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2003 Prius has no power whatsoever?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by bandit, Aug 9, 2004.

  1. bandit

    bandit New Member

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    I pulled into my garage Friday night like usual. Turn the car off like usual. Get out like usual and lock it like usual.

    I go Sunday morning to my car. Try to unlock it with the wireless remote. Nothing.

    Hmm, I think. I guess the remote finally ran out of batteries. So I unlock it the old fashioned way, but I didn't hear any clicking. I start to get a little nervous. The lights didn't turn on when I opened the door. I put the key in the ignition, turn, and nothing happens.

    I've had a history of problems with this car (such as LOSING POWER ON THE ROAD.. TWICE! ... even after it was "fixed" by the dealer!), flat tires, warning lights, and now this! Before this happened, my car was not experiencing any problems whatsoever.

    Tomorrow I am going to attempt to jump start the car. Does anyone have any idea on what could have possibly gone wrong?

    I got my car in May of 2003. I'm really, really trying hard to like this car. But now there is no way I can brag to my friends about it, because it just has been so incredibly unreliable.
     
    #1 bandit, Aug 9, 2004
  2. DaveG

    DaveG Member

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    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Hmm... Hard to say what happened, the auxilliary battery in the Prius is very small and even a small drain (like leaving the dome light on) is enough to kill the battery overnight.

    Fortunately it's incredibly easy to jump-start. I'd venture to say that you could probably start it with a 12v lantern battery.

    Sorry to hear you have so many problems with it - some things like flat tires are just part of owning a car and doesn't really have anything to do with the car itself - it happens.

    I know that there was a modification that the '04s had to get done for losing power which had to do with water getting into the engine compartment during heavy rains/washes. Perhaps something similar could be happening in the 03?

    I know that some '03 owners keep a small battery in their trunk as an emergency-jump system incase the aux-battery drains somehow.

    I've had my '04 since January and have had absolutely no problems with the battery draining.

    Dave
     
    #2 DaveG, Aug 9, 2004
  3. bandit

    bandit New Member

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    Unfortunately I live in southern california so the multiple power loss on road problems I had could have nothing to do with getting water into the engine bay.

    Also, my dealer never gave us a straight answer on what caused the power loss problems on the road.
     
    #3 bandit, Aug 9, 2004
  4. Gen2

    Gen2 Member

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    You might consider asking the dealer to check the car for battery drain while the car is parked and turned off (of course you have to do this after you can drive the car normally again). They should have a nominal figure for drain and if yours is too high it will kill the aux battery after sufficient time. This has not been a big problem for most cars in many years but since the Prius' aux battery is so small, just a small extra amount of current flow when the car is parked could be enough to drain the aux battery.

    Or you could have inadvertantly left a door ajar or something simple like that.
     
    #4 Gen2, Aug 9, 2004
  5. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    you probably have left some thing on over night, working fine, park it, and leave it overnight, and it's dead. About all it can be. Just a quick jump and it should go again but I'll wouldn't hesitate to bet the battey is now toast. Non of the newer batterys like to be drawn down flat. Few seldom recover completely. A trip to the dealer to make sure the draw is gone, and possibly test the battery to see if it's still good. Also you'll probably get the MIL on so they should get a code.
     
    #5 Frank Hudon, Aug 10, 2004
  6. bandit

    bandit New Member

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    Brought it to the dealer a couple days ago. They said the battery was "defective". They put in a new Panasonic battery. That's like the 5th thing that was "defective" in my car that they have replaced so far.. including O2 sensors, computers, fuel bladder, among other things.

    Yesterday I gased up my car. It still says I have 0 fuel and that I need to add fuel. Guess another thing is defective now.. the fuel level sensor. Will be bringing my car in AGAIN today or tomorrow.
     
    #6 bandit, Aug 12, 2004
  7. Batavier

    Batavier Member

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    Darn, sounds like you have a bad specimen. Sorry to hear that. :(
     
    #7 Batavier, Aug 13, 2004
  8. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Vehicle:
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    I'm going to take a wild guess that there is only one thing really wrong with your car, and it's causing all the other problems, and once they figure out what that is and fix it, everything will work.

    It just seems very unlikely to me that a Toyota would have a half a dozen different defects. But the electronics are so complicated that one underlying problem could have numerous symptoms, and be very hard to find. Sort of like debugging a program written in C.

    That's not going to be much of a consolation when it's your car that keeps breaking down. Good luck on getting it fixed.
     
    #8 daniel, Aug 13, 2004
  9. Gen2

    Gen2 Member

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    I am so sorry you are having so much trouble. Maybe you should contact Toyota Corporate and see if you can talk them into doing so serious troubleshooting so they can rid you of that gremlin?
     
    #9 Gen2, Aug 13, 2004
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