I just got done changing out fuse no. 15 in my 2006 Gen2 because the tail amps ate not illuminating. See pics. Fuse no.15 is located in left front of the interior fusebox. I have not had a chance to inspect the Prius manual on this issue. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My next step before i put this back together for today is to confirm that the tail lamp fuse has power on both sides of the fuse. TIA.
Looking at the label on your cover, isn't fuse ☛16☚ the interesting one? And yes, a voltage check on both of its test points would be useful information. The second photo, if I've got my bearings in the mirror image, is showing the normally empty slot 1, the usual fuse ratings (15, 30, 15, 20, 7.5) in slots 2 through 6, an empty slot 16, the usual fuses in 17, 18, 19, and the correctly empty 20, 21, and 22. So that photo was after you pulled the fuse from slot 16 to test it? If not, we may have spotted the problem.
The fuse cover chart does show 16 (10Amp) as the tail light fuse. The second pic shows the empty #16 slot, but it looks like some sort of pick or screwdriver was used to pry the fuse out. The plastic around the slot is "chewed up". You can see the electrical terminal in the box is bent over. That probably isn't making contact any more. I don't know if that can be fixed- it would be very difficult given how hard it is to reach things under the dashboard. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I flipped the picture and highlighted a good terminal vs the bent one. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Public service announcement: out in the other fuse box, the big one under the hood, there is a little white fuse-grabber tool, perfect for pulling the small fuses (out of either fuse box) without chewing anything up. To me, the red-circled thing doesn't look even anything like the contacts in any of the other empty slots. Those run parallel to the long dimension of the fuse box. Could the silvery red-circled thing be the leg of a fuse, broken off and stuck there?