1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

04 Prius is dead and tried to jump start it with no success

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by NewbiePRIUS, Jul 30, 2018.

  1. NewbiePRIUS

    NewbiePRIUS New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2018
    5
    1
    0
    Location:
    NYC
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Hi all! I'm in a predicament. My 2004 prius is dead and I don't know how to fix it. I went away for about 3 weeks and left my prius parked on the street, unused. Came back with a surprise, initially thought my two key fobs was out of battery but instead it was my car. No lights on the dashboard came on, and the blinkers/tail lights doesn't work either. I tried to jump start the car using the auxiliary battery with another car. I'm thinking maybe I'll try to charge it with my portable charger, and pray it works. This is my first car so any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
     
  2. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2017
    5,286
    4,225
    0
    Location:
    Northern California
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Welcome to Priuschat!!

    How old was your 12v battery, If you didnt turn off the SKS feature under the steering wheel then the 12v could've drained.

    Charge or replace as needed.
     
  3. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 10, 2016
    1,057
    789
    0
    Location:
    Washington State, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    While it is true you will need to charge or replace your 12V battery, it should have gone into "Ready" mode when you tried to jump start it, provided the other car's battery was fully charged and you hooked up the jumper cables correctly. Did nothing change when you tried to jump start it? Be very careful when you hook up another car's battery to the Prius. A crossed cable or short can at the very least blow an expensive fuse and at worst destroy the inverter, a $4,000 part at the dealer. I hope that hasn't already happened. It's best to use a jump start kit with a fail-safe polarity switch to revive a Prius with a dead 12V. If you have no other option but to use another car's battery, that car should not be running when connecting to the Prius. (Unlike other cars, the Prius has no starter to be cranked at startup, only a few low power-drawing computers). There are connection points in the fuse box on the driver's side under the hood of the Gen 2 Prius. There is no need to connect directly to the battery in the back.

    I hope this helps.
     
    SFO likes this.
  4. NewbiePRIUS

    NewbiePRIUS New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2018
    5
    1
    0
    Location:
    NYC
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Thank you for your responses. The donor car was turned on( didn't know any better) when we hooked up the jumper cablesI. 'm not sure what happened when I tried this but I got triple A to come today and they jump started my car with their own jumper charger, which turned on the car. I drove the car around for a few hours in hope of fully charging the battery. I read that by allowing the battery to fully drained, I pretty much decreased the life expectancy of the battery.
     
    davecook89t likes this.
  5. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2013
    16,464
    8,377
    0
    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    You need to fully charge that battery or get a replacement. Driving around doesn't really do it for the prius
     
    davecook89t likes this.
  6. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 10, 2016
    1,057
    789
    0
    Location:
    Washington State, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    I'm glad to hear you are back on the road, but you are correct that allowing the battery to drain may have killed it or at least made it unreliable from now on. The best strategy may be simply to replace it, but if you are careful you could try charging it with a plug in charger and then testing its capacity using some of the techniques described here:

    2007 Prius - trickle charging 12v battery overnight | PriusChat
     
  7. NewbiePRIUS

    NewbiePRIUS New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2018
    5
    1
    0
    Location:
    NYC
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I had to get my inspection done for the year, so they checked my battery and all and said there was no issues with it. The shop said they don’t print out reports so I don’t currently know the “health “ of my battery. I’m just hoping it’ll last me a while longer .
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    how old is it?
     
  9. NewbiePRIUS

    NewbiePRIUS New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2018
    5
    1
    0
    Location:
    NYC
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I have to look into it. Not too sure. What’s the normal life expectancy for 12V battery in Prius ? My car died again and needed to be jump started again. I’m wondering if it’s the colder weather. I only drive it once a week now.
     
  10. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 10, 2016
    1,057
    789
    0
    Location:
    Washington State, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    How long is your once-a-week drive? Unless the car is in the Ready mode for 10 hours or so, the battery will not fully charge. Further, if it is only driven once per week, it is mostly sitting with a low state of charge, which will certainly shorten its life. If you are parking on the street, I'm guessing using a trickle charger is not an option for you. Ideally, you would have a charger of the type that can be continuously plugged in and will switch from bulk charging mode to float charging mode when the battery reaches a full charge. Since I'm guessing you wouldn't want to have an extension cord stretched across the sidewalk, tripping passers-by, your best option might be to get something like this:

    1.5 Watt Solar Battery Charger

    I was using one of these for our Gen 4 that sits for long periods of time between drives, but I found that a single 1.5W panel was not enough to keep the battery fully charged, so I added another one, along with this:

    400 Watt Universal Solar Connector

    So far, so good, but now we are reaching the time of year where we don't get so many hours of sunlight. I may yet need to add a 3rd panel. I'm told that you don't really need to worry about overcharging a 12V battery if the total output of your charging system is less than 5 watts, so a 3rd panel should be OK. I am trying to keep the battery charged in this way because I don't want to leave a live extension cord stretched across the driveway for weeks at a time while we are out of town.
     
    SFO and bisco like this.
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,571
    48,862
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    in ny i would expect 6-8 years under normal use. but once a week driving won't keep it from draining due to constant draw, and as you say, cold is a problem.

    if you have an sks button under the steering wheel, turn it off. the will reduce the draw when not in use.
     
    davecook89t likes this.
  12. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2017
    5,286
    4,225
    0
    Location:
    Northern California
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    How many minutes/hours per week do you drive it?
     
  13. NewbiePRIUS

    NewbiePRIUS New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 30, 2018
    5
    1
    0
    Location:
    NYC
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I only drive it for 30 mins to move it around. I keep the car more as a convenience now than anything else. I use to drive it everyday -2x for 30 mins each trip. I don’t think I’ll do a trickle charge because of the lack of garage space . My train of thought was to have it checked out by a shop( currently in the process of looking for a Prius shop ) and evaluate if the battery needs to be change? I want to prevent any issues before winter comes along . But if I change the battery and have the same arrangement- will the new battery also have the same issue ? Trying to think ahead
     
  14. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 10, 2016
    1,057
    789
    0
    Location:
    Washington State, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    If you cannot or will not charge the 12V from time to time, I don't know what advice to give you. A new battery will also fail to start the car within a month or 2 and will die an early death under those conditions.

    We haven't even gotten to the HV battery. Unless you have installed a new one from a Toyota dealer recently, it will likely fail soon as well, given the age of the car. If you no longer need the car for anything other than pleasure, I would advise you to sell it now before the HV battery fails and buy one (Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic or similar) that is better adapted to occasional use.
     
    edthefox5 and Mendel Leisk like this.
  15. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2010
    54,474
    38,105
    80
    Location:
    Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    And even with a non-hybrid, if it's going to regularly sit idle, for days at a time, interrupted only by short trips, you'll need to keep it on an automatic charger, one that can be left on indefinitely.

    Street parking will make this difficult. Even underground parking such as you'd have with apartments, not so practical, unless there's a nearby 110 volt outlet that'll work.
     
    davecook89t likes this.
  16. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2007
    10,096
    4,795
    0
    Location:
    Clearwater, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Davecook covered it nicely except to say stop jump starting your Prius. It’s the quickest way I know to cause huge damage to the car. There is thousands of posts on this site about this.

    Use search forumS button up top search

    Dead battery.

    So many people reverse polarity jump start there Prius and blow it up. There in the trunk jumping the battery which is nuts. There is specific jump points to use under the hood never jump directly to the battery.
    It’s hard to reach it’s dark it’s confusing and completely unnecessary.

    You killed the 12 volt battery replace it with a new battery. You already are the luckiest guy on this forum using AAA to jump it and they didn’t blow it up. AAA has totaled many a Prius on this site. They bring huge current to a job that a dewalt 12 volt drill battery can be used.

    NEWB+DEAD 12+AAA-$$$$$$
     
    davecook89t likes this.
  17. exstudent

    exstudent Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2009
    2,207
    897
    0
    Location:
    Torrance, CA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    All over the place. I would say 5-7 years for a Prius that is driven regularly and has not seen a sever discharge event, requiring a jump, has had a great life.

    How many jump starts have you had so far? Your 12V batteries will always live a SHORT life, given the regular LACK of use.​

    THAT is insufficient to recharge the 12V. You would want to leave the car READY for hours to recharge the 12V battery.​

    Wat. You live in NYC?! Great public transportation (subway & buses). Is a car not be a liability there?

    Think of all the money you would save by getting rid of the car. NO maintenance. NO gas. NO liability/collision/comprehensive insurance. Why not just rent or taxi/rideshare a vehicle when needed?​

    Maybe NOT initially. But probably in a short period of time, say 2nd month, you will be in the same boat. Remember, lack of regular use is the underlying problem.

    If the car has SKS, you could deactivate it, which will slow down the self discharge rate. BUT, you will still be in the same boat (maybe in 2months), b/c of lack of regular use.​
     
    davecook89t likes this.
  18. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 10, 2016
    1,057
    789
    0
    Location:
    Washington State, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    For those of you who may have been influenced by what seems to be a recommendation of the Harbor Freight 1.5 Watt Solar Battery Charger, I would like to report that I have now bought 4 of these and 2 of them have failed. For this product, at least, I am officially off the bandwagon. I was using one of these to maintain the battery in my pickup truck and when it failed, I replaced it with the another from Harbor Freight, mainly owing to the convenience of being able to drive a few miles and pick it up the same day. Now that the additional one I bought to double the charge on my Prius battery is also failing to deliver the promised ~20V, I have given up and ordered a 5W panel from Amazon, which I hope is up to the task.
     
    SFO likes this.