Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I got into Priapus. When I shut my door, it didn't sound solid, but the indicator on the dash wasn't on so I backed out of the driveway. The milisecond I shifted into [D], the RToD came on, Priapus started yelling (solid beeping) and the MFD gave the warning something to the affect of "Find a flat surface and park. The battery will not charge when the transaxle is in Nuetral." Luckily I live on a quiet street. Slightly bewildered, I stopped in the middle of the street and punched [P]. Immediately the fanfare stopped. I opened my door, shut it, shifted into [D] and off we went. Since we were heading to the store, I duplicated the event in the parking lot. It's the weirdest thing. The door was slightly ajar and the MFD is telling me about charging the battery?! Not only that, but only when in [D]?! What's up with that?
Yep, that's what happens when the drivers door is not completely closed. It scared me the first time it happened too. I don't know why it dosen't do it in reverse but as soon as you put it in drive the bells and alarms go off big time.
They used the same warning message for driving with the door open as in opening the door in neutral. Part of the warning is correct for both senarios; you shouldn't leave the car without it being in park, but the danger is different in leaving the car in D and leaving the car in N. The former would cause the car to drive off, the 2nd would allow the car to gravity roll, and not be able to maintain the HV battery.
Tony: I thought you were in a usual joking mood and BSing so I thought i'd try it myself. Whoa the car does NOT want you to be in Drive with the driver door even slightly ajar! The only thing more wild would have been a Star Trek Red Alert siren going off and flashing red lights in the cabin. Maybe Toyota will introduce that with the next version, along with waterproof driver seat bottom cushion - for obvious reasons. Jay
Guess this is a new thing, I tried it in my '02 and I just get a flashing light that the door is open - that is all - car runs fine.
This happened to me the morning of a road trip. I drove it to the local dealer, who after two hours, failed to identify the problem, cleared other codes relating to my walking away from the car in ready mode with SK/SS on, and sent me on my way. Then I read about it here and regained my peace of mind.
Ah, I've seen that a couple times. I never made the connection that it was b/c the door was ajar. I usually see it at the car wash (where they drive it around with the door ajar) and I always thought it was b/c they left it in neutral and the battery was drained a bit and spitting out weird error messages. Nice to have that mystery solved.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyBuild\";p=\"104872)</div> How do you mean? Is there a thread or something with all known issues?
:? My most recent "discovery" was: Prius says: "No, Charles, you can't open the hatch with your Prius in READY and PARK condition." As in picking up a passenger at the airport arrival curb and trying to open the hatch to load luggage. Had to shut Prius down completely, then re-start after loading luggage. Hmmmm... Wonder how many months, years, miles will pass before I quit learning new Prius peculiarities?
How do you mean? Is there a thread or something with all known issues?[/b][/quote]I thought I saw a thread with a similar heading in knowledge base. I may be wrong.
Now that you mention it, I think I have seen that before. The KB area for that seems a bit sparse, which is probably why I forgot about it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ryogajyc\";p=\"104407)</div> The first time this happened to me, it scared the daylight out of me. I even called roadside assistance because I must have pressed too many combination of buttons. I thought the car would never start again.
Hehe, I think the first time I saw it was because I drained the accessory battery by putting the car in ACC and sitting in it using a portable DVD player powered of the accessory outlet. I got some wrong idea that in ACC mode the car would recharge the battery (learned that later from the Toyota dealership when I brought it in to check out the error). My first thought was it probably won't let me drive it if it's an issue, otherwise, just restart the car and try to clear the thing and drive away and take it into a dealer when I got home (I was about 200 mi from home). When I took it into Thousand Oaks Toyota, they figured I let the battery drain, but just as a safety precaution they replaced two ECUs at no cost... Interesting service, IMO. Preventative and at no cost for a couple undoubtably expensive parts, but I'm kind of wondering was it really necessary. Anyhow, I do like TO Toyota for those who are looking for a good dealer in the area.
Now I think this why someone suggested to have your location in your avatar. This dealer sounds so great, now where are they?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Green4Life\";p=\"105177)</div> Thousand Oaks is in the Los Angeles area correct?
My location is in my "avatar" isn't it? I don't think that box on the left of my post is technically my avatar. I think avatar is just the optional picture, one of which I do not have. Thousand Oaks, CA and sort of. It's actually in Ventura County not Los Angeles County, so it's maybe 15 mi from what I would consider the Los Angeles area.
FYI: Car will stay in ACC mode only about an hour, after it auto-shuts off. I'll have to check about the hatch. If all doors are unlocked, then the hatch should be openable even in READY, though I could understand if the latch was disabled when not in park. I would also understand if SKS unlock is disabled while in READY. However, if you unlock all doors, either with the inside lock switch, or pressing the unlock on the fob TWICE, it should be able to be opened.
OK, Experiment done. Since I have SKS set to open all doors, I used the fob to unlock only the driver door, then went in and put the car in READY. Hatch will not open. Interesting to note, the SKS still triggered the fob to transmit. Tried unlocking all doors with the fob, aparently fob lock/unlock function is disabled in READY, as the car was unresponsive to either. OK, powered down, locked all doors, used fob to unlock all doors (pressing unlock twice). Then put the car in READY. Hatch could open. Conclusion: if the rear doors are unlocked electrically, then the hatch can be opened. If the rear doors are locked, or were unlocked manually, hatch cannot be opened. The fact that the hatch would not open in READY mode was incidental to the fact that fob function was disabled, and hatch had remained in locked mode. If you have SKS set to only unlock the driver door, rear doors and hatch remain locked. The hatch doesn't have a physical lock like the other doors, but is locked by disabling the latch pad.
