Emergency (Hot Dam* *t)

Open the hood.

Take the cover off the fuse box.

Find the red flip cover at the top of the fuse box and flip it up to reveal the jump terminal.

Attach the red lead of your jump pack there.

Attach the black lead of your jump pack to some nearby car metal (I use the cover bolts on the silvery inverter box that's right next to the fuse box).

Start the Prius.

Undo the previous steps.

 

So.......what would cause that to happen ?
Some people leave their's like that overnight.....and fairly often.

1) A total failure in the 12 V electrical system, causing the battery to be depleted.
2) The engine runs out of gas.......and then the battery is discharged.

In either case, there might NOT be a quick fix.
And since the original post was 5 hours ago, he probably has done something already.
Hope he reports back.

 

No, they don't leave the engine off. They leave the ignition in READY so that the engine can run as needed to charge the traction battery, and the traction battery can charge the 12V system.

If not in READY, then the engine is off and can't use any gas. The 12V battery can deplete quickly.

 

He said: "with the engine off but the car on."
I guess that none of us knows what he is REALLY trying to say with that......because that combination really isn't possible under normal conditions.

 

If there's a chance that by "on" he meant "on", the condition named in the owner's manual that you reach with two button presses and no brake, then the engine would not have been running, the traction battery would have been disconnected, and the 12 volt battery would have drained.

 

His Liftback power (ignition) switch can be OFF, ACCESSORY, ON, or READY. He pretty clearly described ON, not READY. From the 2011 Prius Liftback Owner's Manual:

 

I'll concede that not everybody on PriusChat memorizes the details of the different Prius power states, and so not every poster who says "on" turns out to really mean "ON".

But when they haven't given much else to go on, at least we can't rule out that by "on" they meant "on".

 

Jump start needed, followed by protracted drive, then charge session and/or replacement (if charging doesn’t do it).

 

... and I just have to read "engine off" as indicating "not in READY mode". Especially after reading his other post about doing some work in the car before falling asleep, and not having the engine cycling on for battery charging during that work.

 

Let's be real, it was incredibly easy to infer what OP meant and most of us understood. It's funny when someone generalizes while they really are referring to just themselves.

 

Did you intend that as a reply to fuzzy1? It looks like fuzzy inferred the same thing "most of us" did, and for about the same reasons.

 

No, likely that he was referring to ME.
And it might be a fair statement EXCEPT......
How many "average Prius owners" really know that there is an ON mode that is different from READY ?
My guess is 20% or less. Maybe a LOT less.

 

While the portion may initially be low, it begins climbing rapidly as they move through the newbie teething problems, such as the car getting turned ON but refusing to actually start and move.

 

Agree to disagree.
I think most will NEVER know any more than they learn in the first week or so.

I have ownerd 4 Prii over about 7 years and I DO read the owners manuals......at least somewhat......
and I was unaware of the real "ON" mode.

Then......just for grins, if you added up ALL of the Prius owners who participate in a forum like this, what percentage of the total owners do you guess that might be ??
My guess is 1% or less. Maybe .1%

 

I can understand that for a short timer or an infrequent poster, but am perplexed how someone making over 8,000 posts over more than 5 years could have missed all the many discussions of it.

Total U.S. Prius sales have been on the order of 2,200,000 units. Total PriusChat signups have been 172,443.