Help!! My Prius 2 won't start!!

Hi Jim. The dome lights (Where's the dome? They are lights in the ceiling!) do shut off automatically, as does the sound system. The truly amazing hole is that the little light for the cargo area DOES NOT SHUT OFF if the hatchback is left ajar perchance. I just turned it off at it's switch so I don't have to worry.

 

And BEWARE. Be careful removing the cover. I didn't know how many hold-down clasps there were (can't see them all at a glance), and when I prematurely pulled up too hard, I broke the cover. Not just cracked; broke one corner clean off.

How much to replace this relatively simple piece of black plastic? Would you believe $83 at your friendly Toyota dealer?

I tied mine back on with string until I can get one off a wrecked Prius.

 

Bill,

Thanks for the heads up on the rear hatch light. I think I will shut off ours.

I see that you are from Portland too. I saw a picture of your car a few days ago. Was that taken at Seaside? That is where we are right now

/Jim

 

Just this afternoon I wrestled the red positive terminal cover off
my aux-battery assembly for the last time, after which I cut out
the latch parts that click down over tabs on the black piece so they
don't actually lock anymore ... the one tab left on the top is
quite enough to hold the assembly together, and it's a heckuvalot
easier to get off and expose the + terminal now! I know that the
jump terminal in the under-hood relay box is the "correct" way to
do it, but a few nights ago I happened to be positioned next to
another Prius with the intent of jumping it that connecting in
the back would have been the right way to do it. By the time I
had fumbled that goddamn cover off and unsnarled the jump cables,
the other Prius' battery had bounced back just enough to let it
boot, so I didn't have to hook up after all, but that brought home
once again how difficult they've made that cover to remove.
.
What I *should* do is make a clip-leads interface that plugs into
the Anderson connector I've paralleled off the battery for a UPS,
and not have to *clip* onto anything on my end.

_H*

 

Thanks. I've now found it in the "UK" manual (it uses American vocabulary so is probably the same as yours). I clearly made a serious boob by not looking through the manual properly when my battery was flat. I was anxious to get started, skipped too many pages, and missed the pages headed "Emergency".
But I've learnt a lot from this battery trouble, thanks to PriusChat contributors!

 

I bought my 2006 Prius on 12/8. I went out of town for about 2 weeks, and the car sat in my garage. When I returned, I had no problem starting the car. I used the car for five days from 12/20 to 12/24. Then I went out of town again, leaving the car in my garage for 2 days. I returned on 12/27 to a DEAD car! This is absurd! I called the sales guy, who will be badly dinged by me now in the customer sat survey. The sales guy said I must've left something on. It is possible that I left one of the interior dome lights on. AAA came to jumpstart the car, applying cables to the battery under the hood. We got the car on, and saw that the battery shown on the display had 5 or so blue bars, so that battery appears well-charged. I'm reading these postings and have learned that there are two batteries -- a 12V one and another one under the rear seat. Is the 12V battery used to start the vehicle? Could leaving an interior light on for 2 days drain the 12V battery such that the car won't start? What is the best solution to prevent this problem from re-occurring, especially when I'm some place other than my home? What about leaving in my garage some battery that I can use to jump start the car? This won't prevent a re-occurrence but it will help to quickly address the problem. Of course this won't help me if I'm away from home.

 

The "battery shown in the display" is the hybrid battery and is not the problem that you had. The battery used to start the car (and the electronics) is a small 12V battery. If you left the lights on, that is the one that you discharged.

You might want to get a "portable battery" kit with jumper cables to start the battery if it dies at home. Away from home... you can either carry jumper cables, or call AAA... or I guess that you can carry your "portable battery kit".

/Jim

 

Buy a small gel battery, 7AH, permanently plug in into right front dash cigar lighter, will stay charged forever! Cost: < $20.00. Use as jumper to initiate computer operation, to Power up Prius. On access cover under hood, I took some strong nylon tape and covered the plastics clips to inhibit the complete closing, works great, no anger, no broken clips.

 

Leaving the rear hatch ajar is an easy way to drain the 12V battery because the hatch light does not shut itself off. However, if you try to lock the car with the hatch ajar, the car will complain at you and save you from a drained battery.

 

Yep, you got me there DanMan, too much eggnog behind that post.
I intended to say 750 WATT inverter. It's a vector Maxx sst 700
watt actually, fused at 30 amps x3, 1400 watt peak, I would use
it only to run a small drill, or small tv and sat receiver. I used it with my
old truck once when we lost power and I wanted to power the 27 inch tv
and watch Dish Network. I would let it run about 20 minutes before I got
nervous and started the truck for a while.
Since I heated the house with gas, and had candles for light,
the inverter was ideal. I just patched it into the surge protector
behind the entertainment center. I might use it at a campground
in the summer, sit outside and watch an lcd tv and sat receiver.
I may use the dish, or since I have a PVR/DVR I have recordings
on the hard drive if I can't hit the satellite from a particular location.
Also, nice for dvd player too.

I want some emergency short term
inverter power in the car, and I think the Prius can handle this with light use.
It's filtered modified square wave and pretty clean, and runs items well
which have switching power supplies. One has to be carefull
about running conventional transformer power supply items because
of the longer peak on the square wave.
The inverter works exceptionally well for
the money.
No more than 79 bucks at various places.

Rod

 

That is why I always lock the car, even in my garage. Then I know everything is a-ok. Good tip Richard (I think it may be in the users manual too- the Prius is out at a hockey game right now, so I can't check that).

 

When I jumped my Prius this week, I THOUGHT the fuse box was going to be difficult to open because the molding for the latches looks really complicated.

Yet, all I did was squeeze the side of the cover and it lifted right off. I mean, I was actually suprized at how simple it was. I'm not sure what problems you others are having with it, but it surely was not at all 'difficult" to remove or replace.

 

We probably all tried everything but squeezing

 

It's true: Japanese are smarter than European Americans.

 

After reading your post I went out and squeezed that cover for 10 minutes. All I got was cold hands. Where and how did you squeeze?
Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

The discussion on this is now partly on today's topic: "How do you get the fuse box cover off, to find jump terminal in a hurry?"

The latest instruction by KMO sounds like the right answer but I'll try it in the morning as it's now dark and 30F outside.

 

Re: Help!! My Prius 2 won't start!!

I have had three occasions over two years when my Prius battery drained and I could not start my car.

The first time, I was waiting in the parking lot for someone, listening to the radio, for about 30 minutes, with the car off otherwise. Apparently that was enough to drain the battery. A jump start worked right away.

The second time, I sat in my car at a beautiful park in the spring to eat lunch. No radio, nothing on at all. However, I had just stopped and turned off everything, but I had not gotten out. An hour or so later, the car battery was dead. Another jump start worked well.

The third time, the car was parked in my garage overnight. Everything was off - even every light. However, I had accidently left the smart key in the car. I have noticed that when the smart key is in the car, and the car is off, the security key light on the dash flashes. So I think the smartkey left in the car drains the battery even when everything else is off.

Has anyone else observed this?

I have never had the battery go dead when I stop the car and get out with the key.

 

That light also flashes when the key is not present, but after a battery has been drained thrice it will never be the same again. Always lock the car when you park it and you will avoid most of the common drain-the-battery scenarios. If you stop to listen to the radio or use other accessories leave the car ON ("Ready") and in Park.

Check the 12V battery voltage at the jump points under the hood. With the car OFF it should measure 12.6 V to 12.8V. Less than 12.0V means it's near death. If you don't have a voltmeter use the selftest procedure given here:
Checking 12v Battery Health - Hybrid Car Forums

 

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Here's how I got mine going without a jump

My '05 wouldn't start today. Recently had lots of cool, wet weather. However, it did give me some "warning."

I finally started it after reading this forum for 10 minutes, and TURNED OFF BOTH (dim) DOME LAMPS AND THE HEADLIGHT SWITCH/TAIL LAMPS, switched off the SmartKey under the steering column, and closed the doors to lessen drain on the 12V battery. Waited a minute for it to recover.

Powered right up. My cheapo Radio Shack tester showed the battery was OK after that, but I know better than to push my luck. Michigan winter's on its way.

For the last month or so, when I would Power Off, about 50% of the time I got a single beep AFTER everything had shut off. The other half of the time it just shut off normally. The last time I shut it off, I sat listening to the radio for a while.

I had the same results as some others here -- lots of screwy green blinking gages, exclamation point, flashing boxes, wouldn't turn off, Park lamp lit by itself, etc. Those are the kinds of things computers do if they don't have enough supply voltage; they just act totally screwy. The 12V battery supplies the computers/electronics, dome and door lamps, radio, heater fan, tail lamps, locks . . .

Car is now 4+ years old, 75,000 miles. It got a stone-dead battery after a fender bender caused a short a year ago. That's really hard on any battery.

So, after being run dead once, and being nearly 5 years old (which is about as long as ordinary 12V car batteries usually last), it's clear I need a new 12V battery.

Unfortunately, I've learned that the dealer is the only place to get this peculiar little gem.

However, in all fairness, I don't know of any other car that can have a dead battery, then start fine 10 minutes later.