2005 Prius died while driving and was towed

richard schumacher · Nov 9, 2010

Agreed. Do you use the radio or other accessories with the car in ACC or IG-ON (that is, not READY)? That'll kill the battery quickly. Do you always lock the car when leaving it? When trying to lock it it will give a long warning beep if any of the common battery draining conditions exist. Do you turn the headlights off manually, or do you rely on them shutting themselves off?

PoutyPrius · Nov 11, 2010

The most common thing I do that drains the battery, when the battery is still young, is leave the hatch open. There is a weird zone in my Prius (maybe others) where the hatch is closed just enough to register the doors are all closed but can still be closed further, so it helps to apply extra force when closing the hatch. But no, I don't use accessories when the car is off. And I don't lock the car, I park in my garage. The only time I get the long beep is when I try to lock it and a door is slightly ajar.

The other guilty thing I do is run the fans in the middle of the summer while refueling to keep the passengers from passing out. Kind of a necessity when the ambient temperature is close to that of Mars.

PoutyPrius · Nov 11, 2010

Sorry about the delay. I checked my receipt from Avondale Toyota (not where she was purchased) 30 months ago, and she had about 45k miles on her. Now she has 90k, so, in my amateur opinion, 45k mi in 30 months in the heat you understand all to well, I'm sure, was pretty good. I could be wrong, but I am not offended at all in the battery's performance. 45k, 30 months. Not as good as my last car, who's original battery lasted 60+ months in the Tucson heat. I did call around, but that was kind of pointless since I didn't have a working car to go get the battery even if I tried to price match. I didn't have another car to jump from. I followed advice of others around here and got the Optima battery.

The replacement battery 30 months ago from Avondale Toyota was the same price as the one you mentioned below 30 months ago, but now was much higher. The funny thing...is that after replacing the battery with the Optima...I still went back to Avondale Toyota (after I installed my yellow top) to complain about something they had done improperly previously (didn't some bolts). To their credit, they took care of the issue in the drop off bay, then they saw the old battery in my hatch and offered to dispose of it. That's nice, because I would have pitched it through their front window like the old lady in the Discount Tire ads does.

Thanks for your help though. After replacing my own battery, being as I couldn't find one locally and the dealers wanted too much, I don't think I'll ever have someone else do it again.

Patrick Wong said: ↑

How many miles does the car have now, and how many were driven over the past 30 months?

Last fall I bought a 12V battery for my 2004 from Precision Toyota, Tucson for $138.70 plus tax. That price is MSRP, no discount was applied. The part number is 28800-21170. The original equipment battery was still good but I replaced it as a preventive maintenance measure.

If you live in an area where you have multiple Toyota dealers to select from, you may find that parts prices will vary sufficiently so that you'll save some money if you call around.
Click to expand...

Hal W · Nov 11, 2010

Just curious, but do these yellow top battery's give longer life? Are they more expensive? Is it worth it? H

jdenenberg · Nov 11, 2010

You will get varying opinions on the Optima yellow top batteries. They have a little more capacity than the OE and should handle deep discharges better as well.

JeffD

richard schumacher · Nov 14, 2010

PoutyPrius said: ↑

And I don't lock the car, I park in my garage.
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I also park in a garage. Always locking the car has twice saved me from a dead battery.

qbee42 · Nov 14, 2010

richard schumacher said: ↑

I park in a garage also. Always locking it has twice saved me from a dead battery.
Click to expand...

This is really good advice. I live in an area where there is no need to lock anything, least of all your car in the garage. I never used to lock any of my previous vehicles, but I lock my Prius every time. First, it is easy to do. Second, it helps ensure that all the doors are shut and the car powered down. It's saved me more than once.

Tom

whodat · Nov 16, 2010

Similiar circumstances happened on my 2006 Prius. Dealer could not find anything wrong.
I've since replaced the 12V aux battery and everything seems fine.
Dave

PoutyPrius said: ↑

My 2005 Prius died today, and I was wondering if someone could tell me any potential causes, so that I can prepare myself for the worst when I call the dealership tomorrow. While driving, the speed went blank, and the car lost power. It had to be towed.

When I started my Prius this morning, the touch-screen display said "Problem" in a strip across the top. The background remained green, none of the regular display came on. On the speedometer panel, the ! inside the triangle came on, but so did the normal things, like 0 for the speed, the gears, etc. I turned off the car, turned it back on, and was greeted with a normal start, no errors. The only odd thing was that the area that shows PNDR etc was missing horizontal lines, like the power was not fully on. I backed out of the driveway, and was not able to achieve speed or power once I had left my street. While driving, the number on the speedometer went blank and I lost all power. I was able to just barely pull off the road. I put the car in to park, and lost all power.

I called Toyota Roadside, but I was 15k mile out of the 36k courtesy. My insurance company dispatched for a jump. After the jump, the car was turned on, and the check engine light and the exclamation sign in the triangle came up on the speedometer display part, and the car with the exclamation sign came up on the touch-screen. However, I could not put the car in to reverse or drive, only neutral. Again, the 0 of my speed went blank, and the car died. Eventually they sent a tow-truck, and I said good-bye. I also gave the Prius the finger. I am tired of its crap.

I've been having, what I think, are electrical problems since the first month of ownership in 2005. Though, today was the first day it had no power and died while driving. Often, the car would be dead in the morning, after daily driving, without having left it on, doors open, etc. I swore up and down to the dealer that the car would power on when it was off, all by itself. Sometimes the wipers would be up, even with the wand in the off position.

And no, I didn't accidentally hit the wand getting out of the car. The car alarm would activate while driving, and I came to dread parking lots because people thought I was honking at them. The dealer would tell me they were not able to reproduce the problem. Two years later, I have proof of some things though; I filmed my car flashing lights with the wipers on, while the car is powered off. Caught in the act. The only time I intentionally run down the accessory battery was when I installed an XM Inno2. I did not disconnect the accessory battery and left the doors open while I pulled out all the interior trim. It took a jump just fine, I drove around the block, and no problems.

I've heard about a problem with running out of gas while driving, but I drove around 80 miles after filling up last Monday. Fairly certain that the gas was still in the car, even though it turns itself on when no-one is looking.
I was wondering if the problems I described are easily figured out and repaired. The car was purchased new in 7/05, and I have the LCA warranty on it until 2011.
Thank you,
Sara
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dkahl · Nov 16, 2010

This happened to me this evening (the dying while driving part)! I'm hoping it's just the battery. You guys made me feel so much better! Thanks for sharing your stories!

richard schumacher · Nov 16, 2010

Well, dang: it looks like I haven't yet posted to this thread the canonical check-the-battery-yourself-it's-really-easy instructions:

http://priuschat.com/forums/newbie-forum/73400-weird-stuff-happening-mpgs-dropping-test-battery.html

S0CalGuy · Nov 18, 2010

Not saying it's the problem, but I see alot of the same people replying for these dead battery threads (which is great - sharing your knowledge), be it the hybrid or 12v, and I thought it might be helpful to mention that there are many hybrid battery replacments on ebay now for less than $1k. I'm contacting re-involt too to see what they charge for a phev conversion that gets 100mpg+. That would be cool!! Anyone know where the best place to go for is for such a conversion?
Thanks.

dkahl · Nov 18, 2010

So, I'm told bad gas (mostly water) caused my shut down. The battery checked out fine (although I should probably consider replacing it anyway).

SoCalGuy, may want to check out autobeyours.com. I don't know if he does exactly what you want, but he does some cool stuff, and he's a great guy!

richard schumacher · Nov 22, 2010

Take the diagnostic bill to the place that sold you the bad gas and ask them to pay it.

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