2007 Prius suddenly won't start.

the brake switch is an interlock. you can't make the car ready without it being closed

 

i found this... stilll searching under brake light schematic

 

@ChapmanF hopefully will come along soon. He probably has them in his files

 

You getting power at the rear sockets or the connections that run up to the LED they're kind of tricky to access It is common for these LEDs to get funky their connections get weird moisture whatever I have one that's intermittent all the time It's the right side too If I get out and smack it lightly wouldn't open hand boom it comes right back on and works for months I have not had my tail lights apart yet but I've taken a few apart at the junkyard to get new pieces with nicer chrome that go under the lenses

 

The stop light switch is wired to a bunch of different places. There's a "stop light control relay" too (not really a relay, more an electronic gizmo, but that's what they call it) on the way to the lights in back, but I wouldn't worry about that right away as far as starting the car.

I would look at the "hybrid vehicle immobiliser" section, or the "hybrid system, shift control system" section, in the wiring diagram.

Toyota Service Information and Where To Find It | PriusChat

They show the side of the stop light switch that's supposed to be open when you're not pressing the pedal wired to the STP terminal on the power management control ECU. This seems to be how the ECU decides if you are pressing the pedal and should go to READY instead of ACC or IG-ON. That circuit just runs from the switch to the ECU, doesn't involve the stop light relay.

The switch has another side that is supposed to be closed when the pedal is not pressed, and opens when the pedal is pressed, kind of the opposite of what the first side does. That's also wired to the power management control ECU, terminal ST1- (the trailing - probably indicating a signal with the opposite sense of STP). I think that one is just used for canceling cruise control, but testing both sides wouldn't be much more work than testing one.

 

excellent. now keep a spare fuse handy and see if you can find out WHY the fuse popped.

 

Most of the time it's generally something pretty simple. I'm chasing a similar problem in an '08 that I just got the other day for like 700 bucks I got it to start in their driveway and drove it home. Then it stopped starting all of a sudden and it's probably going to be something relatively simple like a fuse or what have you I haven't even had time to really look.

 

Well, it's not so much that it depends on the brakes to start, as that it's built to make sure your foot is on the brake before it starts. In my lifetime they've made a lot of cars that way to cut down on accidents.

One car I had with a manual had the switch on the clutch pedal instead.