Problems with push button start

easiest things first: check your battery voltage/

 

+1 on your 12v auxiliary battery. If it's the original battery, it may be time to replace, especially if you live in an area that gets cold.

The chemical reaction that provides electricity in the battery decreases as the temperature drops, so you don't want to rely on a tired old battery to get you through winter.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

try stomping on your brakes then button

 

Call it a day and hunker down for the winter. Give it a try again in the spring.

 

brake pedal switch might need adjusting, or 12v is low.

 

Yes make sure your are FIRMLY pushing on the brake pedal. If it keep happening make sure the brake lights come on to make sure the brake switch is working although I think I remember somebody else saying awhile back that the switch that makes the lights come on is different than the switch that tells the car you have your foot on the brake so you can start it. Maybe somebody else remembers or knows for sure.

 

These are always the first two things to check based on your symptoms.

 

we had a spate of misadjusted brake switches a few years back. i can't remember what model years though.

 

Also replace the key fob battery

 

This is symptomatic of a failing 12V battery. When you "try" to start your car, is the car going to "READY" mode? Likely not.

I JUST had this happen to me on Tuesday. I was starting to notice, for the past few weeks, that my car wasn't reacting as quickly when I stepped on the brake pedal and pressed the Start button. On Tuesday, I tried to start it and the right side of my instrument cluster didn't alight, although I got all the "idiot" lights coming on (on the far right). The car wouldn't go into ready mode, thus wouldn't start.

Today, all the lights on the instrument panel lit up, but the car wouldn't go into ready mode. I've experienced this before when I first got the car and it was due to a dying 12V battery. I got the battery replaced today and the car is working fine.

I only got 14 months on my original battery (likely abused at the dealership) and 7 years on my replacement battery. If you are on your original 12 volt battery, it is now ~ 5 years old and that is the normal life for it. AAA charged me about $220 to replace and install a battery with a 6 year warranty. Half the cost had I gone with my optima yellow top and had my mechanic install it.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

 

I have had this problem for at lease 5 years on & off. I'm looking for a fix myself, sometimes it gets so bad it won't start at all, so I will give a quick fix , open up hood & open the compartment on the right corner that you to jump start a Prius I have found that if you hook up any type of battery charger to the red flip up where you put your pos. terminal at it will reset your car & it will start up & you don't have a problem for quite a while. I have never had this happen while out driving but I carry a small harbor fright portable battery charger with me. when i do this its not to charge the battery as its not dead , but to reset something ? toyota wanted 300.00 just to look at it. I won't pay this as I don't think they know what's wrong. After I have tried to start it a number of times is when this happened . Carry a portable jumper & open your hood take the plastic cover off it's not a battery but there is a jumping post there. your manual under jump start will show you where the post is. You have to flip up a red plastic lid to access this pole. This only takes a couple of minutes once you learn how. now I'm going to read your post to see if there's a long time fix. I don't know why this works but it works every time, & hasn't harmed anything I have reset my car three times this way instead of calling a tow truck. This is very important for a woman to learn this trick as I showed my wife in five min. Don't carry the jumping device in the trunk keep it under the seat as when this happens you can't open the trunk its like the battery is dead even when its not. sorry this is so long. Toyota don't have this under trouble shooting I accidently found this while trying to jump start my car.