No Power & Bad Tow

its fairly obvious that the 12 v battery has died, mostlikly due to a light being left on. there have been MANY threads on this subject. have you tried a jumpstart?!

 

There's also a tow hook that goes in the hole in the front bumper.

I'd look at just replacing the 12 volt or even seeing if a jump would at least get me to a place to buy and install a battery. Look in the manual for where the 12 volt is and how to jump.

 

Hi All,

This story reminds me of a new guy at work. He bought his first car, a new Honda Civic (standard model, not a hybrid). He left something on (or hooked in) and ran down the battery the second week of owning it. They tried to jump it for him in the parking lot at work without success. Apparently there is a lockout in the Civic's that once the battery has been depowered for some time, the car is imoblilized. Stick the key in the lock, and it pops on for a second and then everything goes off. Some kind of security feature (er bug). After a tow to the dealership, where they reinitialized the computer its worked fine for him.

Luckily the Prius does not have this feature. LMN your 2007/2005 Prius should be able to have the battery jumped and work fine.

 

Hi LMN. I can understand your frustration with Toyota Roadside Assistance sending an incompetent tow driver. I really doubt anything was damaged by a 12" drag. You are very lucky to have such a good salesperson.

One source of battery drain, that might affect a two year old 12V battery more than a new one, is the light in the cargo area. If it's on and the hatch doesn't close completely, the light can burn and not be seen easily if the tonneau cover is pulled. More than a few members have discovered this.

 

I know your upset, try not to be so sensitive. By the way, how did you buy a 2007 in Aug 2005?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(LMN @ Apr 1 2007, 09:45 AM) [snapback]415917[/snapback]</div>

This comment reminds me of the old story about a woman saying "People say women take things personally, but I don't!"

This is obviously a 12V battery issue and a jump should take care of it, and yes, you can leave the headlights on with the Prius powered down. Most of them warn you with various beeps, but the Prius has so many ways to beep that people often overlook them. There are several ways to drain the 12V battery, and it's not very big, so it can go quickly. Also, being a couple of years old and having been used by the dealer, it is possible that the battery is getting weak.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Apr 1 2007, 02:00 AM) [snapback]415840[/snapback]</div>

Yeha, but you really have to work to leave the lights on after you turn off the car.

At least on my '04, the lights turn off when you turn the car off and/or open a door. I know they're not on when I leave the car, even if the switch is in the on position.

The Ford hybrids (Mariner/Escape) have a button that lets you 'charge' the 12V from the main hybrid battery for an emergency start. Toyota would do well to implement something like that.

 

Hey LMN,
Sorry to hear about your troubles with the tow guy. For your other problem, the lights go off on the Prius when you open your door and come back on when you start the car. The phone charger should not drain the battery since both of the outlets go dead once the car is turned off. It could just be that the 12v battery just died. It's happened to me before with a non-Prius car, parked the car, went into the store for no more than 10 mins, came back out and it was dead. It's one of those things that can die slowly or all of a sudden. It should not have any inpact on your car once you replace it. As for moving your car while it is in park, unless he dragged it a long distance, you should not have any damage to it. The parking pawl is pretty tough, if Toyota does find damage, the tow company should be lible for that. Hope you get it fixed soon.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(LMN @ Apr 1 2007, 05:45 AM) [snapback]415917[/snapback]</div>

It is not supposed to, but it's been known to happen. I once was unable to lock the car until I unplugged a portable DVD charger. The car kept beeping every time that I pushed the SKS lock button until I unplugged it. On subsequent occasions, I have been able to lock the car with that charger plugged in.

Every now and then, I get the feeling that Microsoft wrote the computer code that runs the Prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jonnycat26 @ Apr 1 2007, 01:13 PM) [snapback]416019[/snapback]</div>

That sounds like a great idea.

Wonder if Coastal Tech could develop something as an add on.

 

LMN, it's easy to leave the headlights or parking lights on. If you turn them on while the car is powered off, they will stay on. So it is possible to leave the parking lights on quite easily. (You'd almost certainly see the headlights.) I saw a parked Prius two days ago with parking lights on. The car was unlocked, so I simply turned them off.

The cargo light can be left in the ON position and it will burn even when the cargo hatch closes completely. An overhead map light can be left on.

The automatic lights-off function uses a small amount of power all the time. When you turn the switch off, then no power is used. This is minor, but it could drain a weak battery.

As for being talked-down to, I disagree with you. Magnus1 simply emphasized that there have been many threads about dead 12v batteries; I don't see any insult unless you actually knew the problem was the battery and chose not to search. Since you didn't know it was the 12v battery, you couldn't have known to search for other threads.

Donee simply related a story about the Honda Civic. Why should you take offense at that?

As for knowing whether someone is adopting a condescending attitude in writing, that's hard to do unless they're really obvious with their wording. There are no fine nuances of speech or facial expression here in writing.

It certainly sounds as if 1) your 12v battery died, 2) the Toyota Roadside Assist person blew it completely, and 3) the tow-truck driver didn't know anything about the Prius.

As a new Prius owner, you got two out of three right; I'd say that was pretty good.

You mentioned parking head-in, which I do very often. This raises a question about towing a Prius: Is there a way to safely lift the front wheels to a dolly when the car is parked head-in? If not---and assuming you haven't got jumper cables---then we should all be parking tail-in!

 

Ford licenses the Toyota system, so it may be extremely easy to do.

But the Toyota lawyers are nannying us to the bitter end. To do what Ford does would mean opening the traction battery circuit WITHOUT the car's computer being in complete control of that. I'm sure Toyota lawyers will have nothing to do with allowing the driver or end user to have ANY access to opening that relay under ANY circumstances, "just in case".

Toyota autos are control freaks, thanks to the lawyers.

Yes, there is. Any tow truck driver worth a penny can quickly and easily put lifts around the front wheels, no matter where they are, and lift them up off the ground so that they're dollied for the drive to the service station.

It's quite simple and straightforward, and towing professionals do it all the time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(adam1991 @ Apr 1 2007, 05:35 PM) [snapback]416191[/snapback]</div>

Technically, it would be closing the circuit, but I'm just being picky. It would be a neat little feature.

Thanks. Luckily, I haven't ever had a car towed (or it's so many years back I've forgotten).

 

You've got the Ford thing backwards. The hybrid Escape has a widget
that can pump some charge into the HYBRID battery from the 12V, not
the other way around [well, under normal operation the other way
'round happens via the regular DC/DC converter]. It takes eight
minutes and *might* be enough to start the engine, depending on how
drained the HV battery is. So far, I haven't heard of anyone needing
to use it.
.
The earliest NHW10 Priuses in Japan had a similar thing, and for some
inexplicable reason Toyota dropped it for the Classic and the 3rd-gen.
Then again, the newer NiMH packs are pretty reliable and less prone
to showstopping levels of self-discharge.
.
BTW, tow operators drag cars for short distances all the time, even
though they're really not supposed to. They don't care, they aren't
interested in how any given vehicle's parking pawl or emergency
brake works, their job is to just grab it and go. If you ever get
towed, even if it's by the nicest guy you could ever think to meet,
check for damage and tire scrapes.
.
_H*