Hello, To jump start a Gen 2 Prius, you hook jump battery cable to 'positive' tab inside fuse box under front hood, and ground at recommended spot close by. My question is: can you alternatively jump directly to the 12 volt in back of the car? I assume you can, but want to avoid blowing up car
Yes, you can jump there. Just like you can swap the discharged battery for a new battery and the car will start again (if the battery is the only problem.) I would be careful though that bare metal on the positive clamp on the jumper cable is nowhere near any bare metal on the chassis, that it is firmly attached, and the negative cable should not be attached when the positive is placed. Lots of sheet metal, bare bolts, and I think even some bare metal nearby. It would be bad if the positive cable popped off and hit any of that while the negative cable was attached. Find a nice big bolt elsewhere in the trunk (NOT the normal battery ground bolt) to attach the ground clamp on that cable. I wouldn't go straight onto the negative post, just in case something goes dreadfully wrong with the battery in the car when power hits it. You really don't want to be leaning over a battery if that happens. (Do AGMs ever blow up, maybe that is just a flooded lead acid battery problem?) The problem with the normal ground bolt is that it is tucked back in an awkward place posterior to the battery, and it seems fairly likely to me that a cable clamped to it might pop off.
Thanks, mission accomplished worked fine. I actually did carefully clamp neg jumper to neg post...lived to type this! Hate parting with my gen 2. It has 199,200 miles. Engine fine, uses no oil, recent OEM traction battery. (3 yrs) Love reading the gen 2 manual. simple, logical. unlike my 2016 manual of tangled minutia !!
just jump stared mine on the battery at the back with one of those small boosters with the capacitors in. The only difficulty was that I couldn't open the hatch because of the flat battery so had to crawl inside and release the catch by hand. That's a pain in the arse when you are my age.
Did any of them elaborate on why they were saying not to try it there? That's like literally where Toyota designed the electrical system for you to jump it.
Yup. First time I jumped a Prius I dug out the battery in the rear. Then I had the bright idea to read the owners manual and laughed at my ignorance.
To add to all great info here, adding a string to the emergency opener in the trunk might be lame, but relevant. @bisco Just to clarify, can I attach a ie CTEK charger that is grounded and this trick will open the trunk?
To avoid any possible confusion, putting a 12-volt source at the jump point under the hood will supply power to the car, including the unlocking circuits, so you can then go back and open the hatch in the usual way by pushing its button (if you have all-door 'smart key', or if you've pushed the fob unlock button first). It's not really any kind of a 'trick', it doesn't change any normal behavior, and it won't make the hatch pop open by itself.
Ok, thanks for the clarification. My hope of having another solution to not climb into the trunk and pull my string has been crushed. (But I could then likely supply 12V at jump point while removing the battery to prevent this lock (that trunk lock seem to only be there to force validate the key code after reconnecting? Or more likely due to the constant lock structure of the trunk when I think of it, that would be very annoying if applied to any entry door….)
