HELP! Prius won't start. Flashing park button...

Man, it's always something, isn't it? lol! I went out to my car, for the 1st time in maybe 3 weeks to drive it to town (I don't drive it in the rain....been raining constantly...). I pressed the power button to start the car, and all kinds of buttons flashed all over the dash. Then I got a display that said something about a parking brake malfunction, or something about parking and malfunction. I've been having a bunch of electric stuff wired up, prior to this time that I haven't been driving it. My first thought was, "Oh, no! What have they done?!" But then I remembered, also, that during the year+ that my car was in the body shop getting all the body mods done the battery had gone dead. At that time, I had to drive my truck up to the body shop and let them know how to properly hook it to a low-power charger to charge it back up. So, that was my thought....except for this time I have things lighting up. I tried everything I could think of besides trying the battery charger route, because I am having a difficult time finding the charger tonight (of course....when I need it). Anyway, it kept beginning to do something (air began blowing out the vents, various things would light up inside, etc.); but every time I touched the brake pedal everything powered back off.....instantly. Like I said, I kept trying to turn it on like normal, but it never would go past the stage like when u just press the power button once.....or like if u try to start it w/out the brake being pressed. It always kept going back to that brake or parking light brake malfunction warning on the dash. It became where I couldn't get it to even turn off. I then was scared to death it was going to burn my house down, cause it got down to where the triangle warning was flashing on the left side of the dash display, the little symbol with the lock on it was flashing on the right side of the display, and the little indicator LED on the park button was flashing green slowly. I finally got out of the car, and there was a humming/buzzing sound coming from under the hood. I opened the hood and it was coming from some big engine piece against the firewall approximately in the vicinity of where your lower right leg is when you're in the drivers seat. It would never stop, no matter what I did. It did that for about 2 hours and 15 minutes until it eventually stopped. I was just sure something was gonna blow or catch fire or something! lol! *I also forgot to mention that the car is parked inside my garage, headfirst, down a long driveway that a tow truck would never be able to pass.... Anyway, then for a long time it just had that yellow/orange (whichever color it is) triangle with the exclamation mark in it flashing continually, along with the little green LED on the park button flashing. Well, now that yellow triangle doesn't light up, and the only thing lighting up anywhere on the dash when I go peek in the window is the little green LED on the park button. I am afraid to push the power button again, since everything else finally stopped making a fuss and flashing at me. I do get a dim light from the lower courtesy light on the door, and I can punch the button for the ceiling light and it will light dimly.

SO, I've been Googling for hours now, trying to find some help. I find all kinds of posts regarding the 12v battery being dead after sitting, and other posts about people who've had to pay thousands of dollars for all this diagnosis and repair work to be done. Should I try jumping it with a Scion xB sitting next to it in the garage? of should I go to town and buy a battery charger at Walmart and try hooking it up to the battery under the hood? or should I be freaking completely out (more than I have already been)? Probably my biggest fear is the fact that a tow truck would just never be able to get back to my house without doing severe property damage; the car is parked deep inside the garage, at a right angle to any other vehicle that could possibly get back to the garage; and I have all my body kit on the car (i.e., no access for any "tow hook".....and my car is dropped super low to the ground.....making towing a questionable endeavor in the first place....

Please help! I need some brilliant advice from the great minds that dwell on this forum, as I pretty much only have the basic knowledge of how to start, drive, and put gas in a car. I did watch them with the whole battery charger endeavor before, so I do know it was done correctly, and I could replicate the steps. I tried finding some phone number to call for some kind of help from Toyota, but the only one I got was just "leave a message" kinds of voicemail boxes when I went through selecting every "press 1 now, press 2 now, press 3 now, etc." option. My car is still like brand new (because it has rarely been driven and has sat inside a closed room at the body shop or in my home garage), and it is way under the 3 year/36,000 mile factory warranty. So, I need to figure out how to accomplish this whole thing with it not starting, only having dim inside lights, and having the constantly flashing green light on the Park button. I think I will have learned, after this whole "excursion", to back the car into the garage now....just for the fact that it would then have front access from the outside.....if this kind of thing happens AGAIN. Like I said earlier, the battery was completely dead at the body shop that time, and NOTHING would come on at all. Now this time I have gotten all that entourage of flashing lights, the 2+ hours of the engine humming/buzzing noise, and this incessant park button flashing... Please help!

 

I have it hooked up now to the little "trickle charger" (that I finally found!), set on 12v (6v and 12v settings). My park button isn't flashing any more. Ever so often, the little red symbol with the lock symbol on top of it will flash. Still dim lights in the interior. Hatch won't open. I just tried that. The brake pedal will not move, but then when the charger "cycles" it will slowly sink downward like it should when u press on it. My headunit/stereo has a little red light on it that flashes (like a security light), and it has never stopped its flashing. We'll see if anything progresses. It's going on 7 a.m., and I've been up all night fussing with it, so I'm gonna lay down for a few, I think! lol

 

Great advice. I ended up texting my neighbor, who is a big construction guy and has all kinds of vehicles and equipment, and asked him if he had a "regular" charger I could borrow. He did. It's a Schumacher SpeedCharge, model WM-1200A... I wasn't sure what type of battery ours is, as it asked for "battery type" and gave me the choices of regular, deep cycle, and AGM Gel Cell. I tossed a coin and chose regular... I hooked it up to the battery and it said the battery was at 5%... Anyway, after about 20 minutes, it was either 14 or 18, I forget now...been a couple of days since I went to bed. lol. I began trying to start it, and it started flashing that parking brake malfunction thing on the middle of the display, then it would shut off and I'd try starting it again, over and over. Finally, all the different little lights in the car started flashing on and off, and the dash display was flashing everything all over the place...but eventually stuff stayed on and I was able to start it. I left the charger on it for a bit with it running. It's been sitting in the garage for about 20 minutes now running (with the doors up). I thot it shut off if you got out of it, but it's still running out there with me in the house. So, I'm gonna go run around town for a few minutes and see if I can crank the thing back up like it should be.

Since I go for weeks at a time without driving it, what kind of charger would you suggest I leave hooked up to the battery to keep that from happening? It kind of a pain that we have to do this on a new, modern car, I think. Just seems like a new car should be able to sit for a couple of weeks without dying... I'll just have to force myself to drive it around the block sporadically so it stays charged. I am paranoid to drive it very far now, for sure. Nothing quite like being stranded on the side of the road somewhere! lol

 

So, this is to replace the battery in the back of the car? or whatever kind of battery situation that is under the hood where I have been connecting the charger I used? Do you have one? I'm all for whatever will prevent this from happening, cause this is 2x now, and I haven't driven the car enough to hardly even count yet. When I am no longer having to spend every waking moment caring for my grandmother any longer, and am able to once again start my career back up, it is 200+ miles round trip to where I play piano every night. I can't even fathom the possibility of being stuck along the Interstate in a tux....in a dead car. lol. Since I'm hooking tons of lighting stuff and other electrical gadgets to the electrical system, I know that poses an increased risk due to the larger drain on the battery. So, I just Googled the optima yellow top you mentioned, and was presented with these options: YELLOWTOP® Deep-Cycle AGM Batteries :: OPTIMA® Batteries So, do you have any particular opionions about any of them?

 

Thanks for replying. Yeah, I realized that the little red icon is normal. Funny how I've never seen it b4. These kinds of events make you examine something much closer than you would just on a day-to-day basis! There's so many things on the dash/display that I'll probably get surprised by some other "never seen" symbol/icon! lol. First thing I did when I got the car was to put big tabs on all the pages in the owner's manual that deal with those numerous dash display symbols. It was a good thing, cause I've had to look several of them up a bunch of times to find out what they stood for.