Shifted into Park in Automatic Car Wash

It occurred because the traction battery (The main hybrid battery) had a very low charge on it at the start and in neutral the engine won't start to charge that battery back up. The engine will not run in neutral and you must make certain the hybrid battery is fully charged and turn off all lights and ac and radio when you go through the car wash.

Do not know why the car would not start after this event.

 

At first, I was thinking: "Yeah....riiiight. Uh huh....the car shifted itself into Park. See also: Unintended Acceleration."

However (comma) I'm thinking that if the G3 shut itself off, then yes indeed.....it would go into park if the vehicle were moving less than (x) mph.
OK...so you have a few problems. First of all....there is the problem that caused the bells and whistles. Whether or not it's confidential to your auto car wash, it's a problem.
Spokane isn't Seattle but you do get rain there.

I'm guessing that either the car has been previously wrecked or there is a manufacturer defect that's allowing water to get into wiring. Either way, you should investigate this problem aggressively and avoid car washes because you know what???? Spokane doesn't have as much rain as the left coast of WA.....but you have a LOT more salt!!
If water can find copper...so can salt. Besides.....Washington is a goofy state where environmental regulations are concerned. That automatic car wash might just be reclaiming their water. I'd be interested in finding out whether or not this is true and what they do about the road salt.

THAT's problem number first. Problem number second is the damage to your car from the car wash incident, since it was your fault. Don't take that personally. It wasn't the other car's fault, and if there is an accident report for some reason they'll have to pick a person whose insurance will pay for any damages.
Guess who that will be?
If there was a report then you're skrood. You're vehicle now has "accident" associated with it. Good Luck selling it privately. Where I'm going with this is that Toyota might just have some liability exposure on this, but they'll be dedicating a GHB presidential statue and reflecting pool in downtown Spokane before the folks in Aichi admit that a car "auto parking" while the vehicle is in motion isn't anything but a brilliantly thought out safety feature.
So....

Fix the car.
Get on with your life.
Avoid car washes until you're certain that the electrical problem is definitively identified and corrected.
If there's no paper on this, and the other car needs fixing, consider doing that out of pocket.

If you're into wasting time? Get some sniveling, bed wetting, bottom feeding attorney to loft a letter to "Toyota, USA" detailing their product's defect in this incident. They'll probably add it to the warehouse full of other letters, but you never know.
You can also contact the NHSB and lob a complaint for their voluminous Toyota files.

Good Luck!

 

Something either (A) caused the traction battery to be drained to dangerous levels or (B) falsely reported that the traction battery was drained to dangerous levels.

Do you remember how many "bars" you had on the screen before the messages? How many bars during the messages?

What did you have on while in neutral? Headlights? Radio? AC? Was the battery fan running in the back vent?

 

He just ran it down in neutral. I can do that on a drive through in my Gen II. Don't take long. Lights, ac,radio.
No mg generation it goes dead fast. Not dead but once it hits 40% its lights out. Thats with the car in neutral. Sometimes if its very crowed in the DT and I'm on the phone I don't want to deal with the cars creep (which is intentionally provided to mimic a regular car) I'll put it in neutral and sit there. My traction flags pretty quick (40%) with all my access's on. I don't own a III so not sure if there is more capacity in the traction compared to a II though.

His car commanded him to put it in Park so the engine would start. He could not since he was in a drive through car wash. After a while after that first command the car takes matters into its own hands if you don't follow its commands and shuts the car off. Same with my Gen II.

Normal.

 

Good to know. I will avoid the automatic car washes that roll the car with the Gen II. I wonder if the affected car washes are aware of the situation.

 

I was mistaken then.
When I read the original post, I thought I read where the power plant scrammed and it would not re-start.
So...if you're in neutral, and the traction battery goes low out of spec for juice then the car will wait for you to place it in "P", and failing that it will scram the plant (placing the car into P)...but why will it not immediately be able to be restarted?

We're missing a piece.
Either it was cockpit error....or the car broke.

Either way...I think that I will just stick to the ocassional hand wash.
I find it interesting that this isn't a more common problem considering the Prius density out on the left coast, and the fact that Robo-washes are a little more common out there as well.

 

You may be able to make it all the way through a car wash if the traction battery is green for instance. And you don't have the ac and lights on. But if you have been stop and go and poor charge on the traction it goes dead (40%) real fast with all access on and in neutral.

 

Following this one.

 

Gotta say, this is the first car we've had, in 30 years, that couldn't be off and in Neutral. I understand it's a trade-off, for the benefit of having an automatic with efficiency rivalling a manual. Still.

Also, virtually the only car lacking a tach. And the only one without a coolant temp gauge.

FWIW, apart from a few transgressions with our first car, when I was young and even more foolish, I would never run a car through an automatic car wash. For many reasons.

 

Yes I have had many bad experiences in auto car washes. Mostly with big cars but still to much anxiety to put my Prius through one.

Besides even if you hand wash it at home and then open the hood you will see alot of water has ingressed over the windshield dam into the engine compartment. Prius cannot take much water pressure going from back to front at that dam area without water getting into the engine compartment. And an auto car wash will probably force alot of water over that dam. The seal area at the base of the dam on a Gen II is not that great. Maybe its better on a III.

I do not want any water in my engine compartment.

 

One of the deal breakers for me, with these automatic car washes: everytime you use one is a time you won't see possible dings and scratches, won't notice accumulating crud in the corners.

It's like getting your teeth scaled by a technician that only cleans them, pays no attention to possible cavities, filling failures and so on.

 

Normal but dangerous. Engine should start in neutral as it does in Park if it means battery will die and car will shutdown.

Response in this case would be put the car in Drive to avoid the dangerous shutdown.

 

Guess you didn't read the OP.

 

I go to a driverless car wash. They put the car in neutral. They can hit a kill switch to stop the belt. Would be nice to know how Toyota recommends procedure.

 

I guess I did. OP said he was in the car so he could have responded by putting it in Drive which would have started the engine, prevented the dangerous automatic actions of the car going into Park. Don't blame the OP as the car's automatic actions per Toyota were dangerous and should be changed. Neutral position should not lock out engine start to maintain battery. It's senseless and as we see damaging and dangerous.

 

Would shifting into Drive allow the vehicle to be rolled by the car wash's transport?

 

^ Wouldn't putting the car in drive allow all sorts of pandemonium when the car rolls off the track at the exit? Not sure how the mechanism works.

Hang on: you're in it, right? (shows how frequently I use these, LOL)

 

Yes.