Former Dodge family, Prius won't start.

that's alot of miles ! i still have the 05 but not currently driving it. had an 01 before that and several other toyotas. A simple solution, (to try) if you can, would be to try and reset the car. Do this by unpluging the battery, or disconnecting either the ground or positive from the battery post or if possible from under the hood in the fuse area if it is more convenient, i dont have a 3rd gen prius so am not familiar with the bat arrangement in it. Another thing, would be to get a code scanner on it, if u dont have one, u can borrow one perhaps from advance auto or esp. autozone or peep boys, they do this regularaly by you paying for it and then bringing it back , and is an accepted policy, they would scan for free if u could get the car to their parking lot. DONT got to the STEALERship !!!!

 

What was the voltage on the 12v battery?

Did you slam on the brakes hard or spin the wheels to cause the ABS light to come on?

Do you have access to Techstream or a way to read the codes?

If the car won’t “ready” there is an issue with the 12v.

All of this can be related to a low 12 volt battery though.

Keep us posted .

 

absolutely, if the 12v bat is low, then the computer will flake out--- with that kind of mileage, if it is the original battery, for sure it is time to replace , that is 7 years; 5 years is all u can expect out of the stock 2nd gen bat. If you can get a voltmeter, aka 'multimeter', ($5 item or less at harbor freight), and test the voltage on the 12v battery, to see what it is at then you would know if you need to charge it. Also the date code of the battery may be on the battery top to let you know if it is original. If you havent driven th car in many days/ left the door ajar, this will also drain the battery down.

 

Just to avoid possible confusion, the car has a 'hill start assist' feature. This is activated by pressing the brakes super firmly, when stopped. A buzzer should beep just once, and the traction control light (car with squiggly tracks) should light up. If this is what you see and hear, it is normal, and helps prevent rollback when facing uphill. It should go away within a couple seconds after releasing the brake.

But if the light you see actually has the 'ABS' letters, while the car is not moving, then you are experiencing something else that requires service.

 

Sounds like the hill start assist light.

As for the no start, check the 12v with a multimeter and let us know the result.

Keep us posted .

 

The specific light doesn't match what my 2012 manual says, otherwise that does sound very much like the Hill Start Assist. The 2010 certainly has this feature too, but I no longer have that manual of that previous car to check. As Ray already mentioned, a normal feature not related to the starting problem.

When I'm reaching back, I put that car in Park first. That is from a lesson derived from dad almost crushing my leg with a farm tractor when his foot slipped off a pedal while he was doing something else at the same time I was hitching something up to the drawbar.

Here is the illustration from my Prius manual. There is more written on that page.

 

You're going to need to define "won't start". In a Prius, you have close to zero control over the actual starting of the engine. When you press the brake pedal and push the power button, the car READY's. You should immediately hear a bunch of clicking coming from the back which is the high voltage relays connecting the high voltage pack to the car. After the clicking some whirring and the dash should illuminate "READY".

In your case is the car not going to READY? Is it going to READY and then throwing codes causing the master triangle to illuminate? Basically anything before the car is READY is powered off of the 12v battery. These are lawn mower size batteries. Coming from big 'murican cars like a dodge, it will be an adjustment if you are used to sitting in your car listening to the radio for hours or things like that that just don't exist outside of the states. Meaning it is very easy to kill a 12v battery in the Prius if you don't treat it properly. I know KY is going through some cold now, and a marginally weak battery on a temperate day is a dead battery on a cold day.

But if the car READY's just fine, you can almost take the 12v out of the equation.

And your light on the dash with the hard pedal is the hill assist for sure. That's what it is meant to do. Also not a great idea to do that. Put it in Park if you are going to be reaching around the back. If your foot slips off the pedal, and you're leaning into the back seat, that's an excellent scenario for the car to rear end something or someone. Don't do that...

 

Maybe a light was left on draining the 12 volt?

What kind of battery charger do you have?

Does your husband have a multimeter?

Might be worth hooking the charger up for a couple of hours.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

Doesn't make any sense to me. When you get in the car and press the start button, "all the lights come on" but then at the same time "nothing happens"? These contradict eachother.

When you get in the vehicle, put your foot on the brake pedal and press firmly, then press the start button, what happens...

That's the classic dead 12v symptom.

I go to KY all the time (I'll be there next week) and I see how the Prius is usually looked down upon out there. If it doesn't spew black smoke it is not a real car. Only place I have ever been where I see "Friends of Coal" license plates everywhere... ridiculous.

If you reverse voltage the Prius (like most modern vehicles) you will cause thousands and thousands of dollars of damage. In "the old days" you just smoked the battery, maybe some battery acid to reconfigure your face. Nowadays, fuses blow, FETs blow, ECUs blow, lots of things to replace. So yes you CAN jump start a Prius (or any modern car) but take extreme caution. One single mistake can cost $6K to fix. We've had a few people over the years post about their husbands or brothers or fathers "helping" by jumpstarting and shorting things with the jumper cables, sparking things, and reverse voltage. Don't be the next victim of that, be careful.

You may also want to educate whoever is doing this if they aren't used to a hybrid, that the 12v battery is basically useless in a Prius. It does not and never will "crank" the engine. The 12v battery only has to switch a few relays and then the high voltage battery takes over. The engine is started by spinning MG2 via the high voltage battery which spins the engine electrically, starts to inject fuel, and then the engine is started. It is nothing like a normal car. There is no "chugga-chugga-chuuuuuga" type sounds when the 12v starts dying. An extremely dead 12v battery will still start the Prius. Usually it goes from working (under extreme duress) to not working. Because it's duty is so light.

 

A word of caution if trying to jump the car. Avoid this if at all possible (if done incorrectly, you’ll have a bad Christmas).

In your owners manual it tells you the steps to jump the Prius. Make sure to get the polarity correct as damage to the inverter could result if polarity is crossed.

Use jumping as a last resort and report back the 12 volt reading when you get a multimeter. You can take the battery out of the car by disconnecting it in the hatch and find a family member or neighbor who might be able to help.

Happy holidays.

 

So the interior lights come in but the “ready” light never displays?

If this is the case, there is some voltage left in the battery, but not enough to power the computers to tell the car everything checks out.

But by now, the 12 volt has been drained even more, so either charge it up or wait u til after Christmas to get a new one.

Or maybe Santa will leave one under the tree tomorrow .