So I've been trying to figure out what's going on with my 1st gen (2002) prius and after 2 days, I'm not having much luck. Here's what's happened... For about a month or 2, I've been having problems with my battery intermittently dying. Sometimes sitting for a couple days, other times just sitting over night. Because I haven't had the money to purchase a new one; however, I've been able to easily jump it. It wouldn't even need to charge, I could immediately start it after connecting the cables and not have any more problems... I recently drove up from California to Idaho with my parents. They hauled it part of the way on a trailer and then we parked it at their house. When we were backing the car off the trailer it stalled out and the red triangle came on, because the electric motor wasn't strong enough to move over the snow. I turned it off, waited a few seconds and then turned it back on. Started up and was able to drive it. Then i parked it for about 5 days and went to go start it. It would start fine, but the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) would stall out after about 20 seconds (which a lot of people have described in their sticky throttle problems). Finally i just turned the heater on to keep the engine running and put it in drive, worked fine. I pulled it into the garage to pack up some stuff before I started the trip back to California. I assumed being inside and a little warmer also help the car start. I let it set overnight before I went to leave. When i went to start it up again, the batter was dead (i figured it would be). I put a slow charge on it (2amp) and waited for it to charge back up. Went to start it up, powered on, console came on, Ready light came on and but when the ICE tries to start, but then doesn't catch...The best way I could describe it is kinda like when the starter in a traditional car doesn't fully engage the engine, unfortunately with a hybrid I can't keep trying to turn it over. I'm thinking the engine may not be firing since it doesn't start up... In my attempts to start the car, I've seen a couple of different things: 1) Everything goes normal until the ICE goes to engage, fails, the red triangle comes on, check engine light. 2) Ready light comes on, ICE does not attempt to start, and ALL lights in the dash console come on. 3) The Ready light flashes 2 or 3 times and then nothing. 4) The ready light comes on, makes a loud clicking noise, then nothing and the triangle, check engine, turtle lights come on. I'm really at a lost of what to do. The 12v battery is ok and charged, the throttle appears to be ok...I just need to get the ICE to fire because I'm confident I can keep it going and getting running fine. I used a battery tester and it all came back ok. Any advice or direction or anything would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks to anyone who can help!
I'd still be suspicious of the 12V battery. You might try a voltmeter attached during the starting attempts. The battery might look ok when not drawing a load, but fail with the startup load. Maybe something is drawing an unusually high load during the starting process.
What is the age of the 12V battery, if you bought the Prius used you may not know????? Just checking with a multi-meter is good but not sufficient, it would need a load test. Most auto shops don't have the time or money for load tests so they just throw a new battery in, should you do the same that will eliminate that unknown.
I just put in a new 12v battery (from toyota) and I'm still getting the exact same thing. Powers up, but fails to start the internal combustion engine. Have no idea what the problem is...and I can't start it to take it the dealer...
