Weird issue with my 2010 Prius III not starting

A passible digital multimeter will set you back $40~50. Comes in handy for all sorts of checks.

Under the hood is the fuse box. Pop off the lid and you should see a red plastic rectangle, about an inch long. Flip it open by depressing the locking tab and you'll see a bare copper bar. It's a ready source of 12 volt.

You touch the positive lead on your meter to that bare copper bar, and negative lead to any bare metal on the car body or engine. There's an exposed bolt directly across on the engine that's handy.

 

Cool. Set it to measure DC voltage, range at least 15 volts, range will probably be higher on meter. Select lowest range for most accurate reading.

SCH-I535

 

Pay the $300 for a new 12 volt. My guess that will solve your problem, or you could play around with it for a few weeks, get stuck a few times, then replace the 12 volt, your choice.

 

I hope it works! Good luck.

 

congrats! what'd they hammer you for on the bat? i hate when dealers trip to gip me!

 

can't blame you, seems reasonable in a time crunch too.

 

I'm sure it will be nice to have your old reliable car back! I'm glad it worked and I was only $30 off on the price.

 

Glad in the end that it turned out that Techno-Zen was able to correct his issue with the replacement of the 12 volt battery.

As an aside, my dealer up here started at the last service to include a battery test as part of normal service for no additional cost to me.

I was shocked when I looked at the little print-out attached to my service receipt that indicated "pass" Prius voltage test 11.8v.... to me that reads dead. But I've not had any weird issues, the car lives outside and has since greatly reduced use this past year roughly as I've had both knees replaced.

I used a multimeter under the hood the next day and stopped checking after seeing a 'cold' reading of 12.6... which is more in line of what I would expect. I am still planning to change our the 12 volt either this year or next, simply because it approaches end of life in my mind since I've driven the car since new in July 09.

Just wondering if I should go with the Toyota battery, Optima, or even Canadian Tire here that lists an Exide agm unit that is not cylindrical in construction like the Optima, but uses flat sheets, like I suppose one gets in the Toyota standard. Claims to have a 5 year warranty, a vent hookup and was on sale a short time back for $150 with a $15 core charge. You guys buy into the Optima construction advantages or think it all comes down to marketing? Comments?

Roland.