Battery drains if door panel off for extended period?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by zenMachine, Jul 9, 2007.

  1. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    Last week I removed my driver side door panel to begin replacing the speakers. I also removed
    the hatch panel to add some sound dampening while I'm at it. While waiting for the speaker mount
    adapter and the SecondSkin stuff on order, I decided to leave the panels off. I was driving the car
    with the panels removed for a few days without any problem. But when I came back from a 5-day
    vacation, I found this morning that the Prius wouldn't start. No power whatsoever.

    Q: What could possibly have drained the battery?

    Q: My car is in the garage head first. I should be able to jumpstart the rear battery directly, correct?

    Thanks!
     
    #1 zenMachine, Jul 9, 2007
  2. 1fixitman

    1fixitman Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 9 2007, 11:18 AM) [snapback]475513[/snapback]</div>
    Ensure that when you jump start it that you do not cross the leads up...ie pos on neg...blah blah. Much damage may result electronically if you mess it up and it will not be warranty covered. With the door panels off is the interior light still on when the door is closed??? BTW...when the small 12Volt battery is dead you can not take the car out of park to move it..Bah.
    D Rock
     
    #2 1fixitman, Jul 9, 2007
  3. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    Of course, I couldn't open the hatch to get to the 12V battery either! Darn it...

    Luckily, my neighbor lent me his 25ft heavy duty jumper cable so I was able to jumpstart at the front.
    Removing the fuse box cover was a bit of guesswork since the manual really doesn't tell you much
    about which way to open it up. Also, the jumper post was in such a tight spot that I couldn't clip the
    clamp onto it. I ended up having to use a vice grip as an extension. What a difficult design!

    (Note to self: Buy a LONG jumper cable that has needle-nose ends and stow it in the hatch box.)

    Anyways, turned out the problem was that I left my dome lights on last night after installing the
    non-slip console pads. And also the rear hatch was not closed all the way...

    Now I'll have to re-disable all the freaking beeps...
     
    #3 zenMachine, Jul 10, 2007
  4. hschuck

    hschuck Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 9 2007, 09:12 PM) [snapback]475948[/snapback]</div>
    It is difficult (although possible) to get into the hatch box when you cannot open the hatch because your battery is dead. Maybe stow cables under a front seat.
     
    #4 hschuck, Jul 10, 2007
  5. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hschuck @ Jul 10 2007, 12:32 AM) [snapback]475980[/snapback]</div>
    I thought about that right after hitting "Add Reply". Figured somebody would bring up this up.

    Note to self: write Toyota and congratulate their engineers for yet another brilliant "safety" feature.

    Maybe the 3rd gen will have a mechanical keyhole for the hatch?? Nah, that'd be too easy...
     
    #5 zenMachine, Jul 10, 2007
  6. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 10 2007, 07:36 AM) [snapback]476096[/snapback]</div>
    My last car had a trunk release lever next to the gas cover release. Be handy when there's no power.
     
    #6 aaf709, Jul 10, 2007
  7. siliconhybrid

    siliconhybrid Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 9 2007, 10:18 AM) [snapback]475513[/snapback]</div>
    When my Prius got rear-ended couple months ago, I park in the garage on Friday am.
    Came Tuesday am, I could not get the car started, it was because the hatch light was always on (due to the accident the hatch did not close properly).
     
    #7 siliconhybrid, Jul 10, 2007
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