Battery dead, jumped, then display freakout w/check hybrid system

Hello,

My 2010 Prius sat idle, parked for 7 days while my wife and I were on vacation. When we went to pick up the car, the airport valet said that the Prius wouldn't start, and so that they'd have to jump it. I approved the jumpstart, and got into the car. We got about 1/4 a mile before the display totally freaked out, including the "check hybrid system" as well as about every warning light there is. The car was beeping, acceleration was lost and it eventually died on the side of the road. The car would not start back up.

Had it towed to the nearest dealership. Initial diag from the service manager was that the 12v battery was dead. I approved replacement of that, and also authorized clearing out "a few software alerts". Got a call later in the day from the same manager (very nice guy) and there are about 11 errors that cannot be cleared out. Now he's asking for 3-4 hours labor to "trace the wiring" as suggested by Toyota. Apparently the tech had been in touch with them all day.

Including the proprietary battery, I'm already in the hole to to the tune of 220.00 and now they're wanting hours of labor at 120.00/hr just to figure out what is wrong. Who knows how much it will cost beyond that.

My prius is a 2010 with 64k miles on it. The manager says that wiring issues are not covered under the manufacturer's warranty. Am I to sign off on hundreds of dollars of labor just to get a diagnosis? What do I do here?

Thank you - Mike

 

I should have said too that the car was working just fine before I dropped it off at the valet.

 

True enough but they "jump start Priuses all the time" and the 12v battery was indeed dead according to the dealership. It's this wiring issue that concerns me, and spending up to 700 bucks just to find out what's wrong.

 

What's the Toyota warranty coverage on the wiring harness? Isn't it 100k miles?

 

The service manager also said that they thought they saw "pet food" under the hood somewhere which is crazy. No reason for pet food to be down there. He said they have had rodents in other Priuses engines before.

 

I went ahead and agreed to pay the labor to trace the wiring, if anyone's actually reading this. **sigh**

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you're right. The service manager is the nicest guy on Earth, but yeah, I have my doubts too. I don't like this vague "can't diagnose" thing. Bizarre.

 

Definitely. Well, the manager now says that 9 circuits are damaged due to what they think was a reverse charge -- the parking valet jumped it incorrectly, he thinks. So now I'm waiting on the official diag paperwork and then I'll be going after the valet. Might have to lawyer up, go to the BBB and all that, but I'll at least give them a shot at making this right.

The car is still in the shop as of this morning. I think it's pretty jacked up. I'm staring at a 1000.00 bill right now....

 

Car's ready for pick up after a new 12v battery and 4.5 hours of labor. They had to repair/clear 9 circuits and replace a fuse in the display. 1020.00 bill. Going after the valet service. Let this be a lesson to never let anyone jump start your Prius and only do it yourself after researching how to do it.

The moron at the valet reverse jumped it. Just a total lack of common sense.

 

Yep - I do consider 1000 bucks lucky in this case. I expect the Valet to pay for 700 dollars of the repair. I'm willing to pay for the battery install and the oil change that it needed.

 

Thanks.

Yes, they may have a case, but I'm going to go at them full bore so we'll see.