I screwed up- tried to start while charging-everything DARK

OK

I certainly screwed up-I was in a hurry-old-71-in pain hands neck back etc

My 2006 Prius 140,000 miles-all but about 2000 are PURE CITY short trip miles

I tried to start it with a charger-immediately went DARK

yeah screwed up- everything on dash went DARK-


Dash had been lit up-TRIANGLE of death-and every other light was on-but it still ran

but 12v died 9 years old-rarely driven because of a BRAKE problem

perhaps the component buried in engine bay-that controls everything about brakes

and acts like a master cylinder-a $3000 component with labor-brakes on and off MUSHY

Dangerous-so only starting it while deciding to part it out-or sell whole-wirth proviso it must

be towed away-full disclosure-

If it is just a fuze-I will replace it-so it will start for potential buyers-engine ran fine

2006 140,000 ALL CITY MILES- yeah hard service-good car until brake component went bad

brakes on and off "mushy" like a brake master cylinder was bad

HELP- best guess-cook fuze or something pricier

Thanks

Charlie

PS Yes I KNOW I should not have tried to start it with charger-in a hurry-tired car mostly not worth

Much because of bad brakes-tired impatient in a hurry-screwed up

 

TMR

Thanks for the reply. I don't "think" I reversed connected-it was red to red-I think BUT

Now it is faintly possible I "took it off the clips" or they "popped off" and unthinkingly I clipped them up wrong

As soon as I pushed the START BUTTON- everything went DARK- the lit up dash-kaput

I will check that fusible link- the way it immediately "signed off" but with no "electrical burning odor"

it makes me think FUZE OR LINK- not a cooked component- or perhaps just HOPING-but sure worth a look!

Thanks-I will check-Charlie

Frankly if I could get it running-I would dig down and take a shot at replacing that brake component-not worth enough to just sell or part out-not if I could get it running "some"

 

Oh-like your 4 legged "boss" .

The charger being set to 2 amps-but needly being pegged to over 15 amps-does that suggest wrong polarity?

I have never seen that before-normally set on 10 amps-it will initially read 5 amps(on this old-9 years old-battery) then it

will eventually get to 10 amps or so-the 15 plus amps-set on 2 amps-caught my eye-but did not cause me to check polarity.

I do remember looking at clips and noticing that the PLUS sign was hard to see-worn maybe-but perhaps I was just seeing

a negative-light was poor-I don't connect by color-always by actually "seeing" a plus sign-so maybe that 15 amp reading

meant I had it on backwards? Not sure why it would read like that but certainly possible I crossed it up-I was tired-light poor

in a hurry and not optimistic -so screw up not unlikely the link- is hard to see clearly -scratched up clear colorless

plastic hard to clearly see-I read that post-year or so back-when you jokingly told the guy EYE DOCTOR

He had actually pried the failed stretch apart- I will need to get a GOOD close look in good light-

Thanks-sure hope it is something simple like the link-I would like to take another shot at getting it fixed-the brake problem

It has been a very relaible car-very few repairs-very few

1)Traction battery-79000 miles warranty(black on black car-and NOLA is HOT-probably contributed to early failure-all city miles)

2) Inverter coolant pump-some sort of Toyota extended warranty because of high failure rate

3)AC-$3300 Toyota dealer-NOLA is hot humid-AC is 11 months a year in black on black car

4)Belt driven coolant pump-about 2020 DIY me-forget how much part was-not excessive I would remember a horrendous $$-

guessing under $200-maybe much less-unmemorable so cheap-belt too

5) front brake pads-DIY-cheap easy

That is it for 16 years 140,000 miles pure city driving-good as it gets

Charlie

 

TMR

Thanks for the tips

I carefully eyeballed the fused link-with the clear-scratched-cover off-it looks fine-but it is a weird arrangement-flat plates of steel

with little " square section wires" connecting one shiny plate to another-looks ok

My charger still works-

Whatever I did -it did not cook whateveer it cooked

UNTIL I pressed START BUTTON-then the dash IMMEDIATELY went black-everything black-

The battery was very low-but it still had enough to light up dash-BEFORE charger connected

Connection the charger-old SEARS says imput 190 W 60 HZ 120 VAC output DC 12V 10/2 A

Am I correct in assuming the charger actually is limited to 190 Watts

190 watts-not a lot- 1/4 HP-not enough to spin a starter motor I think-but maybe it actually can put out more than that

home outlets 120 x10 =1200 watts at least-hope I did not run that in

In any case-whatever cooked-cooked IMMEDIATELY- dash went from lit up-triangle etc- to black instantly

no noise no spark(I still have a very good sense of smell-I always notice odors and always smell "electrical odors"

before everyone else-nasty plastic insulation burning-

so if it is not the under hood-

by the battery there is a 5 amp fuse-fine

There is also a 120 A WHITE fuse it is fine also-can clearly see the wire is intact

Can a car battery go from having some power-lighting dash-and making beeps I think

To absolutely NO POWER-immediately-could I somehow have IMMEDIATELY destroyed the battery's internal connections?

Thanks Charlie

 

GOOD NEWS-well pretty good

Yes You are all right-I should have tested the battery-but I have never had a battery soooooo dead-it would not light up a few LEDS

maybe not 5 watts-

Well I do now

Yesterday I put my voltmeter-analog needle-yes it is old-guessing the charger-SEARS-also analog 1970s-and the voltmeter OHM meter

amps meter- also old-needle on face-I could tests volts-would have to hunt up a 9V to do resistance

Anyway Voltmeter yesterday read 8-10v

This am I decided to hook up my "emergency starter "battery" claims to out out 1500 watts-tiny 10x6x2 inches-but..

Well hooked it up-turned it on-dash lit up-I ran around -pushed start-

Yes it started-and drove a few feet.

I parked it--the emergency start tiny battery makes a beeping racket- ran around-D/Ced it

So yeah I screwed up-but learned something-

Somehow the charger caused the battery to IMMEDIATELY go all but dead-when I hit START BUTTON

I wonder why everything went DARK-just because I ran a JOLT through it-

Exactly like I just did-except the emergency battery

It claims 1500 watts-the actual charger says IMPUT 190watts 15v x12 I guess(close enough)

My bad-but glad it worked out-

I really like this car-Toyotas are not lovable-like some cars(people love Jeeps new jeeps-for "some reason"

and people LOVE some Hondas-for pretty good reasons- and hard to believe but many folks

MGs Triumphs (we had a somewhat lovable MG1100 1963 OR SO) it was boxy-the points NEVER

actually wore out-they literally BROKE in half at 3 months(OEM prince of darkness Lucas parts)

but we loved it-and many people LOVE Jaguars(for obvious reasons)

but no one LOVES Toyotas-but this Prius still has a place in my heart-soooo few repairs

despite HARD service

Now that it runs I will start digging into the "on and off mushy brakes-but no code shows up-despite lit up dash.

I wonder WHY the charger just "killed" the battery INSTANTLY when I hit start

Before this episode the battery would hold a charge-for maybe 2-3 days- yeah bad battery but funds short-and 2 other cars run

OK-not a priority- guess I will pay $200 and get another battery-maybe spend more and get another OPTIMA YELLOW-

it lasted 8.5 years-long time-so.. but $300.. vs $200 -might be worth it

Thanks all

Charlie

 

Quick question then I will start a new thread asking about HOW TO REPLACE BRAKE ACTUATOR

It the Prius BRAKE actuator(er?) assembly the "same thing" as the antilock brake assembly?

I am looking at used brake actuator assemblies on ebay(used they are $300 or so vs NEW $900-$1300).

I have noticed a "part" that looks awfully similar-heck identical maybe-that is referred to as an anti-lock brake

"controller" or maybe assembly-also about $300 used

Is it the same part?

I seem to remember waaay back-maybe 1 year ago- the antilock brake icon came on before any other icons

and way before Triangle of Death.

So same part?

Huge aside-looking at 12v batteries for prius

On Amazon the yellow top OPTIMA I bought in 2013 was $160-and no tax collected-same battery now is $280+ about $26 tax

so over $300 now vs $160 in 2013-yikes! I will get a cheap-$180 battery-$200 with tax

Thanks

Charlie

PS I will spend time reading various posts -here-on the actuator replacement-before posting on it asking for "TIPS"-looks to be a many many hr job-