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Stopped dead, no power, no lights

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by jeremymiles, Oct 21, 2009.

  1. jeremymiles

    jeremymiles New Member

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    Hi All,

    2008 Prius, bought June last year.

    I drove to work this morning. Pulled into a parking space, stopped, turned off power, got out of the car, and it wouldn't lock.

    I got back in, and there was absolutely no electrical power to anything. Start button has no effect, interior lights won't come on, hazard lights won't come on, headlights won't come on. As far as I can tell, there's no power to anything at all.

    There was nothing special about the drive - temp was mid 60s, didn't have headlights on. I've done a bit of searching, and not found anyone mentioning this - does anyone have any insights?


    Thanks,

    J
     
    #1 jeremymiles, Oct 21, 2009
  2. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Check the 12V battery and connections.

    Tom
     
    #2 qbee42, Oct 21, 2009
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  3. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Yeah, I was thinking 12v also.

    The 12v is used only to start the car. After that, it serves no purpose. Or as Hobbit told me once, "Once you have started the hybrid system, you can take it out of the car if you want and I have from time to time."

    So it sounds to me as though something happened to the 12v during the drive (disconnected, bad wire, just up and died) and there was no way to know until after you shut off the hybrid system since the 12v would have been needed to lock the doors.

    One sure fire way to test it would be to ask a buddy for a jump. I would bet that your car would spring to life.*

    *Please be careful when jumping the car. Follow the user's manual to a tee.
     
    #3 TonyPSchaefer, Oct 21, 2009
  4. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    Most likely left a door or the hatch ajar, which can easily drain the 12V battery.
     
    #4 richard schumacher, Oct 23, 2009
  5. brick

    brick Active Member

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    Any updates on this? If I understand this right he didn't leave it for any significant period of time. He parked it and it died, and that's not something I have ever heard of. It makes me wonder if it's a blown fuse. Isn't there a big one in-line with the 12V battery?
     
    #5 brick, Oct 24, 2009
  6. CharlesJ

    CharlesJ Member

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    Yep, it worked for him before going to work:D and the 12v should have been charging some amount in that time. Then, shut down and nothing, couldn't lock it, no power; like a dead or off batter in that time. Curious indeed.
     
    #6 CharlesJ, Oct 24, 2009
  7. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    battery would have received enough charge on the drive to boost a float charge. if he shut if off and tried to power it back in less than a minute as it appears here.

    i would say a relay is bad. not recognizing power down. computer thinks car is still on cause traction battery not isolated.

    a potentially hazardous situation i think

    not true. the 12 volt battery powers everything when the car is off. and all that is not working on OP's car. the door locks, etc. at what other time does the door locks not work from the outside??

    when the car is on


    **edit**

    what i would try is disconnect the 12 volt battery...iow, do a hard reboot of the car. wouldnt hurt to check the voltage while you were at it
     
    #7 DaveinOlyWA, Oct 24, 2009
  8. tedroberts

    tedroberts Junior Member

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    I came out after work one day and my 2005 Prius was completely dead. It was fine when I drove it to lunch with a customer.

    Had the car dragged onto a flatbed tow truck and taken to the dealer.
    Verdict was a dead short in the 12 volt battery. They replaced the battery and everything has been fine. Car was about 1 year old at the time. Everything was covered under warranty including the tow and rental car over the weekend (car died on Friday).
     
    #8 tedroberts, Dec 27, 2009
  9. Bluefoster4

    Bluefoster4 New Member

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    I have this same issue. I have replaced the 12v battery and i still got no power to anything. Jump starting car works and the car runs fine after start but once its off its off until another jump start
     
    #9 Bluefoster4, May 21, 2018
  10. Karla411

    Karla411 Junior Member

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    Do you solve the problem? My 2008 Prius started doing The same. I take The battery cables off every time to reset and that works. But I would like to know The main problem.
     
    #10 Karla411, Oct 18, 2018
  11. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    The OP has not been on this site in over 8 years, I doubt you will get an answer.
     
    #11 Skibob, Oct 18, 2018
  12. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

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    If you are disconnecting and then reconnecting the battery to get the car to go to the "Ready" mode, you are resetting DTC codes that need to be read with a Prius compatible reader. This sounds like the type of error @JC91006 addresses in Post #8 of this thread:

    New 12v and 06 Prius still wont go into "D" or "R" | PriusChat
     
    #12 davecook89t, Oct 18, 2018
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  13. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    If you have to disconnect the cables every time you want to start the car, you have a high voltage leak. The car is protecting itself by disabling the start function after you shutdown. If you get codes read (without disconnecting the battery), you should get P0AA6.

    The problem could be anywhere in these systems, but the easiest repair would be in the HV battery itself, the modules from 2008 are known to leak.

    1. HV battery
    2. AC compressor
    3. Transaxle
    4. Inverter

    A dealer would charge around 3 to 4 hours to properly test all those areas, so it will be approx. $500+ before you even begin to do the repair.
     
    #13 JC91006, Oct 18, 2018
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