Wife’s Prius been sitting for a while so figured I would go start it up for a bit. (Been 3 month in north east on old 12v) problem is 12v battery is dead and the key in the fob is not working (yea I sprayed the lock) I got a few ideas but she probably won’t like it so question is…… any way to pop the hood from outside the car without breaking it
You're in the Gen2 forum but have a Gen1 listed in your profile and I think you bought a Gen3 so I'm not so sure which vehicle belongs to your wife. But assuming its Gen2 here's what you need to know... You basically have the equivalent of locking your keys in the car and basic car entry gear on the window with bladder inflater to get an opening wide enough to get a rod in there to unlock a door is what you need to do. Or just keep pouring hot water on the lock and squeezing some graphite into the lock to get it open might work. Also make sure you're using the right key. Sometimes in a family with multiple Prius they can get mixed up.
Take the VIN to a dealer and they can make a new key. The one you have may be worn, damaged, or not for that car. Or variations on this: Gen 2 Hood Won’t Open - how to open | PriusChat I have not tried this, but if you have a borescope you might be able to snake it into a position where you can see where the cable attaches, and then using that view, snake in a coat hanger (probably from as far towards the driver's side of the grill as you can go) and pull on the release. All the methods like the one in the link above assume that all you can see is what is visible through the grill. There might be other options with a better view.
