car won't start

That sounds like the culprit right there.

Generally when it's left for two weeks you turn off the Smart Key System to help prevent battery drain.

 

Wow... I hope jeweleye reads the forum before getting nicked for a tow on a dead 12v battery!

 

The OP hasn't stated if it is an 06 or 05 and earlier. If 05 or earlier they should definitly take advantage of the roadside assistance.

 

Something the moderators will not say is " THE 12 V BATTERY STINKS " The concept of the small battery added to a door accidently left ajar is not good. The Toyota Engineers should certainly be aware of this problem just from the number of batteries they have to replace. If statistics were kept on the number of service problems that were had by Toyota Dealers, it would be astronomical. I am sure not everybody that owns a Prius also uses this site. We may only be a small minority. So why is Toyota not acknowledging and fixing the Battery problem? My service writer mentioned after replacing the Battery to be careful not to leave something on or a door not closed completely. Which I don't believe I did. I did notice it was down and recharged it (trickle) but the problem still persisted. The customer should not have to adapt thier behavior to the car. The Engineers should modify the car to human behavior.

 

I was just talking to a supervisor at the bank today, who recently bought a 2005 Prius, and she mentioned that her battery died after sitting for only 2 days, and she doesn't even have SKS! Perhaps she left something ajar, but she didn't think so. There MUST be a similar-sized battery available with a little more gusto than that anemic thing Toyota put in there.

 

my 2k3 is on it's origional battery and the wife's 2k4 is on it's origional battery and neither have had a "dead" day in their life. Mine has sat for 9 day's and her's for 2 weeks and both started fine. Leave your door ajar and the car should adapt to you and it did, it said I'm not starting, if you were dead I doubt that your boss could get you to start either. I doubt an 8D battery could stand a draw on it for 2 weeks.

 

:lol:

good point.

 

I once read a semi-joking comment on here that someone suspected you could jump the Prius with 8 AA batteries. Anyone actually try this?

 

someone did it with two 6 volt lantern battery in series. On the jump point under the hood after they disconnected the LA battery.

 

As for the car adapting to human behavior, it is already done several times on the Prius. Car alarms if you leave Fob inside car, headlights shut off automatically when you open door, inside lights shut off when you leave car AUTOMATICALLY. The Toyota Engineers have done a lot, but in regards to the frailty of the battery, they can do more. Its a design fault. I also think possibly Toyota is dealing with a Contractor that makes faulty batteries. MY 84 Camry OE Battery went out in less than three years. I notice that at least once a month somebody is having a problem with their 12VDC Bat. Since we are only a minority of the total Prius owners, what are the real statistics. And Frank, I can also now say that since I have a new Battery I have never experienced any more problems. But what does that prove. In your case, you were lucky. When Datsun first built cars for the US, they could not understand why Americans couldn't bring their batteries in the house at night in the Winter. Talk about adaptation of human behavior to an inadequate design.

 

1993 Toyota T100 purchased on Jan 1 1993 and sold on Aug 15 2000 still had the OEM battery. Yes it was tired but still started the truck every day. Yes some batterys are better than others but the Prius battery is just fine for what it has to do. Boot the computer.

 

I thought I remember reading before on another topic that if you were to go on some extended vacation, you should have somebody start your Prius every once in a while so your computer/battery wouldn't die. So now I think what this topic is saying, is that all I'd have to do is turn off that little SKS button under my steering wheel and everything will be fine?

 

if you shut off the SKS you should be good for 2 weeks at least. Provided you close the doors and the hatch and turn the headlight to off. If you have Auto headlights and leave them on Auto there is an additional draw on the system. The Prius battery is small but adequate for the car.

 

The easy check to see if you need a jump: Turn on the dome light. If it is dim, you need a jump. :mellow:
When you connect the jumper cables you should see the dome light get bright . . . a sure sign the Prius will now start.

Remember, the 12 volt battery is an “AUXILIARY†battery. It does not crank the engine to start. It only powers up the computers, runs lights, radio, pumps, contactors for the traction battery, and other light duty items.

Since it is an “auxiliary†battery only, you CAN NOT provide a jump for another car – it doesn't have the heavy cranking amps needed.

 

This is good to know stuff if you were ever out camping or such away from it all and ran you 12V down accidently......

I think there shouldn't be much amperage at all involved.. esp with those tiny connectors they have under the hood.

I might start looking for a 12V "or therebouts" lithium ion to keep for long term storage emergencies and tuck it in a cubby hole somewhere.

My 12cell Laptop battery is LiIon and 14.8 volts.. I bet that would work just dandy!

 

My dead Prius pulled over 10 amps @ 12vdc when I applied power to the dead battery. Lights and radio were both off.

10 amps is a LOT of current for AA batteries - even for a moment. It's a LOT of current of a thin wire too, the kind like many people might have around the house.

Lantern batteries will do it - even D size batteries will work if you are really quick.

Not too scare anyone (windstrings), but a laptop-type battery will most likely live a very short and exciting life if you pull that kind of current from it. They are usually internally fused to prevent an explosion, but you never can tell.

 

My laptop actually pulls 120 watts (12V X 10amps = 120 watts) Thats actually normal current for my laptop battery to deliver.
120 watts is two household light bulbs.. no big deal.

My laptop is an HP amd 4000+ processor, so it pulls a little juice... but its throttled down most of the time... but at any rate, the battery is designed to run at full power if needed.

10 amps will go through a pretty small wire for a quick burst. 14 gu wire is rated at 15 amps continuous.

And I'm not sure about alkaline, but a temporary burst is quite possible, but if they are NiMH, I think they would work... they are designed for heavy discharges.

Would be fun to test and see.... but I don't really care about disconnecting my battery and loseing all my settings to find out!

 

After the 12 v battery (any lead acid battery) is fully discharged, it never totally recovers. If it got to freezing in the discharged state, somewhat worse. I agree that it is a wee bit too small in the Prius, so these jumpstarting tricks deserve some consideration.

1.5 volt D-cells in series did not work for me. I actually have a 7 amp hour backup battery to avoid these embarrasments. The smallest thing that I have read works is a 12 volt cordless drill battery pack. Whether those are NiCd ir NiMH, they can source a lot of current. Not for long, but long enough.

I would not risk a notebook computer battery for this, but carry on, Windstrings.

Figured out once how long the car could run its 4 way flashers for, switched off. Can't remember the answer, but it was less than all night. Just something to keep in mind...