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Wiped out virtually all electronics with jumper cables...

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Chabelo, Jul 24, 2022.

  1. Chabelo

    Chabelo Junior Member

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    2014 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Advanced
    I had recently installed a bumper mounted jack to plug in jumper cables easily on my pickup, Somehow, and i know better, i reversed the polarity on the amphenol hi-amp connector. Anyway, my gen 3 had a dead battery and I tried to jump it via the contact pad in the fuse box with my nifty permenant mount jumper cables.. Big spark, the horn beeped and everything died. BIG mistake.
    6 fuses blew in the fuse box, 2 30 amps, 2 10 amps 1 15 amp, 1 7.5amp and 1 5 amp.
    Now nothing works, save the key fob will make it beep, fuel door release will indicate on dash that its opened, but it doesnt pop open. There is no radio, no nav, no screen info (save it will sometimes say apply brake while hitting start button) has red trangle and check engine light no more whirring noises in engine bay.. The relays in the fuse box with the clear lids do not appear to be burned,cant tell if the opaque ones are ok or not.
    Anyway, it appears i pretty much toasted the entire elec system.

    Moral of the story- dont be lazy, climb in the back and manually open rear hatch to access battery,
     
    #1 Chabelo, Jul 24, 2022
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I'm not sure that's the moral, if the place the polarity was reversed was the hi-amp connector on your pickup used as the source. Your jump polarity would then have been just as reversed when you applied it at the battery in back is it was when you applied it at the jump terminal.

    Both the battery post and the jump point are on the same side of the 125 A DC/DC fuse in the front fusebox, so the effects wouldn't have been much different whichever place you jumped. Perhaps, connecting at the battery post, you could have hoped for the 140 A fuse in the battery clamp to have saved you, but that might be a fond hope.

    I think the moral is, if you're going to attach a convenience bumper jump connector on your pickup, take the extra time to make sure it isn't backwards. The convenience increases that way. :)
     
    #2 ChapmanF, Jul 24, 2022
    mr_guy_mann, Salamander_King and jerrymildred like this.
  3. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    This has happened many times and almost all lived to tell the story. You blew the inaccessible 125amp. But you can view it. Basically the fuse box has to come out and the top and bottom half separated.

    A couple have kludged in a 125amp bypass but it requires hacking into the white battery cable below.
    * 125a fuse visible from top.jpg
     

    Attached Files:

    #3 rjparker, Jul 25, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2022
    mmmodem likes this.
  4. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    If you know the black is ground, and you connected it to the block, and the red is positive
    and that gets connect to the connecter in the fuse box, that has a red lid you remove, its
    kinda hard to connect backward. Unless you are just no paying attention, at all.
    As rj has said, you probably blew the 125 amp fuse. Not fun to get to, but doable, and not expensive.


     
    #4 ASRDogman, Jul 25, 2022
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