Jump starting another car using a Prius

YOu got lucky.......so far.

What you did likely dragged YOUR battery down WAY low so now you need to give it a good external charge.
If you don't do that and you don't drive much in the next couple of days, you might be needing a new battery yourself in the near future.

The battery size in your Prius is ***NOT*** big enough to charge a bigger dead battery and then run the starter in the other car.
It just isn't. Like I said, lucky........maybe.

 

I wouldn't do it.

they now make a LI jumper battery that is about the size of a paperback. its hard to believe, but it will start anything except a big diesel. they sell for about $100. it comes with adapters for about any kind of cell or laptop.

 

For what it's worth (and it looks like drivers do still post in this thread from time-to-time) I was able to do exactly what DaveG described.

I hooked red jumper cable to the jump terminal under the hood of my 2008 Prius & grounded the black cable. Before connecting to the other vehicle I put my foot on the brake and gave the Prius gas until the battery charged up all the way.

While charging the other car's battery I kept my foot on the brake and held down the accelerator pedal with my other foot. Took about 5 minutes for enough juice to make it over. Detached the cables and other car could start.

Hopefully no harm done to either vehicle, and wasn't much different from a normal jump since I could accomplish it from under the front hood and not where the actual battery sits.

 

Glad it worked, but there was no need to rev the Prius engine. No harm done other than some fuel burned, but the Prius does not have an alternator. The 12V system is charged by the hybrid system. You slowly charged the dead battery, and the tranaxle at idle has plenty of energy to keep the hybrid system charged for that. That's my experience in a similar situation, at least, watching the hybrid battery charge indicator on the MFD.

I used the Prius to charge a dead battery on my other car once, in the garage, knowing the problem was a dome light left on and nothing wrong with the electrical system on the dead car. Mostly the Prius sat with the ICE off, silently and slowly charging the battery, and it worked fine. I let mine sit for 20 or 30 minutes, then disconnected. This would have been the perfect use for one of those cigarette lighter cables. Limiting the current to under 10A is a great idea.

I would not connect my Prius to an unknown situation, like a possible ground fault in the dead car. And I would not do a traditional jump start from my Prius, without a life safety justification. It's a low current 12V source for slow charging, that's it.

 

Yea...

Under no circumstances would I attempt, much less offer, to jump another vehicle with a traditional starter/alternator/battery system. As others have correctly pointed out, the capacity of the Prius 12V battery is limited, to say the least. In the south, during the summer and jumping another small car with a run-down battery might work; it also might cost you $4k or more in repairs.

I'm sure those clever Toyota Engineers thought of (almost) everything, including voltage spikes on the 12V side, but god forbid they missed something

 

Yea...

Under no circumstances would I attempt, much less offer, to jump another vehicle with a traditional starter/alternator/battery system. As others have correctly pointed out, the capacity of the Prius 12V battery is limited, to say the least. In the south, during the summer and jumping another small car with a run-down battery might work; it also might cost you $4k or more in repairs.

I'm sure those clever Toyota Engineers thought of (almost) everything, including voltage spikes on the 12V side, but god forbid they missed something

 

Yea...

Under no circumstances would I attempt, much less offer, to jump another vehicle with a traditional starter/alternator/battery system. As others have correctly pointed out, the capacity of the Prius 12V battery is limited, to say the least. In the south, during the summer and jumping another small car with a run-down battery might work; it also might cost you $4k or more in repairs.

I'm sure those clever Toyota Engineers thought of (almost) everything, including voltage spikes on the 12V side, but god forbid they missed something.

 

$40.

 

what $4000 repair, specifically? I recently jumped a completely dead BMW with my prius from the front jumper connections and I think it might be the reason that my car is currently throwing error code P0A2B.

 

Maybe coincidental, look-up says temp sensor issue.

 

You can damage the DC to DC converter that converts 201 VDC to about 14 VDC.
Some generations require you to buy the entire Inverter, other Generations can just replace the DC to DC converter board. My understanding is that Gen 2 needs an all new inverter, no separate DC to DC converter you can buy at the dealer.

G920047121 - Toyota Drive Motor Inverter. INVERTER. Prius | Toyota Parts Overstock

 

I wouldnt jump start another car with my prius but if i had to do so I would do it only if the other car is small car (not V6 or 4 wheels!!!) and recent model that doesnt take long to start after cranking the starter because new engine.
also the connection will be from the back of my prius to the other car's battery directly with my prius OFF not on. and better to remove the prius battery cables first or positive cable only.

 

I had a person in a parking lot ask me if I could help them jump start their car. I apologized and said that the battery in my car was over 200 volts and couldn't jump start another car. They said that I was making that up and that I just didn't want to help them.

I knew that the auxiliary battery was there, and I also knew about the terminal under the hood for jump starting the Prius, but didn't want to take a chance trying to use that terminal the other direction. Easier just to say that my battery was the wrong voltage.

 

I'm not jumping anybody using my G2 either. Unless you happen to have a voltmeter with you you will never know how dead that battery is and if its stone dead it will put quite a whomp on that little battery that the cars 12 volt buss may not enjoy. Plus shit happens.

After seeing so many posts on here in the last 13 years of people blowing there G2's up over jumping them I treat the 12 volt system like its precious lol...

 

I keep a jump pack in ours.

 

I wouldn't use a jump pack on mine. I have AAA. If the 12 volt dies Its coming home.

Gone way way out of my way to make sure that battery doesn't die. 13 years and no dead 12.

 

Good suggestion and it's something that I've already started doing. Other cars I keep jumper cables, but in the Prius I have a jump pack.