Hello folks, I was a member of this forums just before the 2004's came out and it was a big factor in my buying one...I had the first one in our town. Now I'm hoping that you can help me with a problem. My daughter borrowed the Prius to drive to St. George Utah, about 5 hours from her. They ran down the battery. When they tried to jump the car (using the instructions in the manual) they were able to get the headlights and dome light working, but even with the key inserted into the slot they were unable to get the car to start. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to get the car going again? Their options are for us to drive out and get them, or for them to wait until Monday to get into the Toyota dealer.
I coworker - who had never driven a Prius rented one and thought he knew how to drive it. He stopped for lunch and when he went out to start the car he could not get it to start. After about 45 minutes with no success he finally remembered that he had to have his foot firmly on the brake in order to start the car. Many people who do not drive a Prius never depress the brake when starting their car. Is your child familiar enough with the Prius to know that she needs to have her foot firmly on the brake when starting the car? Could it be that simple? I hope so. Springtime
If your Prius is still using the original 12-volt battery, the risk of an incident was fairly high anyway. So, make sure to give her that assurance afterward. Don't let the bad experience tarnish thoughts about the car. Anywho, the 12-volt isn't even expected to last this long. 6 to 6.5 years is pushing it. Replacement should get you back on track. .
Testing for voltage, entering maintenance mode. http://priuschat.com/forums/newbie-forum/73400-weird-stuff-happening-mpgs-dropping-test-battery.html The one thing I would add, one only has to turn from 'off' to to the parking light indicator (three times) , (which avoids headlight bulb stress) , I just tested this . I found method this easier than finding the 'hidden spots' on the mfd.
So far they haven't been able to find a place in St. George on a Sunday that sells that type of battery. So at this point the plan is to take it to the Toyota dealer Monday morning. It's unfortunate that both she and her friend will have to miss school but I guess that's life. Thanks for the help folks.
We happened to stop in St. George on our trip out west a few years ago and our 05 Prius needed an oil change, we had good experience with the Toyota dealer there, hope you do too.
Did they drain only the 12V battery? If that were so they should have been able to start the car during a jump. But if they ran out of gas and kept driving until they drained the traction battery, that requires Toyota service to recharge; it cannot be jump started.
If your stop was a few years ago, the dealer was Stanger. It is now Stephen Wade. I hope you have a good experience. By the way, there are many worse places to be stranded than St. George. Enjoy your stay.
I was thinking the same thing Richard. Cathy, do you have any more details of the exact manner in which the battery was discharged?
btw... sometimes the car throws errors and won't shift when it comes back from a dead 12v battery state. i was testing the dead battery scenario with jump starts for a couple months. i currently use a jump pack permanently mounted instead of the 12v battery. it causes reduced mpg.. but that's beside the point... sometimes when you're getting "jumped".. you have to let it sit for a few minutes to bring your 12v battery voltage up.. and then sometimes you need to "power cycle" it a few times to get things functioning. and off topic.. if you jump another car with your prius (in ready mode), you have to let it sit for a good 5 to 10 mins to it trickle charges their 12v... although, the prius has soooo much available power available (when in ready mode), you can trickle charge a bus in 10 minutes, if you wanted to. (i've done this... )
Yes, I concur that the prius is weird. Unlike most cars that will either start or not start, the prius often gets into states where the battery has enough power to power some but not all computers, so electronics are often in weird states. So the battery may not be fully charged. I also agree that after power loss sometimes you have to restart the prius a few times before the big red triangle warning light goes off. Pressing the park button helped in my case, although that was probably because I had disconnected the park button previously. The biggest thing is just to be persistent and keep trying; many times I've thought my Prius wouldn't charge but I just had to keep trying restarting and charging and it worked.
