2007 Prius key questions

Hello again,

I just wanted to thank everybody who helped me in this thread. I did get a brand new and perfectly-working smart key yesterday. It was a bit of a process – newbie that I am, I mistakenly thought Toyota would just send the new key to the dealer. Instead, a locksmith had to fiddle with my car for some time, and eventually he had to reset the entire smart key system of the car. Then there was some confusion about who would pay. But in the end, I got my new key and the dealer paid for it.

Since I've been driving a 1992 car until just a few days ago, this smart key system takes some getting used to. Every time I walk away from the car, I keep second-guessing whether it's really locked. But if I go back to double-check, of course it unlocks automatically ;-)

I have a million more questions about the car, but I'll spend some time thoroughly reading these forums and reading my manual to get educated. In the meantime, the key situation is settled. Yay!

@Jerry – The logo on my old key fob was silver. Ditto for the new key. Just for some reason, the smart key system wasn't working at all. But now it does

 

I tried using the black button on the outside door handle to lock the car. But that hurts me a little bit (as I mentioned in my first post, I have a bit of a disability). I much prefer locking the doors from the inside of the driver's door. They stay locked after I exit. When I come back in touch the door handle, the car makes two short beeps and the door is open.

I'm not sure if the car automatically locks when I leave, but I don't think so. It hasn't done when it's sitting in my garage, but that was before the smart key system started working. I need to spend some more time with this car and try different things. And obviously I have a lot to learn. Right now it feels like the car is smarter than I am. It's a little disconcerting.

 

My old key (the one being held together by scotch tape) still works when I insert it into the car. It doesn't work at all with the SKS, but in a pinch I can use it to drive the car, and I'm planning to get another copy of the mechanical key so I never have to worry about being locked out of the car.

Never say never, but I'm generally not the kind of person who loses things or accidentally washes the wrong thing in the laundry. That said, of course I would like to have another smart key. Just last night I was thinking how hugely important that little piece of plastic is and how I need to be extra super-duper careful about not losing it.

Right now I'm not in the position to DIY anything. I don't have near enough knowledge, and my disability might be a factor if I have to fiddle with lots of little switches and buttons. Maybe in a few months things will be different, or I won't mind dropping several hundred dollars on a spare key. By the way, I was reading the manual that every 2007 Prius is allowed to have five master keys. I am the third owner of this car, so I don't know how many keys have been gone through already.

To answer your question, I live in Southern California. Thanks again for your advice; it's very kind of you to help

 

Hello again,

I'm back with some more questions, and rather than start a new thread, I'm hoping I can ask my questions here. I've been getting to know my new/used car, which I have dubbed "The Professor" since it is so smart. I'm reading the manual and browsing these forums, but I still need help with a few items:

1. On the climate control screen, it shows the outside temperature just fine but where the inside temperature is supposed to be, it shows nothing. Just the word temp, with nothing below it. The air conditioning does work fine, and when I adjust the airflow, the setting I choose appears where the inside temperature is supposed to be.

Near as I can figure, either I haven't pressed the right button, or the sensor that tells the car the inside temperature is broken. If it's the latter, I thought about getting a small digital thermometer to keep inside the car, just so I can know the inside temperature.

1a. On a related note, I don't see anything in the manual about the car's heating system. It has one, right? I live in the desert southwest, so it's not an urgent problem. But I'd still like to know how to operate the heating system, if I can.

2. Funny noises. Just a little while ago, I was coming home from multiple errands. I parked the car and turned it off, and as I was unloading my groceries there was a soft high-pitched noise coming from the front of the car. Kind of like a cross between a whirring and grating sound. What really concerns me was it continued for maybe a full five minutes after the car was turned off.

I don't know if this is related, but it was a warm day today, almost 80°, and I was running the AC.

3. Because of the age of the car (10 years), I'm very concerned about maintaining the hybrid battery. Especially living in the desert. Right now the weather is delightful, but in the summers we get many days over 110°. I have a garage, and of course I will seek out covered parking whenever possible.

As far as I can tell, the battery is in good shape now. I've been consistently getting 49-50 MPG so far, and the one time I checked the battery kept its charge pretty well. It had almost a full set of green bars when I parked, and two days later the bars had turned blue, but still looked very full.

I read somewhere that to maintain the battery, the car should get a good long drive (30-40 miles) at least once a month. Is this true? I also gather it's not a good idea to let the car sit idle for too long. What would be the best driving schedule to maintain the battery? I work from home, so don't need to drive the car every day.

Should I be turning off all the accessories (radio, AC, etc.) before I shut down the car? So far I haven't been, as I figure it all shuts off when the car does. My end routine is to hit the park button, engage the parking brake if I'm on a slope but not if I'm on level ground, and turn off the car. And of course lock the doors unless I'm home.

Finally, I don't know if this matters, but I live on the side of a large hill – about 300 feet up. So I drive up a big hill every time I come home. Does this have any effect on the battery charge cycle? I'm still not quite sure how that all works.

OK, that's plenty for now. Thank you very much for reading, and thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions

 

Thank you very much for the reply.

Apparently, I erred in calling it the inside temperature. According to my owner's manual, it's called the "passenger compartment temperature display." I don't know how to post pictures here, but I found a picture on Ebay that is virtually identical to mine:

06 07 08 09 Toyota PRIUS Display Screen LCD Monitor Info Center Climate Controls | eBay

The outside temperature appears in the upper right corner. So far so good. Then there's the top row, with three boxes – a little down arrow, then the word TEMP showing a temperature beneath it, then a little up arrow. That's where my car is different. There is no temperature displayed at all, it's just a blank space under TEMP. When I pushed the up and down arrows, nothing happens.

So either I haven't pushed some button I'm supposed to push, or there's something wrong. Again, I'm wondering if the sensor for the inside temperature is broken. I can't set the car to maintain the desired temperature if I can't even see the temperature to set it. And since there appears to be no way to operate the heater manually, that means I can't run the heater.

I live in the desert southwest, so heating the car is not an urgent concern. But eventually I would like to take the car on road trips to some places where it will be cold.

As for the funny noise, I hope you're right. I'm going to take The Professor out for a short drive later today and we'll see how it goes.

I'll consider what you said about the charger. I feel like I have a lot to learn before I can make a purchase like that. Certainly I'm saving up for the possibility of having to get a new hybrid battery. I just want to postpone that for as long as I can buy taking good care of the current battery.

Finally, there's one thing I forgot to ask yesterday. I'm intrigued by the possibility of car camping in the Prius. Not any time soon, but eventually. But I'm confused about how the hatchback door gets locked and unlocked. As far as I can tell, the only way to lock the hatchback is to look all doors from inside the driver's door. And the only way to unlock it is to do the reverse from inside the driver's door. Is that about right? If I'm going to sleep in the car, I want to make sure I'm securely locked inside.

I'm sorry for having so many questions, but this car is so dramatically different from my previous car, I'm facing a steep learning curve. So I'm very grateful for any and all advice. Thanks again for all your help.

 

Thanks again for the reply.

I know they are all touch screen buttons, and I have spent some time trying out different buttons. The last couple of times I took the car out, it was quite warm, so I needed the AC. I touched the LO setting and was rewarded with undeniably cold air blowing at me. And when I did that, the word LO appeared below the word TEMP. Then it went back to being blank. I think it was the same when I pressed the setting just above LO. I think I pressed AUTO once, and then the fan went to a very high setting that was uncomfortable for me, so I went back to the old way. But I've never seen an actual temperature below the word TEMP.

I also want to mention that because of my disability, I can only spend so much time pressing buttons before it starts to hurt me. Even on a touch screen. So I need to parse it out – press a few buttons, then give my arm a nice long rest before trying again.

 

I have tried pressing the up and down arrows on either side of the TEMP. Several times. Nothing happened in response – or at least, nothing that I could see or feel. So far, I've only used the steering wheel buttons to adjust the volume of music, but I'll give it a try for the climate control and see what happens.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Update – Today when I took the car out, I went to the climate control screen and selected AUTO. Again, I was blasted with a face full of arctic air. And the word LO appeared below TEMP between the two arrows. I tried pushing the arrow buttons again, but this time I made a point of pushing the up arrow first (the down arrow is closer to the driver, so in the past I think I always pushed that one first). After pushing the up arrow a few times, a temperature finally appeared in the right place! 65°. I adjusted it up to 75°, and now everything is fine.

Obviously, whoever had the car before me must have set the temperature to the lowest possible setting. I guess 65° is about as low as it can go. And then when I tried to adjust it, I kept pushing the down arrows when it was already at the minimum setting.

So problem solved! Thank you to everyone who replied. I still have plenty to learn, especially about maintaining the battery, but I think I can learn a lot just from browsing around here.

Now I have another problem, but it is not Prius-specific. I just received my new registration card for the car, and the DMV misspelled my surname as well as the name of my street. And I can't clear this up until I get the new title, which I might not even get, because it's being mailed to the wrong street. Gotta love the California DMV!