Confused on what the problem is on my 08

Hey everyone,

its been a while since i posted on this forum but if some of you remember me, i bought two priuses at the same time last february. one for me and one for my wife. she works in l.a. and me in san francisco.

anyway, today, as she was going out from her work, she called me and told me the car would not start. i asked here what the indicators were but of course she does not know how to describe it to me which resulted to an argument. from what i understand is that when she tried to hit power, the power button lights up in red and nothing happens. i told her to cycle the car several times but it gets a little vague from there. she puts the key fob into the slot instead of using the smart key and the same thing happened and she described to me that there is a triangle with an exclamation point and all the other indicators in the display were blinking. i told her to just lock the car up and leave it for the night, however, this time the car would not lock and the beeping sound as if the key was inserted in the car kept on beeping. to top it all, she made me diagnose what was wrong with her car. coincidentally i was not driving my prius today and i was driving my slk which added to my frustration having to figure out what the problem was while i was away from the car or even a manual.

i could not imagine that a car especially a toyota would do this to you if its 6 months old. can someone point me to the right direction?

i will be calling the toyota roadside assistance tomorrow so it can be towed or aaa. meanwhile im just confused one whether to buy extended warranties on both cars or just sell them both and just get regular cars instead. im a little frustrated and im just venting but if someone can help me then so much the better.

thanks everyone,

 

sorry guys. i overlooked that there was a maintenance and troubleshooting section. mods please move this thread. i apologize.

 

sounds right to me too. ive also done a little searching and have noticed that it is what the other have experienced. i am suspecting more of the headlights were left on but she would not admit it. as far as the door being ajar, it would not have locked the car right? oh well... im 400 miles away so i cant do anything on my end. strangely is that it never happened to me when that car was with me. i just swapped her that car yesterday and now this happens. ill just have it towed to the dealership. it is two miles away from her work and that's what we pay aaa for right?

 

to answer the reply before this, yes, i told her to have the car towed to a toyota dealer tomorrow rather than have aaa jump the car. i had a bad experience with aaa once where the guy did not know how to change a flat tire for a friends car and i ended up doing it.

yes she has always wanted a prius that is why i gave up my evo for two of these. but judging from today's dissapointment, i think she has chahged her mind a bit.

no, she has brought the right fob with her because she was still able to open the car with the fob. at least that's what she told me because there was one time where she went inside a prius and wondered why it would not start, it turned out it wasnt her car and the other person just forgot to lock it. she couldve sworn that she heard the car unlock. oh well.... however, i would still think she has the right fob since i have both fobs for one prius and she has both for the other. plus she has attached a small sanrio bell on it where mine doesnt. it is too embarrasing to have that.

hopefully its just a discharged 12v.

 

hi everyone. just a quick update on things. basically my wife went back to her workplace and called aaa. the towtruck showed up within an hour and the guy who was there wanted to jump the car but sounded like he did not know anything. i talked to him on the phone and told him id rather have it towed. since he was bringing the regular tow truck, i asked if they could send a flatbed. i got used to a flatbed because of my evo and i think it is better than by dragging the car around. it took them two hours to get a flat bed but then when the guy arrived, i talked to him and he said that he can try and jump the car first. i acted stupid and said i dont know where the battery is. he told me that he has jumped a prius before and there was a port to jump up front. i felt comfortable when he told me that and agreed for him to try it.

it took a while to get the car to start but after a minute or two, the prius went back to life. he then advised us to drive to the toyota dealership because the battery is really dead. to make the long story short, toyota did a load test on the aux battery and it failed so they replaced it under warranty. i hope it was just a premature wear on the battery and not on the car. it was a good thing it failed while the car was in the city and not commuting from sf to la.

 

I asked the service tech what happened to the battery. he said that it could have been that she left the lights on or it was just a defective battery. i hope it was just a defective battery and nothing more that caused the battery to drain. the other thing is that if the battery drained, then it shouldve charged back up right?

 

i dont even think the battery drained at all. she is very mechanical in what she does and the only way the headlights are left on when you lock the car is when you opened the door, hit power again and turned the car off. or if you turn off the light off and on manually right? so i dont think she has left the light on. I was also suspecting that since i installed an hid kit on hers and mine but mine is now busted and reverted back to halogens.

yeah i agree that id also rather get stuck than her. i am 400 miles away and she asks me to troubleshoot it so i asked her what do you see? she tells me a red blinking light. ayayay.... like that's gonna help. :juggle: yeah im hoping it was just a defective battery.