'05 Prius engine suddenly kaput :-(

Hi,

We bought our Prius new in Aug 05. It's been fine. 38 - 64 mpg depending on terrain and speed. Great car. We love it.

Before we bought it I monitored this newsgroup and read several postings about sudden death of the engine. Owners reported that without warning the engine would quit and refuse to be restarted. Some contributors wrote of a procedure involving the prolonged pressing of the Power button. I failed to keep copies of those postings.

Alas, tonight I backed the Prius out of the garage, turned it off while I closed the garage door, and attempted to restart it. Nothing. Right now it sits in our driveway (thank goodness!) with only the green Park jewel and the red engine alert illuminated. I had to lock the doors with the key.

It could be the auxiliary battery. Two days ago I left the driver's reading lamp on overnight. Nevertheless it started right up yesterday and let me run several local errands.Perhaps they were not enough to recharge the 12v battery?

Should I risk trying to recgarge the 12v battery through the specified terminal in the engine compartment's fusebox?

In Sept we had the 10,000-mile scheduled service and the steering-recall work done. I doubt that either is related to this new problem.

I will welcome insight before I call the dealer tomorrow.

(This note's UK email address notwithstandng, I'm stateside as I write this.)

Reply to
Masked
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Then don't mess about with it yourself. Leave it to the dealer, as AFAIK you are safely inside the warranty period.

Apart from caution over theft or kids/pets/idiots engaging Drive (despite the built-in safeties), you don't need to turn off the dashboard in such circumstances. Switching off/on is not a huge drain on things (AFAIK, NB); and even leaving loads like the a/c running is covered by the car minding the state of charge itself.

If you were about to do the work yourself, you'd still need to be sure the 12v battery was squiffed. Has the battery been examined in the ways usual for trad lead/acid cells (without infringing on the dealer's territory)? (Eg, electrolyte level, terminal volts, general condition; maybe Ray O has some suggestions there.) But, as you are leaving it to your friendly local dealer (yes?), don't do more than look at it from a distance.

BTW, I assume (as you didn't say otherwise) that you were able to open the boot (US:trunk)? If so the 12v battery is okay, because it provides the power to unlock the hatch when you pull up on the lifting point: the mildly squishy feel is your fingers pressing a switch.

Reply to
Andrew Stephenson

I'd RTFM and see where they want you to connect the charger - but if it was my car, I'd probably still get out the trickle charger and go clip it straight to the battery posts. If it works, it may get enough charge overnight to start and drive to the dealer for repairs.

Unless the battery has a shorted cell and starts overcharging the other cells and boiling out acid all over the place (which is why you expose the battery during charging, so you can see this) you really can't hurt anything.

Regular car batteries have very little tolerance to deep discharges

- even two or three times can be enough to toast it, though it usually takes 6 to 12 really deep discharges to kill it. Was your car ever a dealer demo for any length of time at all? How many other times has someone left the dome light on, or left it sitting all day in Acc with the radio cranked up loud?

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Sound advice. Yes, the warranty applies.

No, the boot switch (thank you for the reality check ) is dead too.

I think the dealer gets to tow the car and me to his shop.

Thanks again.

Reply to
Withheld

...

We bought it with 52 mies on the odometer. It was one of two on the lot at the time. Both were being test-driven, one assumes.

However, the selling dealer is many miles form home, so the repairing dealer will be seeing the car for the first time. Warranty is honored by all dealers, so I should be OK.

Thanks, Bruce.

Reply to
Withheld

It sounds like the 12 V battery is discharged. The OP can try jumping or charging per the instructions in the owner's manual. If it is still under warranty, I'd let the dealer handle it.

Reply to
Ray O

yes, it is a flat battery, but why would you turn it off to shut the garage door?

the 12v battery only runs the computer boot up, so doesn't need much in it, a short charge would get you going again.

Reply to
mrcheerful

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