The strangest thing happened to my Prius several times already: I turned off the engine after a short drive and the car went completely non-responsive as if 12V battery is dead. 30-60 minutes later (or maybe sooner) everything was back to normal except that the clock needed to be reset. This happened 3 times already over the past year, with several months between incidents. I have a 2013 Prius with 110k miles. I looked at the battery terminals for signs of poor connection or corrosion and everything seemed normal. Has anyone else had this issue and found a solution?
If you read the post here, you'll find that the 12v battery will cause strange things to happen when it gets weak. How old is it? If it's 6-7 years or older, might be a good idea to replace it. If it's less than 7 years old, Toyota will replace it, for free. 84 month warranty(7 years). I just replaced mine, It was 9 years old.
Thanks. I replaced the battery about 4 years ago, so it's not that old. I doubt it's under warranty as it's not the original one. But there was a period of about a year, before these problems started, when the car was getting very little use, so that probably wasn't very good for the battery.
Merely looking may not suffice. Check that those terminals are tight. If so, loosen them slightly, then shift the clamps slightly, then retighten.
For test of the battery itself: hook up one of the new gen of load testers; it'll read the volts and the Cold Cranking Amps, and deliver a verdict, the battery's "viability". Dealerships have these, but will likely ding you a half-hour's labour. Automotive retail stores often have such testers and will test for free; it's good for business. Or you can pick one up, for somewhere between $50~100. I'm using a Solar BA5, and I believe it's current iteration is BA9.
