Boosting Mishap.......

If you're lucky it's a fuse. If not it can be very expensive. In the $3000 range. The inverter is the first to get zapped. Sorry I had to be the first with the bad news.

 

Double Post

 

Sorry to hear of your tragedy, I'm guessing a very conservative $2500.00 Probably your inverter is blown and maybe the HV Battery too, possibly a ECU. Of course the 12V is shot. To all others out there, Do NOT lend your Prius. They do not understand it!

 

"the electronics came on for a few seconds"
Well if it were connected backwards I don't think the electronics would come on even for a few seconds, it probably would be more like a quick flash. Ask them if they smelled burning electronics..that is a sure sign the inv. , and probably the MFD/dash area is toast. If not check all fuses and replace the 12V battery first, it may have gone dead and is acting like a short to the sys and/or anything connected to it as well.
My condolences.

 

The main relay would keep the HV battery disconnected until the inv. went ready, so no problem there.

 

Where did they hook up the jumper cables, in the front under the hood or in the back? Should be the back to the little 12v battery only.

 

I thought the Prius manual specified to hook them up to the front ones.

BUT, what I don't understand is why people insist on jumping cars like that. What is supposed to happen is the good car with their alternator charges the dead car's battery. Not helps start the dead car. This is true on any car, not just a Prius. I was told this by a guy working at a GM dealership long ago. Let the car charge for 10 or 15 minutes. Disconnect and try to start. If it doesn't work, you can try again for a period of time. If it doesn't work the second time, that is it and the car will either need to be towed or the battery replaced where it sits.

On another note, I have seen a guy hook up the jumper cables to a battery incorrectly, create a spark, and the battery exploded. It was incredible, you could hear it across the parking lot. A huge flash of light, it was truly a bomb exploding. I was one of the first people by the guy, who had a gash over his eye and was screaming on the ground. We got him calmed down a bit, and I sent somebody into the grocery store for distilled water. I then waited, and waited, and WAITED. I was starting to panic, it was taking so long. Some idiot said he had vinegar and we could wash his eyes out, because the vinegar would neutralize the battery acid. Luckily I knew to only use water to wash eyes out, if we had used vinegar the guy would liable to have been blinded. The irony of course to a chemist is that vinegar is an acid too. But finally somebody showed up, I guess they stopped to pay inside??? I got the water going across his eyes and the gouge in his head, and by then the ambulance was getting there. Where the battery used to be was absolutely nothing. So that was a quick lesson too on the importance of proper procedure when jumping a battery.

 

Absolutely! lead acid batteries can explode if the is a spark, especially after/during charging. It's the hydrogen gas generated can build up in the area of the battery and well you saw what can happen. Now the 12v battery in the prius only powers the computers during startup, it uses the HV battery to turn the ICE but only after the inverter/HV,hybrid ecu's are happy and ready. Ah yes you can jump it from the front sorry my bad. I bet that's exactly why they did that, to keep jumper cables from sparking right on top of the battery in the back. But in the prius it's only a small motorcycle like battery.
Have to run for a while, best of luck getting it fixed.

 

That's why I never let anyone borrow my car! I'm even leary of letting the car wash attendant take it even though I keep it in sight at all times.

 

This sounds like a good time to commit a grab-and-run shoplift. Treat the patient first, go back and pay after the ambulance arrives to take over.

 

Are there any updates on how this turned out gazza?