Prius shuts off after jump start

Do you have a battery charger? If not, get one and charge the 12v outside of the car. Could be it is not accepting the charge in the short time-frame.

 

I've personally witnessed utterly bizarre behavior in a Gen II when the 12V battery has a dead cell. Test the terminal voltage with a voltmeter. If it is less than 11V, just skip the charger and go straight to replacement.

 

+1 on what seilerts says.

Still something doesn't sound right here.

As I understand it, once the Ready light comes on, 12V power having
come from a jump or the onboard 12V battery, 12V power comes from
the HV battery via the DC-to-DC inverter. As this point the 12V battery
is still in line, but acting as a buffer. Not being all that e-smart, I don't
know if the 12V battery is in a parallel or series circuit.

If the car dies when the external power source is removed that would
seem to indicate two possible problems:
* a dead 12V battery, and no output from the DC-to-DC inverter,or
* if the 12V battery is in series with the DC-to-DC inverter an open
circuit, "dead cell?" in the 12V battery

Given the potential high repair costs, I hope it's not the first.

Folks with greater e-savy than me, what do you say?

 

Your dead 12V battery is dragging down the 12V bus. If you can't recharge the 12V battery you will need a replacement.

Tom

 

chrobb,

Jump starting a Prius is a wholly different matter than jumping the
garden variety ICE powered car.

if the problem is only a discharged 12V battery, you only need enough
power to boot one onboard computer. It's not much, think about the
size of the battery in a laptop computer. IIRC, if you know what you're
doing, you can use a handful of C or D "flashlight batteries" to do it.
(FWIW, I'm not one of these people.)

In my experience, you do not need to recharge the Prius' depleted 12V
battery to start the car.

I know from having done it that with the 12V battery totally
disconnected, when you connect an appropriate 12V source to the jump
terminals under the hood, with a simple push of the Power button the
car goes immediately into the Ready Mode.

In the Prius, there is no starter motor that you'd recognize. Once the
Prius boots up, the HV, High Voltage, battery is used to spin MG1,
Motor-Generator1, as a starter. The dinky little 12V is not used to start
the ICE.

I'm hardly an expert in these matters. Most everything I know comes
from comments made by PC members in this thread:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...2v-battery-glove-box-remedy-2.html#post557167

I'm hoping others post up on this.

 

Batteries can fail in such a way that they can't take charge. In some cases they act like a big load or short, sucking down current without ever getting charged. That's what yours is doing.

It may be that it will recover if you give it time on a charger, but then it might not.

When powered up, you should see something like 13.8 volts on your 12V bus. What you are reading is way too low, indicating that the battery is dragging down the bus. Disconnect the battery and put it on an external charger. You need to keep a close eye on it, as Prius batteries are small and easily damaged by overcharging.

I will be really surprised if you get out of this without replacing the 12V battery.

Tom

 

Please quantify 'doesn't really register anything'. There's usually at least 1 or 2 volts in even the most deeply discharged, heavily sulfated battery. If it is truly 0V, then there is a short inside the case and it is no wonder that the car shuts down immediately.

Running the donor vehicle at high RPM while trying to jump a Prius can fry fusible links and electronics such as the inverter.

 

My suggestions:

(1) Don't apply a regular external charger while the battery is installed in the car. To protect the car's electronics, pull the battery out on the bench. Like previous respondents, I'm betting this battery is not salvageable.

(2) Don't try to jump the Prius with a running car anymore. If it was going to work, it would have already worked. If it is going to work at all, it will work with the jumping car's engine turned off.

(3) I think -- but let the experts chime in first -- that you should be able to jump start the Prius while its 12V battery is disconnected, and it should stay on until you turn it off. If it quits when the jump is disconnected, then there is an additional failure. Just make sure that the positive cable doesn't short to the negative cable or the chassis.

Very good call. The cost of 'user error' can run well into 4 figures.

 

Yes, a reading of 2V means there is no chance whatsoever of recovering an OEM battery. Might as well pull it out and get another one. Research Battery Minder, Battery Tender, or Optimate, to keep that new battery at the proper float charge, so as to avoid this problem in the future.

 

This is correct. If a bad 12V battery is the problem, the battery can be disconnected, the Prius jump started, and then driven to the dealership. Once started, the 12V bus is powered from a DC to DC converter so the battery is unnecessary.

Tom

 

I suspect this is what has happened, check the fusible links near the jump points.

 

wow... first off... don't rev the other car... 2nd... you're shorting out the prius when you disconnect the other car.. further more, you're shorting out the other car by connecting it to your dead battery.

the other car doesn't eve have to be on. it take very little power to start a prius.. very little.. all you are doing is switching on 3 computers (or so)...

disconnect your battery and toss it.. if you really are curious, connect your jumpers (with your 12v out) and turn the car on (other car OFF!)... your car should boot up quickly... now disconnect the jumpers.. your car should stay on till you power down... if it doesn't, you probably caused other problems in your 1st jump attempt.

prius doesn't run off the 12v.. it runs off the traction battery.. it just boots up those computers with the 12v.