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Prius will not start

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by ItisaPrius, Aug 23, 2015.

  1. ItisaPrius

    ItisaPrius New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2015
    2
    1
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    Location:
    san francisco
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    Five
    My 2006 prius is dead, and wont start. Has 135k. Tried turning on the headlights to see if it was dead and no lights. I drive the car at least with in 3 or 4 days. On the Average I drive it about 40 miles each day, 5 days a week. I read a ton on the AUX battery dying, and mine was about 5 years old. So I got a yellow top on Elearnaid. Installed it and I still have the same problem.
    I can jump start the car and drive around fine with no warning lights or check engine lights, but as soon as I stop and turn the car off, I cant start the car up again. It seems to not have enough juice to get it started. Checked the battery terminal connections a bunch of times and they are tight and look to be making good contact to the terminal. I got a OBD2 scanner off ebay, and it does not display any codes. Maybe the codes are erased from the battery dying and it takes a long period of straight driving with out the car dying for the ECU to show a code?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking that I maybe will have to get a new inverter and install it?
     
    #1 ItisaPrius, Aug 23, 2015
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2015
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2008
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    Location:
    Green Valley, AZ
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    1. Measure voltage across the 12V battery when the Prius is IG-OFF. A new, fully-charged AGM battery will measure 12.9V - 13.0V. If much lower, put the battery on a 4A charger intended for AGM batteries overnight.
    2. After the 12V battery is fully-charged, try to make the Prius READY.
    3. If you cannot make the Prius READY using the 12V battery, then jump start the Prius to make it READY.
    4. Confirm that the headlights will work now.
    5. Using a digital multimeter, measure voltage across the 12V battery:
    - If you get ~13.8V, the inverter is good.
    - If the voltage reading is much lower, then the inverter is not working.
    - If the voltage reading is zero, then you have a problem with a battery cable connection or the 120A MAIN fuse which is located within the positive battery terminal connector block.
     
    #2 Patrick Wong, Aug 23, 2015
    valde3 likes this.
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2010
    55,554
    38,720
    80
    Location:
    Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    Yup, invest in a multimeter. Very likely dead battery followed by dud replacement.
     
    #3 Mendel Leisk, Aug 23, 2015
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    108,888
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    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    another optima problem?
     
    #4 bisco, Aug 23, 2015
    valde3 likes this.
  5. ItisaPrius

    ItisaPrius New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2015
    2
    1
    0
    Location:
    san francisco
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    Five
    I went to Orileys Auto parts and purchased a Multimeter for $30. Put the 2 multimeter leads on the battery terminals and I had 1.75 volts. I pulled the battery out of the car and tested it again and it jumped up to 2.29.
    I noticed at Orileys they charge your battery for free. So, I had it charge at Orileys for 5 hours. Their charging machine displayed that it was a bad battery. It only had 6.56 volts after charging for 5 hours.
    I contacted Elearnaid and they shipped me out a new Yellow Top Optima battery. I guess Mendel Leisk was correct on that my new replacement battery was a dud. It came in one day, and I tested it and it had 12.79 volts. I installed it and my car has been starting up and working fine for the past day. I hope that was the fix, I will have to wait and see in the next few days if the car is still starting up. I then checked the volts to see what It was doing while in ready and with the engine on, and it had 14.11 volts.

    You are the man Patrick Wong!! Saved me $160 from taking it to someone who was telling me there was a parasite sucking up juice while my car was off, and that I needed to take it in for them to inspect.
     
    #5 ItisaPrius, Aug 26, 2015
    bisco likes this.
  6. dorunron

    dorunron Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    3,318
    1,103
    0
    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    After reading post #5, I do believe "Yellow Top" has struck again... 1.75 volts - now that is really a dead battery. Glad to see the OP got the Prius going again.

    The above is one of the reasons that you should always measure the voltage of any battery BEFORE you install it.

    Battery SOC Chart.jpg
     
    #6 dorunron, Aug 26, 2015
    ftl, bisco and Mendel Leisk like this.
  7. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2018
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    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    II
    @Patrick Wong bump on thread a bit. Yesterday I accidentally left the hazard light on so it drained the battery. Now I got it all charged up and running. In case if the battery needs replacement. What would I buy. Of course I like the original or if you know something else better let me know. 07 prius. Thanks, Joe
    Actually its may cat that tripped the switch... yeah right..! banana_dance.gif
     
    #7 Classic Car Guy, May 2, 2020
    Limey Geoff likes this.
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