It won't start...

Start by disconnecting the 12v battery for a minute and then reconnect it. also the key, make sure when you put the key in and turn it on that the little red led security light next to the tape player goes out. also. check your 12v battery and make sure that the battery is holding steady and does not go below 11.5 v when you turn it on, having that battery go to 6v could of done it in and it sits at 12.7 but when applying a load, it kills it and it cant energize the main battery relay. thats another thing. take your seat back out and look at the two orange wires coming out of the main battery pack, put your meter on the terminals after removing the little protective shield there while using gloves and turn the car on, high voltage 200+ volts should be present, if not. check your main battery relay, maybe a wire came loose or the relay could be bad and can be found used online.

talk to Bob Wilson and Patrick Wong, they know the prius well.

 

Very nice!!! Glad I could help. if you put the new battery in and it still acts up, it could be that hv battery relay.
if you dont mind me asking, how much did you get the car for? how many miles?
You may want to do this while you have the car also. Preventive maintenance is key. I run 10w 30 full synthetic in mine. also change the trans fluid and pan. there are write ups on this. and this below: the throttle body cleaning.

 

not bad. these cars are going for close to 4k at that mileage around here.

 

How is the car coming along? Oh invest in a scanguage for it as that will allow you to monitor the battery. I have one on the way.

 

is the last fuel bar blinking on the dash?

 

that could cause your no start issue. usually the last bar blinks. just get about 3 gallons in a can and throw that in there. that should put a reading on the gauge. oh and by the way if you read up on the gas gauge on these cars, they are called a guess gauge because of the fuel bladder. It has a gas tank but inside the tank is an expandable bladder for the gas to go into.

 

if the battery is unbalanced, its not able to put out the power to the electric motor or sustain it so the engine has to rev to keep power to the wheels. Looking at the energy screen on your dash, where is the battery indicator at most of the time while driving. mine stays at 3/4 almost all the time.

 

hmmm. I would say that you have to balance the battery. Guys is there a procedure where could he force charge the battery,drain it, then force charge it again to try to balance it?

 

Hi Woody, you can charge two cells of similar charge state still in series with a 12v charger running at 15VDC or thereabouts (just needs to be little over the 14.4 normal voltage of 2 cells in series). Of course you will have removed the safety plug to break the connection between the two 1/2's of the ~ 276 volt package. Or you could charge ones singly which you determine to be weak with a hobby charger designed for Radio controlled cars and planes. I have a charger for which I paid around $20 from one of the mail order hobby places, it'll do 2 cells at a time and you can choose Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, or Li-Po at the press of a button so it's pretty versatile for any little batteries. it charges at a max of 1 amp so the 6ah cells would theoretically take 6 hours at 1 amp; 18 hours at 1/3 amp being much better if you have time. Time's the key word with 38 of the little boogers. I would pick the low ones only and let the rest be, without a special charger like the dealers presumably have, the car's own charging system is pretty good. I had the same idea to save the old battery, but after finding 6 of 8 charged and tested to be bad, realized the $2299 quoted by Toyota dealer to be lesser of several evils, now have I have a new, not rebuilt battery hopefully good for 10 years like the first one was. I just asked myself, would I buy a used, 5 year old laptop battery, tested, charged, and advertised to be 67% of new condition for 30% off new price? the answer was easy- never.

I'm a new Prius owner as well, master auto tech before I retired 13 years ago from 'wrenching'. Never even touched a hybrid before this one. Learned a lot so far from my new-to-me 2001 Prius- new HV battery first week (but I knew before buying it), fixed a few more things and love this car. I fell for the "look the buttons and screen are already there" trap and already added "factory" NAV to it... couldn't be without another computer in this car that has so many I guess

Good luck,

Rick