Will the prius C warn you on your dashboard that your battery is about to die?

Question

If the battery (that powers my car) is about to die, will the Prius C dashboard warn me before it dies? When I had a Toyota YARIS, there was never really any official warning from the car that the battery was about to die. So one day I came back to my car and it was dead. (What was really frustrating is that I got regular oil changes, and regular inspections, and never once did they tell me my battery was about to die. I’m pretty sure a normal 3 point inspection doesn’t include looking at the life of the battery.

Now that I have a Prius, I need to know if the same lack-of-warning should be expected (like the Yaris incident), or I need to know if the dashboard will tell me that my battery is about to die. I realize there is a dashboard menu in my car that shows battery life, but I never switch to that menu. I'm always on the menu that shows the temperature outside. So if I'm not on the menu with the battery, will there be some kind of text that comes on to my dashboard to warn me that my battery is about to die?

Someone said I can lift up the hood & look for some eyeball red/green image on the battery. I suppose I could do that but that’s kind of a terrible suggestion because months from now when I forget all about this subject, and the battery starts to go bad, I won’t think to look under the hood.

I’ve googled this question until I’m blue in the face and I cant find a simple answer.

Answer 1

First best answer to Ianab. The hybrid battery is the one that lets you see the state of charge, but it just won't die. The 12V battery will one day just up and die. It is one of my peeves about the current Prius firmware - they know the battery voltage when it is running the brake pump at startup; why not alert the driver the battery is getting near the end?.



No battery at all under the hood; it is under the right corner of the rear seat. No indicator on it either. None of the Prius versions make the battery easy to get to.

Answer 2

There are 2 batteries in the Prius.



One is the hybrid battery that helps power the car. That's the big expensive one. When that goes bad all sorts of warning lights will come on, but the car should still start and be able to be driven, even if it's in a "limp home" mode with reduced power.



The other battery is a regular 12V starter battery for the gas engine. They can fail on you completely and without warning.

Answer 3

One day the little twelve volter will just be dead like all of them. Some places that sell batteries test them for weakness and recommend when needing a replacement. Have your car serviced at one of these places to avoid the dead battery day.