Towing warning

Hmm, not sure what would have caused the battery to go dead. You state you had nothing turned on, but there had to be something. Towing the car with a dolly is not going to cause it to go dead. Why did you have it in Neutral? The drive wheels were off the ground! (unless you towed it backwards but I've never seen that done. lol)

 

The only thing that would do that is to have the car in READY and in neutral or to have it in ignition on (ON) or accessory (ACC) mode.

Regarding ON and ACC modes, the PiP manual says,

I would think the c would be the same.

Either way, the car doesn't care if it's being towed (assuming it's towed properly as you did). So it was on.

It is physically impossible to have the vehicle in neutral and still be completely shut down without performing some major surgery to the transaxle. When you shut off the car, it goes to PARK and stays there till you turn it on. Leaving the car on and in neutral, you dodged a bullet in not also draining the hybrid battery.

 

For the car to be in "Neutral", it has to to be completely "on", in what Toyota calls "Ready".

Having the car completely on, and in Neutral, is known for depleting the hybrid battery. That's the scenario of pull-through car washes, which have also depleted the hybrid battery, in just a matter of minutes.

There's no reason for it to be on when towed, with the front wheels off the ground; the car should be off, with the parking brake released.

Which battery are you talking about, the hybrid or 12 volt? The car wash scenario has been known to deplete the hybrid battery, fwiw.

 

You can tow any Prius on a dolly.

Accidentally leaving it on won't really hurt anything except for the aux (12v) battery, and presuming you don't goof things up when you de-fib your car afterwards, there really will not be any long term ill effects.
IIRC, the car will not allow the traction battery to go below a 20% charge state, so the car protected itself as it was designed to do.

A HEALTHY 12v battery won't be damaged by a gut punch like this unless you make a habit of it.
HOWEVER (comma!) if your battery is getting on in years....say 4-5, OR if you've had to boost it more than a few times, then it might be time to proactively change it out.

In modern cars, 12v batteries give very little warning before they go all the way bad.

 

It might be OP meant "parking brake off" where it says "neutral", not sure.

Leaving the car completely on (aka "ready") and in Neutral, I believe you can run the hybrid battery right down. There's been a few reports of this happening with tow-along car washes.

 

Totally off the subject.

But in regards to this statement. I still laugh about this when I go to the car wash. I've never even seen it drop 1 bar and that's with the AC blasting. I even turn on the lights occasionally. So what is it that people say triggers the hybrid battery to go completely limp within the extremely short amount of time it takes for a car wash. I mean it's like 3 minutes. I'm guessing their hybrid battery must be crap to begin with if this is happening?

 

Out here in California where the population is more concentrated, we wait more than 3 minutes at car wash locations.

When the battery runs down and the car is required to be in neutral to progress along the car wash path (in some setups), this is where the problem arises .

I’ve seen lines at the local 5 Star Car Wash out onto the street, which is probably a 1/2 hour wait, and that’s just one of many in the area .

 

Well I think the scenario is probably more like already having a low lower SOC, than waiting in like to go into the car wash with AC on, then you go in with two or almost one bar and pop it in nutrual. But still it does seem with shouldn't be a problem with a healthy battery. But I've read multiple people have this happen, even on a new Prius. So it is very real

 

So what does waiting in line have to do with it? Nobody waits in line with their car in "neutral". They either keep their foot on the brake pedal or put it in park. Even then, the engine will kick on to keep the battery charged to a minimum. It's when they roll thru that car wash in Neutral that it won't charge. But really - if their charge goes down so low while going thru a 3-6 minute car wash, then....

Mine seriously has never moved even 1 bar.

 

While waiting (and it’s hot outside) people have the ac on. Guess what the ac does ?

Now the hv battery is at a minimum level and now you go through the car wash in neutral with the ac still on (cause the outside temperature hasn’t changed) and now you get the bad news message that displays.

There are many posts on here about this phenomenon. Definitely not unique and something that since people who buy their first hybrid aren’t aware of some of the subtlety where they’re used to doing one thing and now that needs to change.

They’re the usual ones who have the unfortunate experience .

Hope that helps.

 

... which is the two bar minimum. So if the car decides that it is time to kick on the engine during those several minutes the car is in Neutral, then it soon becomes red-light-warning time.



Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

That's a little more than 3 minutes.

Again, OP needs to come back and clarify. I'm guessing when he says "in Neutral", he meant to say "with the parking brake released".

 

iono guys - I've ran thru the car wash so many times with the AC blasting and never even lost a bar. But you guys are right. Lots of posts about it here. I personally think their battery has issues if their vehicle is doing this. But that's my opinion and I've hijacked this thread long enough. So I hand it back over to the OP - who probably won't ever be back. lol

 

Yep, that's exactly right.

 

If you shut off the car (and you should do that for towing any vehicle), it will be in park. It puts itself in park when you shut it off. That's what makes it necessary to have the front wheels on the dolly.