1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Check Engine Light and clicking and battery dead

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Seven138, Feb 1, 2013.

  1. Seven138

    Seven138 Member, Jr.

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    7
    1
    3
    Location:
    NW Ohio
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I went out in the 9 degree temp this morning to start my car and take off for work. I sat down and hit the power button and some console lights came on. The gear lights were blinking with a square light around each letter (P, D, R, B...) and the pips on the fuel gauge were blinking, beeping during each blink. Also, the green light on the power button was blinking and the little light showing that the key was not in the car was also on but the key was beside me. I turned it off to try it again. Before I turned it back on, I inserted the key in the slot and hit the power button again and just the Check Engine light came on and everything else was black. There was a slow tempo click-click-click-click... sound coming from under the hood and the Check Engine light was just sitting there. I tried to turn the car off but the power button was not doing anything. All I could do is let the Check Engine light stay on and the click-click-click-click... sound chirp away. I went back out in a couple hours and the battery was dead.

    Just seeing if that might mean something specific before I go drop about $200 on a new 12v battery later today. I searched on here but did not see anything similar unless I missed it.

    Thanks.
     
  2. SteveLee

    SteveLee Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2012
    645
    180
    0
    Location:
    North Carolina
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    I
    I would get the battery.
     
  3. usnavystgc

    usnavystgc Die Hard DIYer and Ebike enthusiast.

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2011
    3,159
    989
    0
    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    Classic symptoms of a dead 12V battery.
     
  4. dorunron

    dorunron Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    3,318
    1,103
    0
    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Sounds like a dead battery to me too. If you have a digital voltage meter, I would suggest you check the voltage of the battery. You can do it under the hood at the jump point. If you don't get at least 12 volts, your battery is pretty much gone.

    A new fully charged AGM type battery should measure 12.9 volts or higher.

    Ron
     
  5. jqmello

    jqmello Junior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 15, 2011
    70
    5
    0
    Location:
    DC
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Those are the exact same symptoms that our Prius was displaying just a few days ago. We'd had a few battery-dead experiences a few years ago, but a number of slow-charges seemed to restore the battery for a while, fixing the problem. This just happened twice in a week, during cold weather, and no lights left on, so we just keep the jumper box in the car while we're waiting for our new Optima to turn up. Search the threads for your options. Optima was $175 with shipping, and there are other cheaper options out there - the one on batteriesplus.com was 112+shipping when I looked on Wed.