Hi :) New To forum and Prius! Just got my first could use some help

Hi everyone!

My name is Suzie, I just got my first Prius last month. A used 2003 Prius. My husband had been in a bad wreck, so with what we had been given from insurance, he was able to get himself a 2005 Honda CR-V and then let me use what was left to find a car for me. We had very limited amount of money.. and there really wasn't much available (about 3500 max money)

Sooo after looking around the dealership, I tried two vehicles.. a Beat up little prius (cosmetically she was a wreck) and a nicely kept little 99 Honda Accord.

I chose the prius. I had never driven one before but one little spin in her, and I was in heaven. Now We probably should have stuck with the accord, just from the cosmetic damage alone and having no knowledge of toyotas or hybrids, and from the high mileage on my car.. but I just couldn't be swayed.. (the accord drove like a bouncy little old lady's car anyway blech lol)

So my little Prius, still lacking of a name, was being sold at the dealer for 4,000 (before taxes fees registration etc). She had a broken windshield, tons of tiny little dents all over her, one large dent in her rear bumper, and another not so bad in the passenger rear side panel. She obviously had been driven by a heavy smoker as the interior smelled horrible, and was all filthy and yellowed. She also had 203k miles on her. YIKES i know.. So I started listing off the cost of everything I would have to do to her.. they kept saying no to lowering the price anymore than a couple hundred bucks. After saying, you either lower it to what I can afford, WITH taxes fees etc or I'll go somewhere else.. they finally spent almost an hour talking with two managers (sales to the used car guy between two dealerships - we were at an automall-) AND I got her for 3500 WITH taxes fees and registration all wrapped up in one.

Now.. she has a new windshield, steam cleaned interior, de-fogged headlights, new air filter, new cabin filter, adjusted tire pressure.. Still needs her engine compartment cleaned out badly (dirty little engine like she had been taken out on a dirt road or something) and for the most part.. Had been running nicely.

Then almost towards the end of the month her average MPG kind of sucked.. getting average 36mpg? even on the highway not even bridging 40mpg. Now money wise we are in a tight bind, so i was being easy with my car, and we have to wait until july to have the engine cleaned and anything else done to her (my hubby will be full time again). On 5/31 I had to drive an hour and a half to go pick up my sister from her home. I got out on the highway, about 20minutes into my trip (now we had taken the car on 1-2 hour trips previously with no issues) and Suddenly I lost power, it beeped at me, I got an error/warning saying PS+Main-battery picture- and a red triangle. I started to panic. Finally since it had been less than 30 days since we bought the car, even though it was "As-Is" I convinced the dealership to pick her up, and have their toyota store diagnos her for free. (by the way.. I DO NOT recommend buying anything from the Hyundai Store in the Turnersville automall, in New Jersey... they treated my husband's old sonata before the wreck, so disrespectfully leaving oily hand prints on the hood, and they just are very snooty and hard to deal with apparently, HONDA of turnersville where my hubby got his CR-V, and Chevy who we talked to a year ago are much much nicer and so much better to deal with, Toyota was really great to with how they handled my car)


SO... ok I know i am writing a Novel here.. I really hope someone takes time to read it lol as I am getting to a point.. I just wanted to tell the story of my little car before I get to the new problem so that I cover everything.

now when she lost power originally before they towed her for me, I managed to chug her to a near by toyota dealership. verbally from what I told them, they told me it sounded like the hybrid battery, which had me next to tears because we don't even have 100 bucks to our name right now things have been so tight, let alone 3-4grand. After it was towed and diagnosed I had good news! They told me I could pick up my car, they had cleared the codes, that the issue had been whoever changed the oil last had put in TO much oil, the hybrid coolant was low as well and so they did a fresh oil change, put everything at the proper levels with the liquid, drove her around and had no problems, no warning lights nothing. Shes been running GREAT even better than before, and I average 40mpg "city" driving and it goes above that even just on a tiny bit of highway already.

now... it rained... BAD... yesterday. We went out driving.. no problems.. we came home, and our 2 year old had fallen asleep in the car, so my husband and I sat in the car (NOT RUNNING ANYTHING) just with the windows cracked listening to the rain and talking quietly letting her nap as it was to late in the day to put her to bed for a nap indoors, and still to early to put her to bed (about 6pm) when she finally woke up about 20minutes later, i went to turn on the car to roll up the windows..... and nothing.. it was dead... some lights flickered on for a moment and then nothing. It was still raining, but not pouring so we wanted to rush in before anything else happened. (bad thunderstorms had been going on and continued all night) we hadn't had any issues all day long driving the car though.


Fast forward.. to today... now 8pm.. about 2 hours ago I went back out finally to try my car.. we had been busy all morning, and it had still been drizzling, it finally let up and things were dry and we weren't busy..

She still won't start But i could get some power and turn on the headlights, so we thought maybe leaving the key in the ignition, even though the car was off, had triggered SOMETHING and drained the batter when we had been sitting in it the night before for those 20-30min..

So as my husband started for the apartment to get the keys, I started for the trunk, and saw a FRESH puddle of dripping liquid under the bumper.. super fresh.. I called him back, we touched the liquid found it to be clear and scent free (water) opened the trunk, bounced the bumper and heard sloshing water.

THE ENTIRE AREA where my AUX battery is, was FULL of water!!!!!! I got to work quickly to pulling up everything, and pulling the battery up out of the water (After unbolting it) As much as I could without actually unplugging it. we have the bumper partially off but that's not helping with the leak (we were hopeing undoing a bolt would help let water out, but it only let out a little)

we cannot figure out where the water is coming from.. nor how to get it all out...

I came online to see if anyone else had the same problem and stumbled across this awesome forum!! I am hoping someone here could help me. It seems all the threads i was reading about similar issues are with 2004+ prius, and hatchbacks... my little 2003 is not a hatch back.

if there is anyone that could lend some information, we would greatly appreciate it! I love my little blue car ^_^ and I really don't want it to be a dud or a bad investment. lol I have had it for 2 days over a month, and I am already so in love with the prius and hybrid that I am constantly eyeing up the new prius's and thinking of the day we can afford a newer car and how I just HAVE to have another prius I hope to get to know all of you better and learn more about hybrid cars and my prius as the weeks go by!!

Thank you so much in advanced for your help!!!

Suzie