Prius C dead hybrid battery

No - The Hybrid system works with the ICE. Without a operational hybrid battery pack, the car will not function as it should.

 

You may have to deal with rapid charge & discharge in uncharacteristic ways, like driving at steady speed on flat ground, about 2 weeks before failing. The car makes it apparent when it fails, the display will say Hybrid Problem, you will get the triangle of death on the screen and or all your dash lights will come on. When this first occurs you can still drive it, but it may go into a very slow (self-preservation) mode if the battery is real bad.

 

Actually the hybrid battery (or the technical term - traction battery) is what starts the car not the 12V battery, so if the traction battery is dead car will not work. The original 12v battery does not have enough power to start a car so never try to jump start another car using a Prius C.

Another thing, car should be in Park or Drive gear positions to enable it to charge the traction battery using the ICE when traction battery discharges to about last two notches in the battery display. So you have to keep the car in D mode and stay on brakes in stop and go traffic to prevent the battery getting excessively discharged .

 

"Start the car" is perhaps ambiguous. My understanding is that when the car is turned off the traction battery is disconnected from everything, and that it's the 12V battery which runs systems such as the immobilizer, door locks, remote entry, and anything else that functions with the car turned off (including all the little pump noises you hear when you open the driver's door after the car's been off for a while). So the 12V battery is required to "start" the car in the sense that it "turns on" and activates the traction battery for use. If the 12V battery is dead, then there's no way to turn the car on.

The traction battery is used to start the engine, but that's not the same as "starting the car".

 

the prius will give you as much warning as any car on the road.

 

old car or new car on the road?

 

Yep perfectly put.. thanks for clarifying that... I guess it should be more like getting the car to Ready mode?