I left the dome lite on last Friday night. I didn't try to start it up till the following Sunday. In fact, my first clue was that I couldn't open the hatchback. So I opened the owners manual, and in a few minutes, I knew how to jump start from the fuse box in the engine compartment. I wish there was a more beefy stud for the positive terminal (there are plenty of negative ground studs all around) because my jumper cable dis NOT want to stay on that little tiny stud. But stay it did! And my magical mode of transportation hummed right back to life. A couple of interesting things resulted... I lost some information in the strangest places. Like: My current MPG per tank information was erased. The back up beeper was enabled again. All my radio pre-sets. The history of the Nav system was erased. So was Trip Meters A and B. This tells me that the circuitry in this vehicle is built with some interesting redundancy. Or else everything should have been erased. ... Things that make you go Hmmmm.
It depends on whether data is stored in flash memory or just hanging around in one of the computers. Data in flash or other non-volatile memory need no power, so they will survive a flat battery. Tom
Correct on all accounts. Been there; done that. Oops. I thought something was really and truly hosed because I couldn't jump him myself. When the tow guy showed up, he clamped the jumper cable to a large screwdriver and as soon as he touched the screwdriver to the positive terminal Priapus jumped back to life. I think you've covered it as far as what's erased. And it's for those reasons that I keep printouts in the glove box of how to eliminate the back-up beep. Also, post-it markers in the manual for radios, Nav, etc.
All of your lost data (from lost 12 volts) make sense in the Prius world. You must start thinking about replacing that 12 volt battery. I think it is all easy to read about in Priuschat archives.
hmmm funny... works like nearly any other car... have worked on my old corolla enough to know that when i disconnected the battery fo9r some reason, all that info you mentioned is also reset as well. only exception, didnt have the beeper disable option, but everything else reset
Do I really have to start looking for a replacement 12 v batt? I have had a lot of cars jumped, and the batts last quite a while longer. Is this lil batt realy that fragile? <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tochatihu @ Oct 31 2006, 09:29 AM) [snapback]341207[/snapback]</div>
I wouldn't worry about it. I ran mine dead (several weeks dead) about two years ago. Jumped it and it's been fine ever since. Thanks, Shawn
Had an oil change on Saturday (15k miles, 2007 Prius). My husband drove it to the grocery store on Sunday. No lights were left on. A couple of hours later, we were going out, and puff, Prius didn't work -- didn't recognize keys, nothing worked (good thing we had left it open -- btw, can we open it when key is not working?). Our jumper cable is not long enough, so we called AAA and they jump started the car. Nothing was lost on the memory -- but the rechargeable battery seemed all the way down, and it took a while for the Prius to recognize I had gas in it (gas light kept flashing). Same happened to my father-in-law. AAA refused to jump started it, had it towed to dealer, and dealer charged him an absurd amount of money, never explaining to him exactly what happened -- I'm sure he was ripped off.
I hope that you left the car READY at least 30 minutes or more after it was jumped, so that the 12V battery had a chance to be recharged. Over the next few days you'll see whether or not the battery is performing normally or not. If you find that the car needs to be jumped again, then that is an indication that you ought to replace the battery.
I suggest you find the mechanical key hidden in the fob. This will allow you to open the driver's side door. Consult your owner's manual if necessary to locate the key. Loss of the fuel gauge reading is a strong clue that the 12V battery was dead; but of course you already knew that.
If you take note of the model year of the posters here, you will notice that there is a diffference in the amount/level of the information lost when the 12V battery dies, or is disconnected. From what I've read, model years up to and including 2005 loose a whole lot of info including radio presets, nav data, the drivers windw "hot button" full lowering, reverse beep defeat, etc. My experience with a 2008, is that I lost none of this when I disconnected my battery some while back; hooked it back up and no problems, it was all there. I did experience somewhat lower MPGs for about a tank. So something subtle in the CPU-ECU-memory regime seems to have changed. I 'm also coming to suspect that maybe I can routinely get into yellow arrow EV well above 41 MPH. Maybe up to 52 MPH, but that may just be glimpses of the fabled SHM. It has also been reported that the current version traction control is vastly different than earlier models. What I'm not saying very well is that while the early adopters have done heroic work in discovering operational details of the HSD, I think it would be a good thing if our best minds had an opportunity to spend some time in an '08. They will be able to tell immediately what/how the Toyota has slipped in some very subtle, even secret, evolutionary changes. Very soon we are going to be inundated with posts on the 2009, where there may be big changes in the HSD management. I'm afraid any 2006-08 changes may ge lost in the shuffle, bright lights, and hoopla.
Um, Patrick, Graz started this thread 10-31-2006, 06:52 PM, so your reply is a little late. Probably everything was sorted out by 2007. Rokeby, there have been numerous subtle changes in the Prius since the current body style was introduced. I'm sure the trend will continue.
