2007 Prius (1 month old); Dead Battery; 400 miles

[freerangemike]

I had to jump my wife's 2007 Prius this morning. The car has about 400 miles on it, is 1 month old, and was driven yesterday. The car was completely dead. Unfortunately, I was not there when she turned the car off and exited yesterday. Nor was I there when she got to the car this morning. Here is what she reports:
1. She parked, hit the P button and the Power button. She unplugged her iPod from the power adapter but left the adapter itself in the 12V outlet. (Simple adaptor with no apparant capacitors or power draw.)
2. She exited the car, and pushed the exterior lock button on the door. Her key was not left in the car, so it could not have been left inadvertantly running all night.
3. When she got to the car this morning, about 16 hours later, the car was unlocked. No interior lights came on. Nothing happened when she hit the power button. She was unable to start the car using the manual key.
4. There was no visible damage to the car (other than below). Her iPod was still in the center console.
5. Last week, she was hit on the driver's side by a guy turning left from a side street. We are still awaiting the insurance resolution to get the damage repaired. Damage appears to be cosmetic only.

My only theories here are:
1. Mechanical failure within electrical system: I haven't seen any other reports of this problem on Priuses, except when they have been left idle for a couple weeks.
2. The Alarm was going off all night, unbeknownst to us.
3. The damage to the door caused some short circuit which is draining the battery, perhaps by repeatedly locking and unlocking the door.

Any ideas?

[V8Cobrakid]

the fob was being pressed in her purse?

the 12v battery is an iffy battery ( to some... no i )

take it to toyota and tell them the 12v died last night. tell them the car was shut down properly and no interior lights were left on. then tell them that early in the morning the alarm started going off. it took a while to stop and that must have been it dying.


a good hypothetical story usually gets things fixed or replaced.


sound concerned when you take it in.. and angry because it's delayed your schedule and you don't want it to happen again


well.... that's what i would do...

[IsrAmeriPrius]

About six months ago, my car refused to lock and was repeatedly beeping in protest as I kept pushing the black lock button on the door handle. It turned out that the culprit was a portable DVD charger which my daughter left plugged in the power outlet. Once I disconnected it, I was able to lock the car.

My educated guess is that the iPod charger was still draining some current which prevented your wife from successfully locking the car and resulted in the dead battery.

[MegansPrius]

If the alarm was going off all night, that seems a pretty obvious source for a power drain. The Prius does have a passive alarm mode that will let the alarm go off without the door being locked.

Prius alarm passive mode -- lets alarm go off without door locked
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=27931&hl=alarm

Another poster here reported a (resolved) situation of battery draining from a loose connection.

Battery drain from loose connection
http://priuschat.com/index.php?s=&show...st&p=381141

[daveleeprius]

we leave our cell phone charger plugged in to the port inside the center console all the time with no problems. Strange that a ipod power adapter would be the culprit.

Dave

[IsrAmeriPrius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveLeePrius @ Apr 20 2007, 01:26 PM) [snapback]426953[/snapback]</div>

we leave our cell phone charger plugged in to the port inside the center console all the time with no problems.[/b]

I do too, without any problems; however, I did have the problem, described above, when the DVD charger was left plugged in.

[rudiger]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveLeePrius @ Apr 20 2007, 04:26 PM) [snapback]426953[/snapback]</div>

we leave our cell phone charger plugged in to the port inside the center console all the time with no problems. Strange that a ipod power adapter would be the culprit.[/b]

I have two Samsung cell-phone chargers, an OEM unit and an aftermarket version that swivels and has a longer cord. When the OEM charger is plugged into the center console receptacle, it does not appear to draw current if the cell-phone is not also attached (the LED light on the plug only lights up when the cell-phone is plugged in). The aftermarket charger, OTOH, seems to draw current all the time, whether the cell-phone is plugged in or not.

So, it appears that some of the better cigarette light accessory chargers may be smart enough to not draw current (and then drain the battery) if they are not also attached to the accessory at the same time (which many people would do when leaving the vehicle with their cellphone). Of course, this feature won't help if both the charger and accessory are left plugged in while the vehicle is left not running.

[chuck_k]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius @ Apr 20 2007, 04:30 PM) [snapback]426957[/snapback]</div>

I do too, without any problems; however, I did have the problem, described above, when the DVD charger was left plugged in.
[/b]

But the car turns the outlet off. The charger being plugged in would have no effect on the ability of the car to turn that outlet completely off.

Focusing on the DVD charger per se is a false hope. Focus on the outlet itself. If the outlet remains on after the car is turned off, then the car is broken.

[dmckinstry]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chuck_k @ Apr 21 2007, 05:20 PM) [snapback]427491[/snapback]</div>

But the car turns the outlet off. The charger being plugged in would have no effect on the ability of the car to turn that outlet completely off.

Focusing on the DVD charger per se is a false hope. Focus on the outlet itself. If the outlet remains on after the car is turned off, then the car is broken.
[/b]

Yep. The "cigarette lighter" 12V sources are off when the car is off. Of course, not if the in AUX mode rather than READY mode. Is it possible that when she turned off the car, she inadvertently hit the power button twice. The second touch would put it back in AUX mode. Which I believe leaves the 12V outlets on. I may be wrong on that. I'll have to try it again myself. I'm thinking I am wrong, since the Toyota engineers are too smart to let that happen. Of course, in READY mode, the car would recharge the battery whenever it got low.

Dave M.

[dmckinstry]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dmckinstry @ Apr 21 2007, 07:09 PM) [snapback]427589[/snapback]</div>

Yep. The "cigarette lighter" 12V sources are off when the car is off. Of course, not if the in AUX mode rather than READY mode. Is it possible that when she turned off the car, she inadvertently hit the power button twice. The second touch would put it back in AUX mode. Which I believe leaves the 12V outlets on. I may be wrong on that. I'll have to try it again myself. I'm thinking I am wrong, since the Toyota engineers are too smart to let that happen. Of course, in READY mode, the car would recharge the battery whenever it got low.

Dave M.
[/b]

OK. First I voted for the AUX mode being on, and then I voted for it not being on. I'm a real flip flopper.

This morning I remembered to check it out.

Double striking the power button (in park, with foot off brake) does put the car in what I call AUX mode (probably not the real term). The speedometer display stays off and the MFD takes several seconds to turn back on and might not be noticed.

In that mode, the 12V outlet (at least the one in front) is on and could drain the battery if left that way over night.

Dave M.