im a new prius owner, i just bought an '04 and the system is completely dead, is there a way to jump the car or just start the car with the engine vs the elecrit motor? I'm sure most of these problems would be adressed in a manual of some sort, but i dont have one. Could somebody please help me out with some insight bnefore i roll the damn thing off a cliff.
I"m not sure what to make of the whole situation, Spree. You have an '04 Prius but no manuals? It's a new car to you (and not very old anyway) and it's already dead? It's a combination of very odd things. But here's the answer (assuming you know how to jump 'traditional' cars): As you are looking at the car with the hood popped, the fuse box is to the right. It's got a big black cover over the fuses. Pop that cover off. In this picture, you can see it on the far-right: http://gallery.joesdiner.com/gallery/prius...erior/040717_22 Then you will see, sort of upper-left, a metal piece that comes up and over. That's where the positive end of the jumper cables go. When I needed a jump, I couldn't get a good connection, so the jumper cables held a screwdriver which was used to make contact with the little screw. Make sure you have a good nuetral connection. I tried doing the jump myself a fewf times but nothing happened. I called a pro to come and do it. I suspect that I was not getting a good connection. That's where the guy clamped the jumper cable on a screwdriver and touched the screwdriver to the jumper screw. As soon as he did that, the alarm went off and all Hell broke loose. The good news was that Priapus was alive again. I can't find any good pictures of the inside of the fusebox or I would post them. Good luck and go get a manual.
Here are some pictures to help. The one of the cover shows the latch at the bottom of the cover; push it in and lift to open the fuse box. The second picture shows the inside of the box with the red safety cover over the jump + terminal. The third pic shows the red cover flipped open to get at the terminal. While Tony's screwdriver may work, there's a strip of metal above the bolt nut and you can clamp the jump cable there. Make sure you have a good body-to-body - connection, not on the battery of the car providing the jump.
By the way, spree, Congratulations! In our eagerness to help you out, I forgot to welcome you to PriusChat. I'm sure you'll love your car, one you get it started. The 12V battery is small, so it can be run down fairly easily. It's mostly used to boot the computers and close the relays to the high-voltage battery. Once you get the car started, drive for at least half an hour to make sure the 12V battery gets charged.
thank for the info guys, unfortunately my friend came over to jump my car and he put the wrong terminal on the wrong connection, there was smoke involved and now nothing in the car has any power, im hoping its just fuses, either way my life is gonna suck come tomorrow when i try to get to work, i dont suppose there is anything i can do just short of taking the car into the shop is there? btw, i ended up making my own jumper cable connector for a prius using a small rubbergripped vicegrips and sodering a cable to it, i see what you mean about usinig the screwdriver trick.
Probably fuses, but your friend is dangerous. The Prius is full of computers, controlling all sorts of operations. The wrong voltage or wrong polarity can fry them. Replacing ECUs is a tad more expensive that replacing fuses. Time to have the car towed to the dealer. Maybe your friend can help pay.
Someone already reported hooking up a battery backwards and frying about 10 compugters. Repairs cost almost as much as a new car. Hope you lucked out and it is just fuses.
On my '05, I have had a couple times, where I push POWER, and everything comes on and looks fine, but I can't change gears... and the entire system freezes, but then after lots of button pushing it finally shuts off and will restart just fine... Still loving my Prius, but hope this doesn't happen too often. Any update on what happened?
remaxmanager, I THINK you went into acc. mode, or Ig-On mode (amber light on the power button). If you don't press break and press power, you'll go into acc. mode. Press power again, you'll be in ig-on mode. Just press power one more time will turn off the car. Just remember to press brake and power together to get into "Ready". spree, smoke doesn't sound good at all. I still remember the days in college electronics lab. When you see smoke, you fried something. Best of luck to you, and never let your friend touch your car again!
This whole thread is bizarre, and I notice 'spree' avoided responding to the above concerns. Frankly I wonder if the car was stolen. Hey spree, give us a VIN.
Sounds like Hang on Ig-On. Some speculate this is caused by pressing the power button for too short of an interval. Symptom: you have an amber light in the power button, and dash warning lights are lit as would be in Ig-On mode, but you were pressing the brake when you pressed power. Pressing power again does nothing. Solution: let go of the brake, hit power. This should turn the car off. Proceed to power to READY as normal.
Nope, it wasn't that I didn't push the brake on, because I kept pushing POWER to get it to do something, and it wouldn't....finally it just shut down, and i started again! Hmm... kinda scary- and would have been embarrassing if someone was in the car with me, because I am always talking about my lovely PRIUS
As for the smoking car. Hopefully all you blew were fuses/fuseable links. The links are difficult and expensive to replace as fuses go. Right below the jumper terminal, you can see two rows of fuseable links. Examine them. Check the fuseable link(s) at the battery also. However if that were bad, you still should be able to jump the car everything else is good.
