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12v Battery Drained and A/C stopped working

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Scott McMac, Jul 6, 2016.

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  1. Scott McMac

    Scott McMac Junior Member

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    Washington, DC
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
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    I'm new around here so let me know if I should be doing something different as I post.

    I've had a 2004 Prius for about one year. It has ~120K miles and has been a great car. We left a light on, and the 12V battery died. We jumped it and everything seems to work fine, except now the air conditioner isn't working.

    I took it in to a shop, and the person I spoke with didn't have the greatest English. So, I might have missed something. However, I think he said he was going to clean out and recharge the A/C. After he did that it still wasn't working. He tried to get some guy to come and reset something with "the" computer that he thought would fix the A/C issue, but he couldn't come that day or the next. I decided I'd rather be hot than without the car for that long. So, I have it back. (He didn't charge for the work he did so far since he wasn't able to fix it).

    My questions:

    Does it make sense that it be a computer problem?

    Is there a simple way to... power cycle... things and see if that fixes the problem?

    Any other thoughts/suggestions?
     
    #1 Scott McMac, Jul 6, 2016
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Yikes, a guy that doesn't know the prius charged your ac. That's trouble already. You can Google charge prius ac and read the nightmares

    Maybe there's a fuse you can check for the ac?
     
    #2 JC91006, Jul 6, 2016
  3. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    Scott, welcome.

    Since the 12v battery was discharged it needs to recharged with a trickle charger. Just driving around is not going to recharge the battery.

    How old is the 12v battery? What is it's voltage?

    A trickle charger and a Digital Multimeter are inexpensive.

    Let's eliminate the simple stuff before trying to diagnose the larger problem.
     
    #3 JimN, Jul 7, 2016
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