Newbie with First Alarm Question

[jdcollins5]

I have had my new 2010 Prius III for about three weeks and had my first yellow alarm over the weekend. I was driving and went over a bump in the road and got the yellow triangle with the exclamation point and the message "Key Detected in Car". I pulled over and stopped, turned the car off and back on and the alarm was gone. The next bump it came back on. The last thing I had done was put a cooler with ice in the back. I got out and the back door was not fully closed. I closed the door solidly and did not see the alarm again.

I never saw an alarm for the back door not being fully closed. Has anyone else seen this? Do I need to discuss this with the dealer when I take it for the 5K maintenance? I have looked for other threads on this subject and did not find any.

[tumbleweed]

The yellow triangle indicates, among other things, that you have a message on the MID. That message was obviously the "Key Detected in Car" message. If you think about it that was a correct message but I'm not sure why you didn't get a door open message. You could try to duplicate the problem by doing the same thing again and see what you get.

If you mention it to the dealer don't expect any useful information, but give it a try anyway.

If I can remember I'll try the same thing today and see what I get.

[tumbleweed]

Just tried driving off with the hatch open. I get a "door open" light and a continuous beep, no yellow triangle and no "key in car" message. Of course you said your came open while driving and that may cause a different kind of alarm, at least you knew something was wrong.

[jdcollins5]

Tom,

I tried to simulate the back door being open again tonight. I found out that my back door actually has two latch points or clicks when closing. I closed the back door until I got the first latch point but not the second. When I got back in the car I had no alarms. When I went over the first speed bump I got the yellow warning light and the message "Key Detected in Vehicle" again, just like before. I did not see an open door indicator until we hit a second bump and the indicator flashed momentarily. I stopped and then had to to hit the Power switch to turn off the vehicle and turn it back on again to clear the alarm.

I went back and tried to close the back door softly enough to not make the first latch to see if I could get a solid open door alarm. The weight of the back door by itself was enough to make the first latch point. I could not get the back door to not make the first latch.

At least I have been able to repeat the alarm and now understand what the message means. I still do not understand why I did not get the solid open door alarm indicator, but at least I know what to expect the next time I see this alarm.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and trying to repeat the situation on your car.

Dwight

[stucker43]

I had the same yellow triangle pop up and could not figure out what was going on from the owners's maual. Thanks for the help. My back tailgate was slightly open also and I did not know it. Shutting it completely alleviated the problem.