06 Prius - battery work (drained battery)

1. The main concern is to be certain that you are connecting the positive battery terminal of the donor vehicle to the positive terminal of the Prius. Same goes for the negative terminals. The positive terminal of the donor battery will be marked + and usually a red-colored cable runs to that. The negative terminal will be marked - and usually a black-colored cable runs to that. That negative black cable will connect to the car's body.

You can either jump to the main relay/fuse box in the Prius or else directly jump to the battery in the hatch area. Consult your owner's manual for details.

2. No

3. I suggest you leave the car READY for several hours, its not necessary to actually drive the car unless you want to go somewhere. After you've charged it up for that period, then you can see whether the battery will hold a charge or not. The battery should be covered by the 3 year/36K mile warranty, I doubt it is covered by the extended warranty but you can check the T&C of your contract.

4. The reason for locking the Prius is that in the event that a door or hatch is left ajar, the car will make a distinctive beep sound that alerts you to that problem, and will refuse to lock.

 

I think your question is why Prius cannot be shifted into N when there is no 12V power.

The answer is because the gear selector is electronic, not mechanical. If the car cannot be powered up, then it will sit in P which was the gear position selected when the car was last made IG-OFF.

 

Since around the 1950's, just about all mass-production gasoline powered automobiles have had a 12V negative ground system, so you are good to go - as long as you carefully verify battery polarity before you connect the jump cables.

 

The car should be powered up as if you were to drive off (READY mode). Leave the car in Park if you are not planning to drive around for a couple of hours. The ICE will cycle to keep the HV battery charged. In turn, the HV battery will charge the 12V battery. Make sure you do not have the car in the garage when doing this. CO will build up when the ICE is running.

 

1. Attach a metal binder clip or an alligator clip to the positive jump start terminal above the + bolt, then connect your positive jump cable clamp to the binder/(alligator) clip.

2. Should not be needed if you execute #1 above.

3. The negative cable should be clamped to the large nut visible that secures the top of the strut mount (three nuts hold the strut mount, but only one is convenient to use), above the large relay/fuse box. If you have a good connection you should not see any sparking.

If you don't have a good electrical connection, this explains why your jump attempt failed. I hope that you carefully observed the procedure used by the tow truck driver, for future reference - as this probably won't be the last time you need to jump the car.

 

Yup. Once most 12V batteries have been drained they are never the same again. Be prepared to replace yours.

 

If the car is not OFF (really, people do this all the time) or if any of the doors or hatch are not completely shut the car will give a long warning beep. If the doors/hatch are ajar their associated lights will not turn themselves off, and that will drain the battery. This has saved my battery twice in five years while parking in my home garage.

If you are willing to spend a few hours and have the necessary hand tools you can replace the battery yourself using an Optima and custom install kit from eLearnaid:
http://www.elearnaid.com/12vo1topraub.html
Together they are not any cheaper than getting it replaced at a dealer but judging from the construction the Optima should be a more rugged and longer-lived battery.

 

Hi Dominic,

See the right lower corner of the attached photo. I had removed the cowl that runs across the rear of the hood opening prior to taking the photo.

Can you see the three large nuts that hold the top of the LH strut mount, above the main relay/fuse box? The mount is a large black circle, and the three nuts surround it. The nut closest to the front of the vehicle would be a good point to connect your negative jump cable.

You can probably get a metal alligator clip at a electronics hobbyist store, for example Radio Shack. The idea is to get a clip small enough to securely fit on the positive jump terminal, but large enough so that your positive jump cable can easily clamp to it.

 

Elsewhere Patrick points out that a dealer battery replacement could easily be less expensive than the eLearnaid solution. And one needs considerable hand strength and several tools to install the Optima kit.

 

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[my dumbsh!t post deleted]

 

Did you read the reason I edited the post?
I searched some more and found out is was true after all.