car couldn't be started after displaying VSC and ABS lights. Toyota dealer had car 3 days and factory rep visited. They couldn't duplicate problem. If the auxiliary battery was disconnected, would that allow restarting when reconnected? anybody? I don't want to be stranded by this anomaly! thanks.
Yes, fault codes are normally cleared when you disconnect and reconnect the 12V battery. You may want to test your 12V battery as a low battery can cause a lot of weird problems such as you describe above.
Now all I have to do is find the battery! Can I test it under the hood? Seems like it would have self warned, but I guess it can't do everything.
You can test it under the hood from the jump terminals, but really you should gain access by removing the passenger side "triangle" cover in the rear hatch area. It is part of the false floor , those little pieces come up. The side with the aux battery requires you to somewhat lift the main area out of the way because they don't want you gaining access willy nilly. Be very very careful if they jumpstart or try in any other way to charge or start the vehicle through the 12v system. If the polarity is reversed on live jump/charge wires even momentarily best case you are looking at replacing the 100A fusible link under the hood, and potentially a multi-thousand dollar repair/replacement of the inverter. DO NOT trust AAA or a junkyard mechanic to hookup properly. In a normal car, it sparks a bit and the battery gets warm, but no harm no foul. In the Prius, this oversight is expensive. So make them aware of it, so they are more aware and cognizant when connecting. For this very reason I am an advocate for "smart jumper cables". They cost between $20 on sale and $60 brand new in a retail mark-up environment for a basic pair. They connect in any order, in any polarity. Automatically sense the polarity of the battery or voltage source on both ends. Wait a second or two after all connections are made, and then turn on. This prevents shorts, prevents sparking, prevents reverse polarity, and it is an extremely cheap insurance policy.
That is great advice! I will check out EBay for sure. My Prius is an '06 by the way. I think they call it a gen 2. thanks for the tips.
Your user info on the side says 2008, not 2006. But all 2004-2009 are exactly the same. You can do the test via the MFD as well but it can be up to a half a volt off, which can make a large difference. The best way to measure it is just looking at a real DMM.
A Prius C is a type of car. Prius has their own forums where you might get more localized answer towards your specific problems. I'm not saying don't put it on the site. I'm just saying you may have better luck in the correct forum.
Thread moved to the proper Gen II forum. Reporting the post helps in it getting moved ztanos. Just telling the person instead of reporting generally results in them making a dupe post in another forum and creates more work for the mods...
Didn't realize this was a report function. Thanks for the heads up. I'll bear that in mind from now on.
