Prius 2010 would not start

it won't "start"? they don't really start.

what happens when you hit the power button with your foot on the brake then put it in R ?

 

Sounds like a bad 12v. Probably left a light on last night. It happens...

 

When you press your foot firmly on the brake do the brake lights come on? If not really press hard on the brake till the brake lights come on. Then try to hit the power button

 

Hi Spenumatsa,

Try opening and reclosing firmly the rear hatch.....

 

Does the READY light come on, left side of instrument cluster. If it does not the car is not on even though the display and all the lights are on. As mentioned above you have to put your foot on the brake then push the power button to go into READY.

Some cars left the factory (mine for one) with the brake light switch adjusted to far down and you have to push pretty hard to get into READY. If that is your problem the dealer should be able to adjust it for you in about 5 minutes or you can find the procedure on this site and do it yourself.

If the the ready light is on and it still can't be driven you have a more serious problem and need the dealer to fix it for you.

I would think if all the lights and the display come on the 12V battery is not the problem, but I'm not sure about that. You could check it just by turning on the headlights and see if they are nice and bright.

 

Spenumasta,

I've had the same intermittent problem with my car. In my case, my 12 volt battery is unable to hold a charge. It has enough juice to fire up the car in the morning, and after my hour long commute, it is fine. But, over the course of the day, the charge dissipates and then it is low again. I've measured this on the MFD screen as well as using a voltmeter on the battery terminals.

When it happened last (yesterday), I measured the voltage on the MFD screen and came up with 9.1 Volts (not good for a 12 volt battery). I had the hatch open when I tried starting it (because I was wiping down the exterior windows and I wanted the car to go through its "warm up" cycle while I was clearing the windows. I powered down and restarted with the hatch closed. It started up fine. I'm thinking even having the lights on was causing enough of a drain to prevent the car from booting up.

I have had it happen where a couple of boots won't get the car boot up, but it would boot up eventually. I'm sorry I can't give you a solution to your problem, but you aren't alone with OEM battery issues.

I'll be taking mine back to the dealer, but I want to make DARN sure the battery is low enough that they replace it under warranty, rather than say....well....it's low, but still within parameters.

 

Actually, about a month ago, one Saturday night I was looking for something in both of my cars and accidently left both of the cars' all interior lights on until Tuesday morning when I started my suzuki SUV (barely new). And of course it didn't start. The battery was completely dead! So I thought, "Oh great, if this normal car's battery's dead, I'm sure Prius's 12V battery is even more dead." So I nerviously started the prius thinking it either won't start or the battery will be way low after being drained with almost all lights on for 2 days. But, not only the prius started with no problem, it still had more than 5 bars of battery! So, I realized once more the great quality of my Prius while I was calling Suzuki road side assistance to come and jump start my Suzuki!

 

The battery bars show the charge state for the High Voltage Battery, and don't convey any information about the charge condition of the smaller 12 Volt battery which "starts" the car. The 12 volt battery must be measured with an external voltmeter or by using the test mode on the MFD. See this thread for details on test mode and much information on the 12 volt system:

http://priuschat.com/forums/newbie-forum/73400-weird-stuff-happening-mpgs-dropping-test-battery.html

 

Even brand new batteries can have problems--I had a brand new 1998 Mercedes, dead short only under load. It would test fine on a meter, but when they tested it under load they found the short.

 

Sometimes? Look at Sony and all their major recalls...batteries are certainly not free from risk of manufacturing defects (like anything else).

 

Be warned: Now that the battery has been discharged it will not hold the same charge. Just like how cold and age effect charge as well.

Did you perhaps leave the SKS key within a few meters of the car all night? Could be something on that you didnt even know was on like the key talking to the car "saying im here".

 

Don't most if not all of those lights shut off automatically?

 

Spenumatsa, what are the voltage values as reported on the nav display? When my 2006's 12v went south on me I checked the battery after 1 week. If the numbers still look good go to 2 weeks. If they don't look good then trickle charge over night or complain to the dealer that the battery isn't holding a charge. If the battery is holding a charge then I'd stop checking.