Prius needs jump start, too often.

was it hamster poop?

 

no, not unless that furry dude was about 3 feet tall! It was BIG poo-poo.

 

Great news...but,
has someone fully charged the battery?
(And, isn't the body ECU supposed to shut off the dome light after 20 minutes?)

 

AND....your battery is STILL 5 years old.
Even if it wasn't the cause of the problem this time, it likely soon WILL BE because letting them go flat causes premature aging.

 

We are often driving only every second, third, even fourth day, and starting on any driveless day i hook up a CTEK 4.3, and it stays on until the next time we drive. A bit extreme maybe. It's the kind of charger you can leave on indefinitely.

 

Maybe, but two dealers have tested it a total of three times. They could have tried to make money by selling him a new one, but chose to report it as good. My car is on its original 8-year-old 12V battery and has no sign of trouble, despite accidentally draining it flat twice two years ago. I don't tickle charge it, and often go days between driving it, especially the past winter, when it was driven more like once per week.

 

Living where it never gets REALLY hot.....or only stays there for a few hours.....will give it a few years of extra life.
But you are on the edge at 8 years even with that.

Mr. Murphy says that when it DOES fail, it likely will be at the most inconvenient time.

 

Consider this: Leaving it connected to a battery tender ALL THE TIME will likely result in it always starting right up every day when first leaving the safety and comfort of your garage........even after the battery is almost totally gone.
Then you drive somewhere, take an hour to eat lunch or buy groceries and come back out to find it DEAD.

While that sounds like a good thing to do, it often is NOT in the long run.

My "road car", also a hybrid, sits unused sometimes for 6 weeks in a row.
I connect the tender every 3 weeks or so long enough for the green light to come on.......and then disconnect it again.

 

My car is actually a California car. It spent its first 6 years between Southern CA and the Bay Area, plus another summer in New England. I know the warning signs. I'll change it when it gets to the point that it gives me trouble starting up after sitting a long time, which is the most likely scenario based on my experience with it so far. In that case, it would be very convenient, since it would be sitting in my garage, and I have another car to drive. It will die at some point, and I'm happy to see how long it lasts without binning it prematurely.

 

Well it's an ongoing science/chemistry experiment for me. Coming up on 3 years young. It's an Optima Yellow Top, CCA heavy and amp hours light, I've heard. I checked it the other morning (before connecting charger, and after the car had been for a good drive, with a Solar BA5. The voltage was around 12.65 (a little low for that battery style), and the CCA was over 600 (it's rated 450).

It's a consumable, and if I run it into the ground in another year or two, I'll replace with a Canadian Tire Motomaster next time around:



Automotive | Canadian Tire

Geesh, the price on these is climbing; it was under $200 (CDN) last time I looked, a couple of years back I guess. I'm not sure who's making the CT battery, at one time I was think it was a rebadged:

Exide FP-AGM51JIS

But I'm not really sure, think I found some other clues more recently.

 

Several owners on here seem to be happy with that choice.

Regardless of what you get, make SURE that it is fully charged before installing it.

 

I would wait on installing a new one till you know that the parasitic drain is really fixed. Wouldn't want to drain flat a brand new battery.