New prius Prime with dead 12v battery this morning

Had you included the information that you tried to start it while it was still plugged in, any number of us could have told you that that won't work without the need for a service tech to look it up in your owners manual for you. Enjoying a Prime without reading the manual is a little like driving nails with your eyes closed.

 

Actually, it would be more effective for the Toyota dealer to provide a training session on the technology in the Primes (or a DVD or link) relating to how to use all of the technology, imho. .... Unfortunately most of us probably don't have enough hours in the day to read the library of books that came with this vehicle.... They should have a Prime expert at each dealership who can walk customers through their new vehicles tech like the Volt dealership in are area does for their EV/PEV customers.....

 

They SHOULD do that. I agree. But not many do. The hybrid specialist who sold us our four Prii spent about an hour doing that with us the first time. After that, it wasn't necessary, but I have two other friend who bought from him and he did the same for them. But even so, the manual is still important. I have lots of friends who have never opened the manuals for their cars, TVs, etc. They kind of get by, but they often miss out on a lot of functionality or ease of use. Or shorten the lifespan of the device.

 

my gal spent an hour trying to get entire to work, then gave up and wished me luck

 

??? As they say on the island where I used to live, "Wha hoppin?"

 

she couldn't sync the phone, so no way to show me the features. she was clueless about the rest of the car.
when she called to say it was in, i asked her to charge it.when i got there, the engine wouldn't shut off. i asked if they had charged it, she said they didn't need to, it was fully charged, and showed me the battery icon near the top of the hv charge.
of course, i had no clue, and couldn't understand why it was running like my '08, until i got home a, read the manual and plugged it in.
she drove a sienna and said she didn't really understand why anyone would want anything else.

 

My dealer has a job posting for just such a position. Not just for Primes but to educate customers on technology across all Toyota models. I thought it might be a neat job but being I’m retired I’m not looking for a full time position.

 

technology for morons

 

Every car gen seems to up the tech ante. Somewhat analogous:

I've got a couple of DSLR's (Digital Single Lens Reflex (camera) ). The older one has a menu I can navigate and mostly understand, all in one list. The newer one has so much going on, they've resorted to a family-tree style menu, and I'm lost, pretty much every time, digging out the manual.

They're both pretty much paper-weights now, just use my cell phone, gave up.

 

Well if technology for morons means those that do NOT have any free time in their life because they are a parent ...and working full time ,,, and going to grad school... then yep, that would me.... Maybe if I was retired I could take the time to read the manuals.... but I just don't have that much time in my life right now... Hence why I came on here looking for a quick and easy answer to a question

 

nope. it means toyota tech is the worst. just speaking about entune

 

I would have to agree with that observation! + imho... The display in the Prime Premium is just too busy and tries to do too much; at least for those that find the Prime less than intuitive without a training course.... (They need to offer the equivalent to the "Genius Bar" similar to Apple .... there's too much to learn and a workshop on how to use it would be helpful!)

 

Sort of like the sales girl that sold me the Prius Prime .... she was driving some leased top of the line model SUV ... so I don't think I had the same options as hers... hence my confusion with not having the access to the remote app to start the climate control for instance... in hindsight I probably should have either splurged or went basic... the Premium just has me wanting the rest of what was partially included; while if I just chose a basic model Prime, I would have adjusted to that reality from the start and not missed the rest of the things that seem like they should be there but aren't...

 

I would enjoy a job like that!! But they haven't printed enough money yet to get me to move to the Chicago area.

 

The only thing Entune has going for it is that it's platform agnostic, that is it doesn't care what type of cell phone you have (Apple, Android, whatever...). It works equally poorly on all.

 

They only sell one or two Primes a year in all of Chicagoland.

 

My 2017 Prius Prime, which I've owned since March (almost 9 months) just did this tonight--all of a sudden, when I got in to drive it, it said "12V battery low" and the headlights wavered. By the time I'd cleared the heavy snow off the windshield, it had died. And I mean died. The HV battery would not charge (even though I know it's not fully charged)--even the power locks wouldn't work. I had to get out the manual key from the key fob in order to lock the doors overnight.

I have NO IDEA why this happened; I've had no problems before. It worked fine 3 days ago, and I always lock it when I leave it, so if I had messed up and left a door open or the lights on, I would have gotten the loud, long warning beep that's been previously mentioned.

I'll jump it from my SO's car in the morning (the manual says to run the car with the good battery for 5 min with the two connected (red to red and black to ground) before trying to start the Prius. Then I'll drive it around for a while before attempting to drive my son to his clarinet lesson 20 miles from here...

Wish me luck. Guess I'll be going back to the dealer for a new battery. And I may invest in either a backup battery jumper or a battery minder, or both. But I shouldn't NEED to. I mean, this is why I buy Toyota. My last car was a 2006 Prius (there was only one Prius then), and had no problems for 11 years and about 70K miles.

edited to add:

When I say dead, I mean *DEAD*. I can't read my OBD2 diagnostic device. Neither can I unlatch the charger from the HV battery. I set it up to charge when I still had some 12V power, and latched it, and thought I'd unlatch it since it isn't charging anyway. But it won't unlatch--it's an electric latch.

Wouldn't you think there would be some way for the giant HV battery to lend the 12V a LITTLE power in such situations--just enough to get things going? Seems kind of crazy for a plug-in to have such a problem.

 

Does the car often sit for a few days? Any modern car puts a low-but-constant demand on the 12 volt battery. If it often sit for multiple and days, especially if you couple that with short trips, the 12 volt battery will slowly go off.

That's our situation to a T by the way; I hook the car up to a "smart" 12 volt charger, any day it'll be idle, and just leave it hooked up until next use. If you're parked away from electrical outlets, on the street or whatever, that's not going to work though.

 

New member just saying hi and reading and learning. However in regards to this thread, could it have something to do with this:

This vehicle is equipped with several functions that are linked with charging. ■ “Traction Battery Heater” When the outside temperature is low and the charging cable is connected to the vehicle, this function automatically warms the hybrid battery (traction battery) until it reaches or exceeds a certain temperature. ● When the charging cable is removed from the vehicle or remains connected to the vehicle for approximately 3 days, the system automatically stops. ● When the charging timer is used (P. 147), this function will operate according to the timer settings.


Just a shot in the dark from a prius prime newbie

 

you don't leave the obd connected do you?