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Help! The Prius is dead!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Cathy K, Jan 12, 2005.

  1. Cathy K

    Cathy K New Member

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    Do any of you knowledgable people have any suggestions I could relay to the dealership? The Prius died last Thursday while my daughter had it at school. It has an electric scooter lift on the back, she loaded her scooter and she said it worked slowly and reluctantly. Then she tried to start the Prius and it wouldn't start so she called her Dad. He came out and tried to jump it. He must have been having a bad day though, because he momentarily had the connections on his end reversed. He realized his error after a few seconds and reconnected the jumper cables correctly. No luck on getting it started so we had it towed to the dealership. Dealership found that the fuse had been blown when he tried to jump the car. They ordered a new fuse, it didn't get there until Monday. When the fuse was put in they were still unable to start the car. They are talking to Toyota but haven't been able to make any progress and are saying they may need to order in a new computer. Any thought? Thanks. Cathy
     
  2. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    Cathy,
    What is the charge state of the 12V and the hybrid batteries? I don't know much, but I don't think it will start if the hybrid battery is flat.
     
  3. DanMan32

    DanMan32 Senior Member

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    I doubt the hybrid batteries are flat. You have to seriously abuse them to kill them, and they are disconnected from all power consuming devices (read: inverter) when not in READY mode.

    ALL fuses will need to be checked if polarity was reversed. You can do a lot of damage reversing polarity, so DON'T DO IT! Hopefully it is just a bunch of fuses, but any of the electronic components could have been damaged.

    I would agree the 12V battery was weak, since the lift was sluggish. That lift will probably use up the battery fairly quickly. Better to run it while in READY mode, so that the converter/hybrid battery/ICE can provide full 12V with plenty of current.
     
  4. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Is it possible that the electric lift was somehow creating a draw on the battery even when the car was shut off? I don't know squat about electronics and the like, but just throwing out ideas.

    I see that you joined almost exactly one year before the car incident. (happy anniversary) Does this mean that the car is a year old? how long has the lift been attached? Is it possible to accidently leave the lift powered on even when the car is off?

    Again, just throwing out stuff to see how far it flies.
     
  5. Cathy K

    Cathy K New Member

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    You guys are sure fast on replying! The car was purchase in October of 2003, we were the first in town to get one. The lift is wired into the electrical system, specifically the small battery. I do think that the small battery may have been weak as we have had a few times when the lift operated very sluggishly and we did have to jump the Prius once before (no problems that time). I normally leave the lift key in and on, so yes I suppose it is possible there could be short that would draw the battery down.
     
  6. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    You sell yourself short. You were also one of the first in the COUNTRY to get one! :)

    I hope the Toyota techs know enough to check all the fuses as Dan suggested. There are times when people find 1 cause and stop there. "Fixed the fuse, must be the computer is blown". Maybe not!! I would hope Toyota put plenty of safeguards in that area.

    Since you do have the need for a higher than expected load on the 12V, I suggest you hit up Toyota for advice on a larger capacity 12V battery. There are other threads here asking about doing so, but I think you can benefit from Toyota's desire to help people with limited abilities in whatever sense.
     
  7. Cathy K

    Cathy K New Member

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    The dealer has a new Prius on hand and they are swapping out parts with my car to see if they can find out what they need to do to get it to run. I'll keep you posted on what the problem turns out to be.
     
  8. DanMan32

    DanMan32 Senior Member

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    I hope it is a well used demo. If I found out the dealer used my brand new car to swap ECUs, I would be very upset, and demand it be considered a used car and price it accordingly, or else provide exended warranty for free. Some of them parts are not covered under the hybrid warranty.
     
  9. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I have a friend who has a wife with MS, so he has a wheelchair lift in his 2003 Chevy Venture minivan. The power sliding side door makes this very easy.

    He has a marine-style battery isolator and a deep cycle marine battery to power the lift. The isolator, as the name suggests, keeps the vehicle electrical system separate from lift electrical system.

    He special ordered his Venture with the Towing package, which among other things has the higher output alternator and the trailer wiring harness. He uses the trailer red "power" feed to power the isolator and charge the deep cycle battery.

    So far, the isolator and the separate electrical system for the wheelchair lift has worked flawlessly. The only problem is that he also uses the minivan as his daily driver for a 45km commute to work, and the fuel economy is killing him.

    A battery isolator is good to separate heavy loads from the main electrical system. I'm not sure if this would work with the Prius inverter system though.
     
  10. tomdeimos

    tomdeimos New Member

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    The important thing is you need an isolator that does not use just diodes.
    That type won't work since there is no separate charging line.

    check out this site for isolators and sample circuits suited for Prius cars:

    http://www.hellroaring.com/bic75150.htm
     
  11. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    the problem could be any of a multitude of things that were damaged up to an including the immobilizer, inverter/converter assy. main ECU, or any other thing imaginable or possible. Electronics just don't like reversed polarity. Instead of swapping out parts why not sit down with the electrical service manual and a DVM and start checking what all has power and what doesn't. If the car won't go live the OBD11 system won't tell them anything, I mean who's to say it's not blown. This repair could go to 4-5-6,000$ easily. If it's the inverter it alone is worth $6497.25 or as simple as the $45 fusible link on the battery terminal. Please keep us posted on the outcome of this incident. Thank you.
     
  12. Cathy K

    Cathy K New Member

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    Okay, the Prius is alive! After a week in the shop they ended up replacing every computer on board. Evidently the voltage spike from the jump fried them all. So now the dealership has one brand new Prius that has been completely cannibalized for electronic parts and we have our baby back. What is really amazing is that Toyota is picking it up under warranty. Although they did say that they won't do it a second time! Tomorrow we head out to get a deep discharge sealed battery to run the lift. We won't even attach it to the Prius electrical system, we'll charge it from a 110 V battery charger as needed. So kudos to Toyota for giving us a heck of a break on parts and labor. They already had a loyal customer but now I guess I'll have to move to the fanatically loyal level. Thanks to everyone for their advice.
     
  13. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    wow! did they give you any idea of the total cost? I'd sure like to know. All 14 computers probably adds up to $13 to $14,00 total.
     
  14. removeum

    removeum Member

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  15. DanMan32

    DanMan32 Senior Member

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    Wow, that's neat! I have several friends that I have to send that to.