Hybrid battery possible issue

[wrecit]

Hello all. I am the owner of 2 second gen Prius and have done the project lithium upgrade on my 2006.

 

My son's father in law is giving him a 2013 c max and somehow I got deemed the expert lol. The issue is the c max has been parked for a little over a year. When parked father in law claims only things wrong were plug in battery was junk, needs brakes, and the drivers "wing window" is busted.

 

On a Prius with the nik battery I would not hold out any hope of the hybrid battery being able to come back to life. Since c max is lithium I am thinking there's an outside chance.

 

The 12 v is dead and my son was planning on just dropping a new 12 in and going but I talked him out of that till I checked to get advice on how to proceed. My "be safe" thought is to tow to Ford and see if they can get the hybrid to take a charge. You guys got any cheaper advice?

[stolenmoment]

I'm not the expert, but I'd try to jump-start it, and if that works, drive it around.  As you may have seen elsewhere, there's a + post under the hood; look for a hexagonal (octagonal?) post in the middle of the engine compartment, on the driver's side.  While driving it around, look at the dashboard for clues about the hybrid battery's health.

 

I've had a reliable repair places get scared by the orange cables near the 12v battery and refuse to replace it, so if you can drive it, drive it to Ford.

Others here will likely have better advice.

[SnowStorm]

I too would try to jump start it.  If possible, check the voltage first, just for information.  NOTE! The positive post is just to the right of the brake fluid reservoir and should have a red cover with a + sign on it.  The post itself is thick metal bent into a sort of flat C shape.  NOTE! The negative post is the hex shaped one and is in front of the positive one and lower down.

 

Saying the "plug in battery was junk" may only mean the car had a reduced range in EV mode.  It originally had about a 20 mile range but many people have reported reduced range with age and miles.  As I understand, its still a great car just driving it like a normal hybrid and forgetting about the plug-in feature.  Of course, if the High Voltage Battery (HVB) is not functional at all, you have a bigger problem.

[stolenmoment]

Thanks for the correction on the battery posts!  I typed that without checking.

[wrecit]

Thanks guys. Going to head down there tomorrow and give it a go. Would you recommend any code reader apps for the c max that will work with my Bluetooth OBD2 reader. Prius has Dr Prius/hybrid but can't seem to locate something like it for c max

[jzchen]

Forscan is the Ford equivalent to Dr. Prius as far as I know.

[cr08]

On 9/8/2022 at 11:35 AM, jzchen said:

Forscan is the Ford equivalent to Dr. Prius as far as I know.

 

This. Forscan will show you basically anything you'd ever want when it comes to Ford vehicles including their own proprietary DTCs/trouble codes that generic handheld readers will often miss.

 

One thing to keep in mind is there are multiple CAN buses in these vehicles. Most cheap Bluetooth adapters will only read the HS-CAN bus which will at least cover the important stuff the engine, transmission, hybrid system, HVB, etc.. Other less critical systems like drivers/passenger door modules, parking aid system, climate control, etc. will be on the MS-CAN bus. For your needs this is probably not an issue, but this is merely an FYI. Forscan will still work just fine with these Bluetooth OBD2 adapters for basic diagnostics. In fact I keep one of those cheap low profile HS-CAN only adapters in my car at all times if I need to diagnose anything on the spot. I then leave my OBDLink EX for more 'heavy lifting' like firmware updates.