HELP, HELP, HELP

Our 2004 was fine last night.

This morning it won't start, although all the dash lights come on, and flash, it never gives the ready signal.

When I turn it off, the square lights around the gears continue to flash for a moment, the red key in car signal remains on.

My husband and I have both tried to start it with our key, to no avail.

The only thing I can think of that might have caused this was leaving my key in my purse along with the cell phone, overnight, and leaving the purse in the house, about 10 feet from the car.

My husband is on the phone with Toyota now, but I trust you guys more. Can you help?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RBW111 @ Apr 25 2007, 01:21 PM) [snapback]429965[/snapback]</div>

The car has 60,000 miles on it. We bought it a couple of years ago.

I have turned the sks system off and on. My smart key (the one left near the cell phone) is dead. My hub's still locks and unlocks the car from the outside.



I have learned that the red key signal simply means the theft deterrent system is activated. It goes off and on, as it should when the working key is in the car.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RBW111 @ Apr 25 2007, 01:37 PM) [snapback]429984[/snapback]</div>

It doesn't respond to the foot on the brake, except to start all the lights flashing on the display panel.
It also give me 5 beeps, and my owner's manual says nothing about that

On the MFD, there is no reading shown for the hybrid battery at all.

This is very scary!

 

Thanks for being there/here, folks!

The tow truck is on its way over now. I wonder if it is the 12v. battery? I'm sure it is the original one, but I'm also sure we had no low battery warning as of yesterday. Our weather went from moderate to very hot overnight, however. Perhaps it was too much for an aging battery.

The major warning light (exclamation point in the circle) is what convinced me to call Toyota. Every reference to it in the book said it meant we have a hybrid systems failure. That may not be the problem, but at this point I'm so very grateful to know that we are still under the Toyota 100K mile warranty on the hybrid system.

I'll keep you posted.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Apr 25 2007, 04:07 PM) [snapback]430101[/snapback]</div>

Thanks, Cheap. Yep, I put both FOBs in the slot.

I know that leaving the key within a certain distance of the car will run down the FOB battery, so I tried both of them, and no response. The remote lock and unlock feature still works on each of them, so I presume that means their batteries are good.

I'll ask the tow driver to try to jump the battery when he gets here.

I almost bought a portable plug in auto-battery charger to keep in the car, but didn't, because I wanted to research it first. So far, what I've learned is that the charge amps should be 60-90, or their is risk of damage to system components.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Apr 25 2007, 04:28 PM) [snapback]430115[/snapback]</div>

Tow Truck Report:

We read the manual and tried to jump from the terminals on the front driver's side. The car drained his portable trickle charger. Then we had our prius-driving friends pull their car around and tried to jump from there, with no luck.

The big truck can't get to the car, the car can't be shifted into neutral so we can't move it. This driver has left ad they are sending another one with a winch, so please keep your fingers crossed for us. I heard the first driver on the phone talking about disconnecting the shift linkage (EEP!) I hope we don't have to do that.

 

Thanks, feel free to change the thread title, if you think it will help folks find it in the future.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ Apr 26 2007, 11:27 AM) [snapback]430572[/snapback]</div>

I don't know, when did the ECU mod/fix come out? We just had the car into Toyota a few months ago for routine stuff. If a fix was needed then wouldn't they have told us?

(a detour here: We bought the car used. I ish

Toyota kept a unversal database of maintenance for each vin)

but I am deep into a very early article on the 'O4 and it says:

There is another myth circulating that you can use an outside source to charge the batteries – not so. There is a normal-sized 12-volt battery in the left corner of the trunk, but it is far from “normal.†Study glass mat batteries before you even try to charge this one up. Toyota is having more than their share of trouble with this 12-volt battery. Watch for TSBs about this in the near future. A pulse charger is used, but my studies show the car itself is the best charger to use. That is true for the main battery pack as well.

http://www.motorage.com/motorage/article/a...il.jsp?id=76245

That sounds like a problem that was waiting to happen, and it sounds like I need to check the TSBs.
Thanks