Battery drains if door panel off for extended period?

[zenMachine]

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!

[1fixitman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 9 2007, 11:18 AM) [snapback]475513[/snapback]</div>

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!
[/b]

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

[zenMachine]

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...

[hschuck]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 9 2007, 09:12 PM) [snapback]475948[/snapback]</div>

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

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.

[zenMachine]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hschuck @ Jul 10 2007, 12:32 AM) [snapback]475980[/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.
[/b]

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...

[aaf709]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 10 2007, 07:36 AM) [snapback]476096[/snapback]</div>

Maybe the 3rd gen will have a mechanical keyhole for the hatch?? Nah, that'd be too easy...
[/b]

My last car had a trunk release lever next to the gas cover release. Be handy when there's no power.

[siliconhybrid]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 9 2007, 10:18 AM) [snapback]475513[/snapback]</div>

Q: What could possibly have drained the battery?

Thanks!
[/b]

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).