Hey I'm new to hybrids and just purchased a 02 Prius, haven't owned it for just a few days and went out to start it before work at 10 degree and nothing. Later discovered that interior light switch was left on (I think) for 2 days. So I thought to well car needs a jump so I hooked up booster cables and the horn started going off then quit. So I let it charge for a few min and nothing. I checked cables and discovered that cables was reversed on on the car I was jumping from. I know what a stupid mistake. So I corrected the cables and let charge, replaced a few buss fuses and car was running fine, drove in probably 20 miles or so and then pulled in driveway and PS and battery and exclamation car syblol came up. And so I took it for another drive and it quit. Car would start but would die in just a few seconds. I then charged the battery for 10 or 15 minutes and was able to make it home. So I'm thinking that when I hook cables up wrong (like a idiot) I have blew something to keep it from charging, at least I hope so and didn't ruin something else. Any advice on if there is some kind of relay or maybe even a way to check and see if there is an alternator. I'm totally lost on hybrids. Thanks in advance.
Welcome to the forum. WOW! An '02! I'm not familiar with gen 1, but if it's anything like the newer ones, I would expect that you burned out something in the inverter, which might be a pretty expensive repair depending on what exactly happened and who fixes it. You will need a code reader, though, to find out what's actually going on. I won't say anything about connecting the cables backward. I'm sure you've already beat yourself up pretty good over that. Hope you can get it fixed reasonably.
Yea me too Jerry. I'm thinking that the12volt system is not charging due to after I charge the 12volt battery it runs fine until battery runs dead. Really was loving the lil car and hope I can get it figured out and reasonable. Thanks by the way
Welcome. I hope you get the car repaired. You have what we call a Gen 1 Prius which is rarer than the newer ones in the US. You may find help in this thread where another userdid something similar and repaired the damage. Help! Original owner Prius 1 goofed! Reversed cables on booster PAC charge jump to my Prius! | PriusChat
