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Unpleasant surprise

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by willow, Apr 7, 2006.

  1. willow

    willow New Member

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    A couple of days ago our 3-months-old '06 Prius "acted up", displaying all dash lights (including a red triangular warning light) in addition to the shift lever refusing to budge. After "fiddling" with it a few minutes it started.

    Today the same thing happened, but this time all measures failed to get it started. In fact, with the exception of the driver's door, all other doors locked up and refused to unlock -- including the rear hatch. And as before, the shift lever would not move.

    A call to the dealership resulted in a tow truck being summoned to haul it to the service department. The car was parked in the garage, so there were some anxious moments as to gaining access to the rear 12V battery. After reading the manual, my husband had to crawl into the back of the car and manually unlock the rear hatch so the battery could be charged and moved out of the garage for loading on the tow truck.

    Question: Has anyone else had this problem and if so what was the problem? Thanks, Anxious in Chesapeake
     
    #1 willow, Apr 7, 2006
  2. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(willow @ Apr 7 2006, 02:50 PM) [snapback]236469[/snapback]</div>
    So the battery was dead? Or did you kill the battery trying to get the car started? Why did you charge from the back instead of the front connections? The shifter wouldn't move? That makes no sense at all b/c it's not mechanically connected to anything...even if the car is dead, shut off, whatever it'll move...the car may not shift gears, but the shifter itself won't "[refuse] to budge".

    I'm pretty confused by your description, hopefully it'll be something as simple as a dead 12v battery b/c you left the hatch undone or something, but otherwise this is a very odd problem description.
     
    #2 efusco, Apr 7, 2006
  3. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    This is the first report I've seen of the shifter being unable to move. As Evan says, a computer failure could cause the car to not respond to the shifter, but it should still be possible to move it. Sounds to me like something physically broken or stuck at the shifter itself. But that should not cause the car to refuse to start. Please keep us informed!
     
    #3 daniel, Apr 8, 2006
  4. john1701a

    john1701a Prius Guru

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(willow @ Apr 7 2006, 02:50 PM) [snapback]236469[/snapback]</div>
    Yup! It's a trap a few new owners have fallen into... so important that it's listed on page 2 of the USER-GUIDE.

    Basically, you weren't stepping hard enough on the brake pedal during startup.

    Sorry, but I'm not sure how to better spread the word on how to avoid this. The remedy isn't something you'd easily stumble upon either (obviously). And the prevention is so simple that most owners aren't even aware that they are doing it.
     
    #4 john1701a, Apr 8, 2006
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