I have a rather unique situation I am asking for general guidance on. My brother is in a terrible financial situation and is on the verge of being evicted. He has slowly lost his vision over the past several years, and has been unemployed. He owns a generation 2 Prius, and I'm sorry I don't know the model year. It has sat undriven for 3 years, and reportedly the battery is completely depleted. The car needs to be sold quickly to raise funds for his rent. I would like to investigate the car in person tomorrow, and hopefully get it started. I know almost nothing about hybrid cars in regards to how it affects this situation. Is ist possible to jump start the car and run it on gas power for awhile to see if the hybrid battery will recharge? Are there any special precautions needed to jump start it? Does it use a separate battery for starting than the hybrid battery pack? For what it's worth, the car has only 30,000 miles on it. Thanks for any help you can provide me, and sorry about the uninformed nature of my questions.
welcome! 1) no. there is a 12 volt battery that boots the computers, you can jump that. 2) yes. do not cross polarize the positive and negative, that can fry the inverter. 3) yes. see #1, then you need the hybrid battery to turn over the engine. but after 3 years, it is probably dead as well. 4) when you jump it, do not start the donor car, just hook up the cables. the 12v battery is under the floor in the hatch, on the right rear corner. you need to remove the floor panels to get to it, they just lift out. there is a jump point under the hood in the fuse box. you can use that instead. 5) at 30k, it might be easier to put it up for sale as is, should move quickly. all the best!
I've attached an excerpt from a second generation Owner's Manual, the jump start instruction. That may be all of the starting problems, ie, the hybrid battery may still be good. But 3 years is a long time, hard to tell. Starting problems aside, the tires will likely be seriously flat-spotted, and low on air. Also, the brakes may be rust-glued, or close to it. The gas may have deteriorated too, the sooner you can burn through what's in there and refill the better. Take it one step at a time.
Contact Matt from Texas Hybrid Batteries. Texas Prius Battery Replacement There's no one close to you that knows these cars better.
