I blew up the inverter????

Paying a disputed repair bill will DEFINITELY NOT void your warranty. If you do decide to pay and are still considering further action, just include verbiage on the check or accompanying cover letter: "Paid under protest with full reservation of any and all rights."

 

The owner's manual shows its location and how to use it. It is located in the black plastic fuse box on the driver's side under the hood (bonnet), near the windshield washer tank. You pop the cover on the fuse box and the jumping post is in the upper left corner of the box, viewed leaning in over the front bumper.

Tom

 

We're talking real money here. I would be reluctant to pay the bill without some decent legal advice as to what rights you may be giving up. Perhaps advice from your local AG's office or lemon law office.

I don't know if I would trust advice given here,,,no offence to anyone!

Icarus

 

oh my goodness, your still without a car? I'd say at this point you should just try to sue them. Especially if it turns out you were right, and they cover the repair, sue them for the cost of a rental. This is a ridiculous amount of time to be out of a car.

 

Electrically, aren't the jumper posts and the battery posts electrically the same?

 

But the mention of "lawyer" and "sue" are conversation stoppers. Everybody gets defensive and starts to cover what they have done; in short, progress stops. Better to just keep talking even if you go over and over the same ground until they wear down.

 

Hi Andy,

The dedicated jump terminal is connected through a cable that runs the length of the car to the 120A fuse that lives in the fuse block on top of the positive battery terminal.

So, the difference between jumping at the dedicated terminal vs. jumping at the positive battery terminal is the resistance of the long cable and the 120A fuse. Normally, the difference is insignificant.

 

True, one may not be able to properly charge a battery through one diode drop. But a Prius can certainly be jumpstarted through one diode drop (unless the source for the jump was itself nearly dead). A proper charge of the battery would be done by the Prius itself, or if by an external charger, directly to the Prius battery, thus bypassing the proposed diode drop.

 

Got it, Thanks Pat.

 

A remote sensing charger would work fine even with the diode. In this case the voltage is monitored at the battery terminals, not at the charger.

Tom

 

Forget charging from the front. If we are trying to protect the car from bad jumping. (Huh!) A simple diode would solve it and potentially save thousands. IF you need to charge, do it from the back at the battery. The average car owner may jump his car once in a lifetime, and have jumper cables, but few (comparativly) have battery chargers of any sort. They leave that to the pros to screw up!

I just think that if the consiquenses are so significant, then Toyota should have foreseen this and since the safety device is so cheap, they should have designed it in. I think that is the crux of Ginnie's problem. The rest of this is just us blathering.

Icarus

 

I have the greatest sympathy for GinnyErns and her problem has me wondering. Given how easy it seems to be to create a major problem with jump starting a Prius (thought Ginny seems to have done it right and still had a problem). Is it worth buying a battery charger just in case the battery runs down? And if so, what type? It sounds like the voltage has to be pretty carefully controlled? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm not that familiar with car batteries. I have a feeling I may be mostly on my own with the Prius that I am waiting for. My husband likes our VW's and doesn't seem inclined to venture into Prius land with me. It's never too late (or to early) to learn!

 

You misunderstood her post I was responding to. She thought paying a disputed bill would void her warranty.

 

I took a few pictures of both the 12vdc battery and fuse box.

From what I can tell there is nothing ambiguous or confusing about where the Red positive jumper connection is made. However it isn't sufficient to protect against brain farts.

If one were concerned about polarity reversal, they might make a 6" diode dongle that bolts to the stud and hangs on the outside of the fuse box. You could probably use a plastic film canister to insulate and protect. I'd probably use a diode with rating of 30-50 vdc and 20-50 amps.

 

I understand that the peak current drawn is around 30A, so it may be wise to use a silicon diode rated at least 50A.

Of course, this dongle would introduce 0.7V drop from the diode. It would also prevent battery current being drawn from the jump start point, which may be a good thing.

 

The dongle I was suggesting would be a dedicated jumper point. You would leave all existing wiring as is. Just add the dongle to outside of box. Whenever you need to jump start.. simply connect to dongle. The dongle would protect you from appling reverse polarity to your Prius's electrical system.

 

Hello everyone ... I'm new to this forum. I joined about 2 months ago and decided to purchase a new 2008 Prius (thanks to this forum).

When I purchased my Prius one of the first things I asked was where's the battery and how do I jump start the car if needed. The salesman and a mechanic who was there showed me both locations. That night I read the manual and in particular reviewed the section regarding jump starting and charging the battery. I have the manual in front of me now, and it indicates on page 376:

Before Recharging:

• If recharging with the 12 volt battery installed on the vehicle, be sure to disconnect the ground cable.
  
  
• Make sure the power switch on the charger is off when connecting and disconnecting the charger cables to the 12 volt battery.

In addition to the above, the next page 377, it indicates to only perform a "slow charge" ... 3.5 A or less.

Ginny .... did you remove the ground cable from the car while charging the battery? When you spoke to the salesman or the mechanic at the dealer did either of them tell you to disconnect the ground cabel before charging the battery? Did you have the charger on while connecting the cables to the battery? Did you perform a slow charge?

I'm sorry to have to say this, but if you didn't perform the above steps in the manual, the dealer may have a point when they say that you improperly jump started the car. On the other hand, if the mechanic at the dealership didn't tell you to disconnect the ground cable before re-charging, then you may have grounds to fight this .. but it's his word against yours too.

To the rest of the contributors here ... if either of the above instructions were not followed, would this cause the inverter to fry?


Hope this helps!
Dave

 

Hi Dave,

Yes, the point of disconnecting the negative battery cable before recharging the 12V battery is to prevent the Prius electronics from being exposed to the charging current.

The point of making sure that the charger is turned off before connecting/disconnecting the cables is to prevent the creation of a spark which might ignite hydrogen gas produced by the battery.

The point of limiting charging current to 3.5A is to comply with the warning label on top of the battery (although the label may allow a larger charging current, 4+ A.) I would use the 2A position on my charger.

You asked if not following the instructions would cause the inverter to fry. Most modern battery chargers are sensitive to reverse polarity or a failed battery and will not function if incorrectly hooked up or if the battery has a dead cell.

However if the charger produced excessive voltage, or if it lacked the sensing circuits that detect reverse polarity and shut down, then who knows what might happen.

 

I suggest that you make them and market them through PC. I'll sign up to buy one for my wife!

Icarus

 

I got lucky and just found a couple of SD41 (D04 35v 30a) schottky diodes in my scrap bend .. I may build a proto type and post the results.