Toyota Prius 2007 parked for more than a year...

welcome!

first, you'll need a healthy 12 volt battery, likely a new one. then if it won't start, you'll need to have the trouble codes read. that involves flatbedding to a dealer. it is very possible some hybrid battery cells have gone out of whack after a year of not being used.

all the best!

 

2007 Prius will at least need a new 12v battery. But the HV battery (if original battery from 2007) "might" be salvageable if you can charge it BEFORE you attempt to start the car. This charge will balance out the HV battery.

If you try to start the car without first charging the HV battery, it'll be almost 100% the car will need a new HV battery at that point.

 

Sounds like a wild guess to me.
What evidence do you have that supports that theory ??

I think that a new charged 12 V battery has a good chance to bring it back to life with no ill effects.
Certainly worth a try.

IF the car does run.....by whatever means.....what will you do with it next ??

 

Well, electrically, the car is going to be dead. Does the FOB have a working metal key to get into the car because the doors aren't going to unlock via SKS or the remote?

Next, replace 12v. Period.

Next, if the HV pack is original (or a marginal refurb), odds are it will either be dead with codes or very, very weak. If the latter and it somehow does indeed start the ICE (false starts by a weak HV battery sound like a running engine but it's really not running, this fools many folks including myself), do NOT attempt to drive it. Instead, immediately FORCE-CHARGE the pack till it hits green bars, then draw the battery down to purple bars by running the a/c full blast and headlights on high beam in Park and then another force-charge. If it doesn't code, then drive it for a long time so the pack cycles its SOC several times. If all this works, consider yourself one lucky Prius owner.

GOOD LUCK!

 

hybridautomotive.com has write up about this. And of course, I actually fix these batteries

 

it really depends on your financial condition, diy ability, and desires. personally, i would dump it. but that is not the case for many here who like to work on cars and enjoy the challenge.
an old hybrid is a much bigger challenge than a straight gasser.

i wouldn't drop 200 bucks on a new 12v until you've decided what you want to do if that doesn't fix it.

 

Ah yes, I see.
When "Prolong battery systems" came up on the screen, I stopped reading.
You don't really think that the information they post is NOT tainted by their commercial interests.......do you ??

 

Believe what you want to believe. Some believe the Corona virus is fake news too

 

Prolong has worked fantastic for me. On my third year of maintenance.

Its a hi volt battery charger. If you want to turn that into a conspiracy Trump would be awfully proud of you.

 

I used the Prolong equipment successfully for over 2 years before selling our 2010.

It was shared among 2 other owners that are members here and we rebuilt 2 batteries with it.

Definitely worked for the intended purpose and met the expectations I had for it.

 

Almost everything we buy, own or consume is backed at some point by commercial interests.
That doesn't mean that item isn't a perfectly good product.

What product would you go to a selling website and expect anything but positive description?
Doesn't mean that description is invalid.
I don't own, nor have I ever used Prolong equipment, but neither have I ever read a post by anyone that does own the system, that has been negative.

 

There are some out there.

But when they call customer service, they get sorted.

It is an actual business and they have their own issues, but the equipment works.

 

When I received there gear about 3 years ago the hybrid fan would not come on when doing a prolong charge. Its imperative the fan runs when charging or discharging with prolong as the battery will heat up!

The fan supply circuit board that came with the Prolong package had a horrible solder job and wires were loose. That fan circuit board is used to run the hybrid fan at 100% speed during any prolong charge or discharge event. Very nice very smart. The battery would never ever see a 100% charge unless you use the outboard prolong system. And that really wakes a NIMH battery up but also creates alot of heat.

Not a big deal I re-soldered it myself and its been fine ever since. I think they gave me some money back it was a long time ago but all in all there system has got me another 3 years out of my original 2007 battery and still going strong.

So I am very glad I bought it. It works!

Like any new cottage start up they had some manufacturing issue with my order or maybe its a one off for my issue. No big deal. They were responsive. And has worked fine ever since.

So I recommend there product. I got the old school original system with the light bulb discharger. It worked!

 

It's not about "news" of any kind.

It IS about the laws of physics and no amount of marketing claims can change that.

 

OK, I get it. Most of the proponents are in effect saying:
Don't confuse me with facts, my mind is made up.
And how many people spend hundreds of dollars on some "snake oil" and then admit that they were taken ??

IF.....you start using it when the battery is fairly new, you have NO WAY to know if it did anything useful or not.

IF.....you start using it when the battery is starting to show signs of failure, it might buy you a few days of extra use, which isn't worth the trouble.

When the chemicals inside a battery are used up, it is DEAD.
The DEAD don't come back to life.

 

You have obviously never watched a George Romero film. The last 15 years in movies and TV, all the dead have done, is come back to shuffling, brain eating life.

I've never owned the product, and I take it neither have you.
So I can neither endorse or promote the product, nor condemn or denigrate the product.
All I would say, is that for a majority of users that support the product, I think they believe the benefit is far more than just a "few days" of extra use.
I think application is recommended not on the two ends of the extreme....New or Nearly Dead. Application is recommend in an aging but still viable battery. To balance and "Pro-Long" life. So your examples are IMO unfair. Yes, a dead battery, is a dead battery. But that's not the recommended application of the product.

Again, I step aside from offering endorsement. I've never used the product. But neither am I going to conclude that the product belongs in the realm of "Snake Oil".

 

Getting over a year and half out of a battery that had failed is longer than a few days.

And this is one that we rebuilt out here with the Prolong Equipment.

If you catch the battery degradation prior to a failure, it saves having to find a module or two and swap them out, then recondition the entire pack.

Just a reminder of the ignore user function of Prius chat.