freak dead battery

Can you tell if it is the original, 12 V battery? If so, you've gone about 2-3 years longer than I did. I replaced mine in January 2009 for the 2003 Prius. As for what caused the specific failure, lights, door ajar, or even corrosion on the terminals or ground wire.

It would help if you could measure the 12 V battery voltage unloaded, +12 V and with the car running, 13.8 V. Also, open the hood and with the car on, check the fluid flow in the inverter reservoir. You want to see the fluid flowing as we've had some scattered reports of inverter pump failure being associated with inverters failing their 12 V DC-to-DC converter.

One caution, it is very easy for folks to reverse the jump and this can not only blow a lot of fuses but also some expensive control computers. But to answer your original question about having a portable jump pack, if your 12 V battery is fairly new, no need for a jump pack.

Many of us have gone to after market batteries and options include:

• Sears has a replacement
• Optima (Google "prius optima" for examples)
• Odyssey PC925

I went with an Odyssey:

But this approach requires making jumpers and using shims to hold it in the car:

But then my car also has a 1 kW inverter so the higher capacity, if somewhat smaller volume battery makes sense.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

My daytime driving lights (2002) stay on after my engine off/key out until I cycle the drivers door. If I'd done what you did, my 'original' 12v battery would last about 5 min. Kind of annoying, especially when it happens on a ferry. I keep a jumper box in the trunk hard wired to the 12v and use the rotating switch on the box for the temporary jump. Need to replace the 12v some time soon because it's gotten to the point where leaving the car for a week or so requires I use my jump box to start.

 

Sounds like the sketchy 12v OEM battery has lasted longer than you had any right to hope for. I HIGHLY recommend the Optima and installation kit from eLearnaid.com. Even if our 2002 is on its second OEM battery, you're going to need a better replacement soon -- do it now and save yourself some aggravation! Here's a link to the battery and kit for the 2002 model!

12 Volt Toyota Prius Battery for 2001-2003 with installation kit

 

I would just add that the upgraded battery from Toyota could be a contender too. In October 2003 Toyota started replacing the original GS batteries with a Panasonic S55D23L, Toyota's part number 28800-21190, which required (like all other battery upgrades) a tray/holddown/cable retrofit kit, in this case Toyota p/n 04003-23147. The price isn't bad from Toyota dealers on partswebsite, $112 for the battery and $31 for the kit and I only checked one of the 18 dealers.

If the OP's battery says Panasonic rather than GS then that upgrade was already done and only the battery would be needed, otherwise the kit's needed too.

The eLearnAid page on their Optima battery and fit kit says it's a 38 amp-hour battery; the Toyota upgrade, according to the translated data sheet mlibanio found, is 48 AH, 26% better capacity than the Optima at an attractive price, so I'd say it definitely deserves a place among the options.

-Chap

 

Will that #28800-21190 battery fit in the GenII Prius? If so, it sounds like that would possibly be a better option than even the eLearnAid one. Panasonic is usually a high quality battery too.

 

I had installed the Panasonic battery and the associated battery installation kit a few years ago, in my 2001.

This battery is not suitable for 2G because of 1) its physical size and 2) the opposite battery terminal polarity, since the 12V battery is installed on the left side of the trunk in Classic, and on the right side of the hatch in 2G/3G.