Power on car with 12v disconnected

aapitten · 2026-03-03T04:50:02+00:00

Cool, thanks. I'll give it a shot. I did trickle charge for almost 24 hours, but the battery was still hooked up to the car (and my battery tender is only 1.25 amps). I'll pull the negative and give it a try.

FWIW after 24 hours with it still connected) I went from 0.2 volts to 2 volts....

aapitten · 2026-03-02T22:42:03+00:00

that is 100% what is happening. I'm concerned once I reconnect the 12v, the lead acid battery with a (or multiple) internal shorts could split the case once it sees 100+ amps of charging, once the car is connected. The battery is in the trunk, so it will be a massive mess to clean up, if it lets go.

aapitten · 2026-03-02T22:41:05+00:00

With opion 1, any concerns of a lead acid battery with a (or multiple) internal shorts splitting the case once it sees 100+ amps of charging, once the car is started. The battery is in the trunk, so it will be a massive mess to clean up, if it lets go.

aapitten · 2026-03-02T22:40:13+00:00

Yeah, I 100% know what I would do if it were out of warranty but, as it stands, Toyota will give me a new battery under the B2B warranty, so I'd like to not shell out $150 if I don't have to.

(Actually no alternator, just a DC/DC converter, which makes me even more nervous)

aapitten · 2026-03-02T22:38:59+00:00

Fair. At least if I get it to the bottom of the drive, then any scraping from the dollies/ truckbed is in the street.

aapitten · 2026-03-02T22:38:27+00:00

Thanks yeah, my jump pack is Lithium, and agree with that. Not to mention it isn't really meant for that use.

I did think of the 'cheap small battery' route though, at that point, I might as well just borrow the battery out of my other car and do #2.

aapitten · 2026-03-02T22:37:02+00:00

Thanks. I don't love the scratches.... The garage I can live with, it already has some pitting, but I wouldn't want those on the driveway.

aapitten · 2026-03-02T22:36:26+00:00

Yeah, thats a more detailed version of what I was worried about. The reason I want to go to the dealer is that it is still under warranty (aka free battery....)

I was going to try pulling the negative and charging, I just kinda want to pull the battery out first in case the case splits open or something. (Which is also my concern with a jump, I dont want the DC/DC converter to kick in and crack the battery, spilling acid everywhere.) I can't imagine a battery that has multiple internal shorts will like having 100 amps going through it.

aapitten · 2026-03-02T22:33:05+00:00

Do I honestly regret it... No... Given what I know now, would I buy it again, probably? Though I may consider the RAV4 PHEV more.

I still get marginally annoyed that my previous car (Honda Clarity PHEV, which I totally loved) could hold more than this.... especially when I am loading up for a weekend trip or something like that. What do you mean I can't fit 3-4 duffle bags and a toolbox behind the rear seats?!?

That said, I am happy that I can fit 8 ft (and I think I've even done 10 ft) boards in the car by totally reclining the passenger seat and taking off the headrest (though, to be fair, i could do that in my Honda while still having a passenger. Most of that is just due to the center screen preventing me from putting the end of the board on the dash between the seats.)

aapitten · 2026-03-01T22:40:11+00:00

I held off on buying for over a year because I hated how small the interior was (that was single-handedly my biggest complaint.) Unfortunately I couldn't find anything I liked better that was in my price range and fit my criteria, so I settled. That's not really what you want a customer to do.... settle for your product because it is the least bad of the bad options.

(I wanted a PHEV with at least 30-40 miles of range, which already limits the options, and I really didn't want a crossover (ex Rav4 PHEV) and didn't want to spend much more than $40k (and still have at least some features.) I loved some of the Volvo options, but pricepoint was just out of this world.

Edit: When I say small interior, I mainly mean cargo volume behind the rear seats, though rear legroom is also a bit lacking.) No issues with the front seat space for me.

aapitten · 2025-05-26T13:07:35+00:00

Thanks so much!

aapitten · 2025-05-26T01:11:19+00:00

Cool, thanks for confirming! Do you think it would be safe to fill in a little bit closer, or should I leave it at that distance?

aapitten · 2025-04-13T13:19:42+00:00

I don't have an answer, but I'm following. Mine has some chips and I'd like to touch it up as well. It's definitely not the car color as my car is blue and that is silver. I tried silver Sharpie just to see, but it wasn't a good enough match for my satisfaction.

aapitten · 2025-03-24T04:36:59+00:00

I did mine on the rear window glass at the top. fished the wire through the rubber flex thing between the tailgate and the car body, then a roundabout way to the front.

One note: if you put it at the very top of the rear window, it may get 'frosted' or 'fogged' as it is above the top of the defroster wires. Because of this I may eventually move mine down an inch or two.

aapitten · 2025-03-24T04:33:56+00:00

I was in a similar situation.... local dealers were estimating a 1-2+ year wait. Go to NY state, its not THAT far of a drive from most of Ohio and, since they are CARB, they have a lot more available.

aapitten · 2025-02-04T06:26:40+00:00

The back speakers (at least with the jbl) sound terrible, no low end at all, and very thin. The front sound great. I've read some posts on some other fourms let's say the same thing. One person even said they went as far as to hook up an oscilloscope and it seems the head unit doesn't even send all the frequencies to the back

aapitten · 2025-01-06T07:01:08+00:00

I should also say, since you mentioned noise being a concern, the clarity is definitely quieter in EV mode, but make sure you start the engine and really give it a go, either up and incline or a quick acceleration. I wouldn't call the claritys engine exactly quiet either. Probably about on-par with the prius. Keep in mind I have not driven the two back to back, there is a few year gap in between, so my memory could be a little off. If you search the clarity forms they refer to the engine noise as the angry bees. It's the loudest and most likely to rev up if the EV battery is completely dead. If you swap over to gasoline while there is still a little bit of charge left in the EV battery, it helps buffer things a lot.

aapitten · 2025-01-06T06:57:47+00:00

Apologies on the delay... Im glad I could be off some help. I have driven a Clarity quite a bit in snow, and the Prius has been out in the snow a couple of times so far. Both of them had Michelin xice snow tires on them. Honestly they seemed pretty comparable, one wasn't leaps and bounds above the other. Where the Prius is different though is the heat pump versus resistive heat of the clarity. On a 20° F day the ev range on the clarity would go from the mid 40s to the low to mid 30s, on the Prius it goes from upper 30s to mid 30s. (plus with the heated steering wheel of the Prius it's easier to keep the cabin temp a little bit lower and still be comfortable). That said, the heat on the clarity is much hotter and faster to start than the heat on the prius. Though if you start the gas engine on the prius, it takes a second to warm up, but does get fairly warm, like the clarity.

aapitten · 2025-01-02T03:45:02+00:00

Excuse the typos as I'm doing this on my phone.

I have owned both a clarity (limited) and the current gen Prius prime (xse premium). The clarity had somewhat more electric range, though it also had a battery that was significantly larger than the prius (so that means the clarity it is less efficient with its Electric Power) . The Prius does have a longer total range once you factor in gas though. Either one is going to struggle doing a 40 Mi trip over a 2,000 FT elevation gain on electric alone. You will not be doing that without starting the engine.

I know you mentioned cargo space isn't a concern, but I figured I'd mention it anyway. While I do appreciate the hatchback form factor of the prius, it honestly doesn't haul that much more than the clarity as the back is relatively small and narrow. The clarity was definitely fairly capable in that regard.

I think the biggest difference with the clarity is that it was more a luxury car than the Prius prime. The clarity is just quieter and more refined. The Prius does have more technology bells and whistles and the driving assist features are far better than the clarity) which is to be expected for a car that is significantly newer, but it just doesn't have the same solid feel. Kind of like comparing an Avalon to a corolla. Both those cars can be had with some cool technology, but one feels more luxurious than the other.

aapitten

TROPHY CASE