UPDATE: Sight unseen '05

congrats! never heard of that happening. only thing i can think of is the 12 volt battery.

 

You'll find that at PriusChat we blame everything on the 12V battery

Some cars will disable the cruise control if a brake switch failure has been detected. It's possible that there was some brake switch bounce when you were doing the drive up thing. This should clear itself after the car is shut down and restarted.
OT: I had a BMW 528e that had a panel of system check lights. Its glitch was that it would light the brake circuit failure light any time I used the cruise control. The cruise control worked and the brake lights worked but it made the system status panel nervous apparently.

 

Yeah, yesterday a friend of mine was having trouble streaming his netflix movie. I blamed the 12 volt battery. He doesn't even own a Prius.

Man, I've owned my Prius just over a month and I just broke 1200 miles, and I've been driving more than I normally do...a few frivolous road trips I wouldn't normally take. A 1000 miles a week?

Maybe I don't get out enough.

 

Dirty hybrid cooling fan has been known to cause cruise control issues.

 

Several post with pictures and instructions on how to clean the fan. Its something I suggest you do. Who knows if the prior owner had dogs that shed.

 

Did you leave the car in neutral? This is a no no for the Prius. Neutral is the only state that the car cannot look after the state of charge of either battery (the 12 volt and the HV battery). In neutral the engine cannot start automatically if needed to charge the HV battery this in turn charges the 12v battery and runs the AC. So no stopping in neutral, no using neutral in pull through car washes. If you need to leave the car in ready use park.

John (Britprius)

 

One other thing to check, "but I do not think this is your problem" check the level of coolant in the inverter coolant tank and also with the car in ready check for fluid movement "turbulence" in the tank. If the inverter is overheating the Prius shuts down some systems to prevent failure. They are:- CC, AC, and DC to DC converter (12 volt battery charging). Worth checking.

John (Britprius)

 

Don't want to open a can of worms here, but my understanding is in the majority of conveyor belt car wash's you don't really have a choice but to use neutral.

The conveyor belt pulls the vehicle through, so you need the vehicle in neutral otherwise it's going to be a problem. That's why at most car wash's the instructions are "Car in Neutral, No Brakes".

You are absolutely right about the vehicle not being able to charge the battery in neutral, and there is even a long thread where someone was in a car wash with a low state of charge on their battery and The Prius put itself in park to protect the battery. But the general consensus is that the battery has to be dangerously low and as long as you have a decent charge on the battery, entering the car wash and using neutral is fine.

But I think if you try to go through most conveyor belt car wash's in either Park or Drive, you are asking for trouble. Park and the wheels won't turn which is a No No in most car wash's, and exactly why the instructions for normal cars are to remain in neutral and NOT brake. And drive would demand you keep your foot on the brake or emergency brake otherwise the vehicle creep would have the vehicle going forward in the car wash under it's own motivation.

No I think specifically for conveyor belt car wash's the protocol is make sure your battery has a decent state of charge when you enter but DO use neutral.

 

FWIW, I think the above is the correct way if one is going to use a pull through car wash. One other thing that I recommend along with making sure you have a decent SOC (minimum 5 blue bars) would be to power down excessive electrical loads (A/C Compressor, Headlights, etc.) and also adjust the fan speed to the lowest setting or off.

I do recall one instance where as I entered a car wash with a pull through and left the A/C running in Auto Mode on a hot day. Before I was able to get through the wash, the red triangle lit and the MFD showed the all to familiar warning about engaging P to allow the battery to charge. What I did was simply power down all loads at that point and let the alarm sound off as it was only a few feet until I was able to exit the wash. Once I shifted to D, the ICE fired up and the traction battery began to recharge. Since then, as long as I entered with a decent SOC and adjusted electrical loads, I have not had any more problems.

I don't recommend those type of car washes are they are rather rough on the finish, but if the car is excessively dirty with a lot of bugs, road grime and what have you they can be beneficial at times.

Ron

 

Very strange. The AC compressor runs off of the HV battery--only the blower would be any significant drain on the 12V battery.

 

Considering that the blower is powered by the 12 volt one needs to consider that the 12 volt is recharged by the DC to DC converter which is powered by the traction battery IIRC.

 

Sure, but two minutes running the blower off of an unsupported 12V shouldn't bring it to its knees!

 

FWIW, a electric load is a electric load. Since we all know that the traction battery will not recharge when the Prius is in Neutral (N) it would be logical to eliminate as much load as possible. I haven't measured the actual wattage of the fan motor, however it is logical to think that by lowering the speed of the fan motor or even turning it off will in fact reduce power demands. Furthermore, I don't know of any conveyor type car wash that can pull you through in two minutes.

 

I do know and understand how the pull through car washes work "we do have some in the UK" but they are problematic for the Prius. Personally I avoid all automatic car washes preferring to wash the car myself or to use a hand wash.

Unfortunately the load on the 12 volt battery with only the car made ready and no other electrical load whatsoever is about 12 amps. This is not to much for a good battery but for a battery that is marginal this could be enough to discharge it.

The AC can load the HV battery to around 3kw and a discharged 12volt can add another 0.75kw load. This will rapidly discharge the HV battery.

John (Britprius)

 

Just sayin' the advice to NOT use neutral in a pull through car wash was incorrect. Use Neutral...it's necessary. Just make sure your battery is decently charged.

I think "Park" or "Drive" in a conveyor belt pull through car wash could be very dangerous. Here or in the UK.