2008 won't start after sitting for 2 weeks. CM, ECU, or Hybrid battery?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by PriusOwner428, Sep 17, 2025.

  1. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    FusibleLink1.jpg
    Not the easiest thing to get a pic of, but here's one with more of it. Visually I can not see any breaks, burnt marks, etc.
    [​IMG]
     
  2. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    2008 sat unattended in garage for 2 weeks.
    On return it would not start or go into ACC.
    Dash is dead. Could this be a hybrid battery gone dead?
    If it was left with 1 or 2 bars on the hybrid battery charge level, could the hybrid battery gone bad and be causing the following symptoms?

    When the power button is pressed with a working key fob inside the car nothing happens:
    No green LED on start button.
    No starting of the car.
    No going into ACC mode.
    No Ready indication.
    No display on the dash (Combination meter items like fuel gauge, odometer, gear, speedometer AND no Maint reqd, check engine, TMPS, ABS, key in car, airbag, or Triangle of death flash).

    Things that do work:
    Horn
    Headlights
    Brake lights
    Open door icon
    Internal cabin lights
    12V battery (verified good)
    +++ No key icon (when tried without key inside the car) ***
    Door lock/unlock by remote AND by buttons on door

    Other Info:
    As stated the 12V battery is good.
    Both remotes have new batteries and can lock/unluck doors, will trigger "no key" icon when try to start car without them inside the car.
    AM2 fuse is good.
    Fusible links in the engine compartment fuse box all look good.
     
  3. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    You will need to clarify by what process you determined the 12 V battery is "good".

    Did you check that the CR2032 lithium batteries you installed in the remotes had a voltage of 3.3 V or better?

    Given all the symptoms you listed, you have a 12 V supply issue. If indeed the 12 V is "good", then you need to start checking connections and cables.
     
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  4. T1 Terry

    T1 Terry Active Member

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    Check the safety fuse for the hybrid traction pack, but my guess is the cell link connections have built up so much corrosion that there is a break in the series cell chain, or the battery has given up the ghost completely ....

    Can you hear the contactors close when you go to ready mode? It could be a failed contactor .....

    T1 Terry
     
  5. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    12V was determined as good by several methods. Took it to Auto Zone for testing. Swapped it with a battery from a working 2008 Prius - the working Prius continued to work. The bricked Prius with the battery from the working Prius continued to show no signs of life.

    CR2032 in BOTH remotes are new and at 3.3V. Also both remotes remotely open and close doors. When a remote is inside the car it does NOT flash the "no key detected" warning. When there is not a remote inside the car, it does flash the "no key detected" warning. Plus physically putting the remote in the slot does not change anything.
     
  6. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    I guess I'm not sure what or where the "safety fuse for the hybrid traction pack" is. But if it's the fusible link in the engine compartment fuse box - it looks OK. See attached pic.

    It won't go to ready mode. When the power button is pushed there is no noise and no lights/LEDs on the dashboard.
     

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  7. T1 Terry

    T1 Terry Active Member

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    Pull the plastic tray out from under the false floor in the back. Up the left hand side of the battery is an orange handle, pull it up and slide it up and the safety switch and fuse will come out. Check across the fuse using continuity on a multimeter, when you refit the safety switch, be sure to push it down after locking it into place, that closes a second safety circuit.

    T1 Terry
     
  8. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Senior Member

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    The OP created a new thread today for the same problem with his 2008 Prius. I have asked a moderator to merge that thread into this thread so that all the information is together in one thread.
     
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  9. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    But this car is known to have the CM display issue no speedo /gas /trans . Etc ??? 3 series if clicks coming from HV battery at button press. With display issue present youay need hold button on 5 seconds . See if chk engine lite cycles . ?
     
  10. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The OP has described a car where everything stays dark, even the LED on the power button, not even going to ACC.

    That's a car that's not getting 12-volt power. If the 12-volt battery was determined as good, that's fine, the power isn't getting from it to the rest of the car.

    A failed combination meter can be another cause of not powering up (though I'm not sure you lose everything, even the button LED, with that).

    Questions about the high-voltage battery are OT at this juncture. If the car is able to power up on 12 volts, it will then light the warning triangle and tell you if there's anything about the high-voltage battery that prevents going READY. No need to check that service-plug fuse, for example, unless you have the trouble code telling you to.


    Sometimes we talk about "the contactors" in back as if they were just wired directly to the power button or something, so if they don't close right away and make the car READY maybe it's their fault.

    It's not that way at all. They are controlled by an ECU in the car. The ECU closes them as one of the last steps to go READY, after everything is powered up with 12 volts and the ECU has completed a whole checklist to be sure it's OK to close them. If they don't close, you can bet it's because the ECU decided not to close them, and has set a trouble code to tell you why. (Even if one of the contactors has failed, there are trouble codes for those too.)
     
  11. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    Where would the fuse be? It just looks a plastic orange plug. Does it have to be taken apart?
     

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  12. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    The CM items do not work, but neither do other display items like no Maint reqd, check engine, TMPS, ABS, key in car, airbag, or Triangle of death flash. Nothing happens on pushing the power button either visually or noise wise. The LED on the power button also never goes on. No red, amber, or green. There are just 2 or 4 clicks from the engine compartment on opening the driver side door. Probably relays.

    Well the 12V battery is getting to the following items:

    Horn
    Headlights
    Brake lights
    Open door icon
    Internal cabin lights
    12V battery (verified good)
    +++ No key icon (when tried without key inside the car) ***

    Tried using an OBDLink LX to read any error codes but it says it can not connect to the car. Even though the LEDs on the reader indicate communication happening. Can a CAN scanner read error codes from a bricked car (ie not able to go to ACC mode, ready mode etc)?

    Update: Since it looks like trying to pull it apart might break it, just put the meter across the two exposed terminals. The meter went to a solid zero. In open air the meter was showing noise of random milli ohms, but once applied to the terminals it went solid zero.
     
    #32 PriusOwner428, Sep 27, 2025 at 11:06 AM
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 27, 2025 at 2:24 PM
  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    maybe someone was chewing on wiring while the cat was away
     
  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i thought it looked familiar
     
  15. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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  16. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    At this point I think a mouse having chewed something is a possibility. Right now I'm leaning toward that, ECU issue, or Hybrid battery. But have not gotten anyone to confidently match the symptoms to those 3 possibilities or anything else.
     
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  17. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    Yep. Original post apparently stumped all those that had seen it, so was trying to get fresh eyes on it.
     
  18. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Most of the ECUs aren't going to talk to a scan tool until the car is made IG ON.

    Sadly, that means you can't expect a lot of trouble codes to help you with why the car won't go IG ON.

    But you can save all the time you're spending thinking about the high-voltage system and battery. None of that is even involved in the car going IG ON, and once you do find and solve the non-high-voltage problem that's stopping you now, you can then try going from IG ON to READY and the car will straight-up tell you if there's anything with the high-voltage system you need to worry about.
     
  19. PriusOwner428

    PriusOwner428 Junior Member

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    Well I was thinking, what is the most likely thing to go wrong with a car that's just parked inside a garage for 2 weeks? All, or almost all electronics, are not even powered up or being used. If they have no juice it makes no sense they would go bad in 2 weeks from just being inactive. Batteries on the other hand do not like just sitting around not being used. They lose power. And given that there's a good chance this one might have been left with only 1 or 2 bars on the charge meter a cell or two might have dropped very low. So that or a mouse chewing something seem like the most likely.

    It's the ECU that gives the IG ON command right? Do you know if the ECU has any input from the Hybrid battery system? Or are all the decision making inputs coming into the ECU from the 12V system alone?
     
  20. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    It gets some decision-making inputs from sensors in the hybrid battery. It uses those inputs when deciding about going READY. It doesn't care about them at all when deciding to go IG ON.

    The power to make all its decisions, it gets from the 12-volt battery.

    IG ON does not require anything from the high-voltage system at all. As long as you can go IG ON, the ECU will have power, you can examine it with a scan tool, and you can even see what its inputs from the traction battery are showing.

    If you then request to go READY, the ECU will either do so (if all the required inputs look acceptable), or it won't, and the warning triangle will light up, and the trouble codes will tell you why.