Hello I would like to have some ideas on an issue my sisters Prius currently have. I currently do not have the car because it is far away so it’s being towed but I would like to have an idea on something to look at once the car comes My sister had described that when she was driving in the freeway the cars radio had turned off and the dash had turned off. The only thing on were the indicator lights and the light that shows that the headlights were on. She had also described that the footwell and under the steering wheel was hot and the car still ran and drive. Anything recommendation would help thanks.
Your Turlock location is California, USA? maybe start by checking 12 volt battery voltage, both at the battery posts, and at the under-the-hood fuse box jump-start point. do you have a code reader?
There's not enough information. "Maybe" the inverter died. But usually you'll get the check hybrid display. But if the 12v part failed, that could be why she lost the display. The engine could be overheating. "Maybe" the 12v battery has completly failed and the inverter is trying to charge the battery that is demanding a lot of power, and trying to run the 12v item for the car. So the inverter overheats.... How old is the 12v battery? If it's 6 year or more, time for a new one. Then charge it for at least 6 hours at 5 amps or less so it's fully charged. All these are guesses. You'll need to get a code reader that can read the Prius hybrid system.
Sorry I didn’t mean to put my state as Turlock I do have a code reader I’ll leave an update once the car comes
I was also thinking it could be the 12 volt battery but we have another scrap Prius, that we recently sold, that had a COMPLETELY dead 12v battery and hooking it up to a battery charger gets it started and it can run and drive without the battery with the display on and even if the actual Prius battery had no power then how would the engine turn on and drive to a place to leave the car?
There's a fuse you could remove or that could blow that would cause that symptom, but you didn't indicate if the problem was intermittent or not. If the problem is intermittent, then it's not the fuse but something else in that circuit.
I have no idea if it is intermittent because this is the first time it has happened and I do not have the car right now but I’ll give an update once I do
I'm just throwing out "guesses" with the information you gave. A weak or dead 12v battery can cause all kinds of issues. Giving it a full charge, or installing a new charged battery MAY resolve issues. It's a easy and inexpensive place to start.
This only happened when it was on the freeway. We had gotten the car and everything had ran good. It didn’t loose a charge and all the electronics were good.
