Cannot start 2010 Prius after 3 weeks vacation

I'd start at p 530 in the manual, it has a step by step. It could be the 12v, or one of the conditions in the manual.

 

See if your headlights turn-on! This is a quick check on your 12v battery. Also, if you have a DC volt meter, lift the hood and place the meter on the 12v battery test point(+ has a red cap over it) and ground.

 

Regarding what you should see with a volt meter hooked up:

About 2/3 down the page here:

The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)

Is a table of voltage readings, and how that corresponds to battery's state of health. Temperature will affect readings, but with resonable ambient temps, not by much. Also, if you've just attempted charging the voltage will show abnormally high.

A full charged battery should read 12.6 volt, or higher. If you're down around 12.0 you likely have a problem.

You can look into chargers, to try to bring it back. I'd suggest a relatively low amp charger left on overnight, for one~two nights. I have a 6 amp traditional auto-charger, but recently have been relying on a CTEK Multi US 3300:

Battery Chargers | CTEK Battery Chargers

 

same problem with my 5 month old 2010.. sat for a week, totally dead. nothing..

jumped from my dually to get the back hatch open to trickle charge..
dealer says to start it once a week.. as if!..
when I travel for over a week, it better start when I get home at 2am.

their answer was to have it towed without charging it the next time.
what BS.
Sam

 

might need fresh batteries. '10's seem to be having a lot of battery issues.

 

What would be a good/best battery replacement choice?

 

Don't you have the mechanical key on the key fob?

 

Your 12 volt battery died. It needs replacing, and you also need to keep a charger on your car if you are not going to drive it for weeks at a time. Since your current battery is shot, get an Optima, it will certainly help !

Read this thread.....
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ry-topped-off-while-you-cant-drive-weeks.html

 

As mpb stated you most likely have two manual keys as part of your two fobs, push the "push" button on the side of the fob and pull on the ring to release.

 

A lead-acid battery should only lose about 4% of its capacity a week if there is no load. So there is some Prius-specific issue here. As owners, we have only a couple of options. You can keep your vehicle attached to a quality battery maintainer when it's idle for a couple of weeks, or keep a jump-start pack in your vehicle. If you choose a jump-start pack, get a fairly large one since these are designed to provide high "cold cranking amps" but have only modest "reserve capacity". The latter is what you need to charge (re-charge) your Prius battery.

Of course, keeping your vehicle's battery fresh (replacing it) and/or upgrading to a higher performance battery (Optima) will help.

 

Yes you do have a normal key. Its part of your smartkey fob.
Use it to open your drivers side door. From there you can open the hood.

Apparently, you never bothered to read the owners manual. Owning and/or operating an automobile brings the responsibility of becoming familiar with it.

 

A jump start pack is exactly that, it is not suitable for charging a flat battery. To bring a Prius back to life the smallest of starter packs will be more than sufficient then leave the car in ready to charge the 12v.

The Optima is a very good battery, but even the best will not start the car if it is left to long.
The Optima will recover better from a deep discharge, but again the Optima will get into that condition quicker than the OEM battery as the Optima has I believe 35 amp/hr capacity while the OEM has 45 amp/hr capacity.

I use a 55 amp/hr battery in my Prius and that gives me a good safety margin but it is still not immune to the problem.

In simple terms if when turned off your car uses 1amp/day = 41.5ma/hr, not the actual figure I know.

Assuming all batteries are fully charged.

In 35 days the Optima will be dead.
In 45 days the OEM will be dead.
In 55 days the battery I am using will be dead.

Now the Optima and the battery I am using are both deep cycle batteries, but remember even though it has reached it,s design maximum discharge point at day 35 it still continues to discharge further, this shortens its life. The battery I am using will get to this point on day 55. Deep cycle batteries have a typical self discharge rate of about 3% a month I do not know the rate for the OEM.

The OEM battery will get to that point on day 45, but will already have it's life reduced because it is not a deep cycle battery.

The higher the amp/hr capacity of the battery the less it digs into it's life expectancy against a smaller amp/hr battery.

The only way round this problem is to disconnect the battery if the car is not in use for a long period and put up with resetting everything when you reconnect, or to keep the car on a suitable float charger.

 

Does someone have a link to the jumper pack and battery minder?

 

I use a Schumacher 1562A, which I bought at PepBoys. See this site:

SEM-1562A:

This charger is rather compact. You may find larger and less expensive chargers, but these may not have the built-in "intelligence" to adjust the charging rate to the battery state. So you really want to get a "maintainer".

re: jump-pack Sears, Walmart, Autozone. Advance Auto, Pepboys

 

Silly question, but should we use a solar panel in the window for extended absences? WAY back in college a friend used a solar charger because he did not drive his car for extended periods and with the electronics, alarm, etc.

 

I called the dealership with a question not related to starting. I told them I had just come back from vacation and they asked if the Prius would start. IT was not a problem since I was only gone for 5 days, but they told me this is a common problem and if I were gone for a couple of weeks I should put a small trickle charger on it.

 

If you want a Ctek, which I use 24/7 on my 4Runner for 3 years now, and I have one for the Prius, 100% trouble free! Read the first post in the following thread!

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ry-topped-off-while-you-cant-drive-weeks.html

 

The size and wattage rating would depend on how much power the car sucks on the battery in Amperage while parked. If you can equal, or better, exceed that demand, it would work fine. If you can't meet the required current draw, it would be a waste of time and money!