08, New Battery, still dead

Prius, 08, smart key.
Dead on Sunday am --- nothing works. Put trickle on the underhood postive and neg to body bolt. Got enough juice to open rear hatch (and dome light comes on )

Replaced with toyota battery. Neg cable taken off first, then pushed up out of the way behind carpet.

Still dead. Checked both batteries at Autozone. 94 and 100% --- wasn't battery in the first place. Checked clear window fusible link on top of pos post --- still good. Can get locks and lights to work with trickle charge.

Now what?

 

cw,
Good question. Key in slot changes nothing. By "nothing" I mean no dome lights, no door locks, nothing. I can still hook up the trickle charger to the front UnderHood jump points and get dome lights and door locks. But, they go off as soon as I disconnect. For whatever the reason-- the charge in the fully charged battery is not traveling to the really important stuff in the front of the car.

 

Battery connection is most solid. Battery was tested this afternoon -- both the old one and the new one are just fine -- in other words; it wasn't the battery in the first place.

Fuses? What fuse can take out the whole 12v system?? Name it and I will check it.

 

Hmmm... by connections do you mean the battery cables to the pos and neg posts? As I mentioned, those are solid --- a 10mm box wrench makes that easy stuff. What other connections?

I double checked the little 5amp fuse and the big ole 120amp fuse with the clear window(duh) that are in the box attached to the pos posts -- all good. I even took the 120 out and held it in my hand ---all good. I will take that fuse to autozone in the am, just to triple check its aforementioned solidarity, but expect a thumbs up.

I will get a 12v dig tester tomorrow and dig deeper. Anyone with any thoughts on where to test???

 

Thanks Patrick,
I got stuck on #4 -- fuse is good, but no voltage at the pos jump terminal and ground.

Cable huh?

 

Yep. I checked for voltage on both contacts on the little 5 amp fuse. All good. Just not making it to the front.

I am now looking forward to explaining to AAA how I want the car safely removed from the garage by the tow truck fellas. Dealer bound in the am.

Thanks folk!!

 

It was towed to the dealer today. They found an "open" circuit that had something to do with the Park function. I will get the exact wording when I pick it up tomorrow. Looks like less than $200.

 

Ok folks. Here is the final scoop.
Towing from the garage was interesting. The tow truck driver new his Priusi. He proceeded smartly to the positive jump post to hook up his portable charge kit. He wanted me to simply put in in neutral. I then popped out my newly acquired voltmeter and showed him 12.6 and some change on the rear battery terminals, the negative ground nut, and even coming out of the main fuse coupling --- I was attempting to show him that my battery did not need a charge.

I then took the voltmeter to the pos jump post/ground and showed him 0.0. I told him to hook up his charger, but that it would not work --- all we could get was a weak dome light and a bit of door lock/unlock function. He didn't listen; he hooked it up and looked at me incredulously when I told him that I could not put it in neutral. I reminded him again that we had no dash lights, no "ready", -- lot's of nothing. He became a believer.

He was as kind as possible as he slid my car out of the garage onto the flat bed. For those paying attention, you know that the rear wheels were turning, but the front was locked tight ---scoot, squeak, and slide.

I followed it to the dealer. Their desire to fix it by simply "jumping it off" was strong, but they finally listened when I explained the symptoms for the 4th time.

They called late the same day -- it was fixed. They found 2 things; first a poor ground at rear 12v battery. They seemed to be referring to the bolt that attaches the neg battery cable to the body. It was apparently intermittent, because it checked fine several times for me. But, alas --- the car is still dead. Must be a second symptom.

Here is what is typed on the work order -- Following repair to body ground to power up vehicle, it still would not "ready" on due to inoperable park operation. Traced down open in junction box for park circuit and repaired connection. Flukey, huh?

They gave me a total of $235, but the car had recently been in a rear-ender (6k worth) and I called the body shop (same dealer) and asked him to take care of the portion of the bill related to the poor ground (that was all on their repair). He said sure. I asked both the collision manager, and the service advisor, and the tech if the park circuit snafu could be related to the collision -- all said no.

I picked up a fully functional car today. But, get this --- no charge --- the collision guy had passed the whole bill off to an insurance adjustment. I didn't argue.

I would be curious if anyone else has had an open junction box for park circuit.
Thanks for your help.