Dead Prius, 3 hours away, my wife at the wheel, what to do.

Loose clamp on aux battery?

 

This does sound like a 12volt battery problem or the connections to the same. If your wife can get someone to jump start the car using great care to connect the jump leads correctly the car should go to ready. Once in ready mode the car can be driven normally even without the 12volt battery, providing it is not turned off again.

the car can be jumped from the terminal under the hood in the fuse box or directly to the 12v battery in the rear of the car. Hope this helps good luck .

John.

 

Peter,

Sounds like the 12V battery is discharged. For a definitive check, turn on one of the
overhead cabin lights. If nothing, discharged 12V for sure. As previously noted,
probably a loose wire at the battery lugs, or the smaller negative lead where it
attaches to the body.

With a new 12V, a jump start should set things aright, although the full discharge
will lead to shortened service life.

Be absolutely sure to read the Owner's Manual about about jump starting. If the
leads are reversed -- or some say even "sparked" -- it can lead to costly electronic
damage said to be up to ~$4K.

Doing the jump start yourself would be reason enough to drive the 3 hrs to rescue
your car.

 

Hi Peter. There may have been an installation error (eg loose clamp) on the battery. But alternatively there may have been some underlying issue of the battery not charging that caused the previous one to need replacing. In particular, a failed inverter coolant pump can cause this to occur once it gets too hot. So that's definitely something to check once you get it going.

 

Good point Uart but I think there would have been drive ability problems with the inverters shutting down. No lights at all suggest a complete lack of 12v supply, but it will be interesting to discover the final problem. Inconvenient as it obviously is for the OP and his wife.