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2005 Prius keeps (electronically) dying...

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by badchess666, Feb 14, 2012.

  1. badchess666

    badchess666 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2012
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    Location:
    Puyallup
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    This has happened 10 or 20 times.

    I go out, press the start button once (without my foot on the brake) and listen to the radio for a while. I then turn the car off (press power button again).

    Go back to work. When I leave an hour or two later, the car won't start without a jump.

    Or, this morning, I moved the car about ten feet (in order to get my wife's car out of the garage). Then when she tried to start the Prius 5 hours later, (to go to a doctor's appointment) it would not start.)

    Is there some way around this? Does it need a new battery or something? It just had it's 125,000 major service and they didn't mention any problems with the battery.
     
    #1 badchess666, Feb 14, 2012
  2. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
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    Yep, you need a new 12 volt battery.

    BTW. Given your usage, you may want to consider the "optimo yellow top" deep cycle replacement instead of the toyota OEM part.
     
    #2 uart, Feb 14, 2012
  3. badchess666

    badchess666 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2012
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    Location:
    Puyallup
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    That seemed like the obvious fix...

    Thanks!
     
    #3 badchess666, Feb 14, 2012
  4. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Rocky Mountains
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Just remember that outside of the US (except Alberta where they think they are part of the US) the whole idea of sitting in your car listening to the radio or sitting there with the car while parked for a long time, is a very foreign idea. The JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) battery the Prius comes with, is not designed with this in mind. Most Japanese imports into the USDM get "upgraded" batteries that are much bigger just for this reason. The Prius did not.

    If you are going to do this, I would recommend turning the car to READY. The engine will only run when the car needs to charge the HV battery and it will keep things happy. Even if you get the deep cycle battery.
     
    #4 2k1Toaster, Feb 14, 2012
  5. Britprius

    Britprius Senior Member

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    Location:
    Herefordshire England
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    If you press the power button once to listen to the radio, to turn the car completely off you have to push the power button twice. Pushing the button once puts the car in accessory mode where everything is on except the engine.
     
    #5 Britprius, Feb 14, 2012
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