. It is a good idea to only go in with the SOC on the battery in the upper range and turn off all consumers. Its th A/C that brought it that low.

 

+1 on everyone saying it won't charge in Neutral. next time don't have A/C on when you go through the wash