Something Wierd

[r04drunner1]

Something wierd happened in my Prius the other day.

When I drove around some corners, I would hear a chime and half of the interior light would come on. It would then go out.

Sometimes the whole light would come on. Then it would go out.

Sometimes I would get a brief flash of red on the instrument display, but it would disappear before I could take my eyes off the road and refocus on the instrument display.

If I took corners slowly, nothing happened. Or if I drove in a straight line nothing happened.

This was freaking me out.

Then I realised what I'd done...

At the start of my journey, when I came back to the parked car, I was standing at the back. I pressed the button on the boot lid to unlock the car. I then stood for a few seconds chatting to a mate before I got in and drove off.

So the boot lid was unlocked but the boot was still shut. I therefore didn't get a warning when I drove off, because the boot lid was still resting in position. It was only as I drove round corners sufficiently quickly that the centripetal force moved the bootlid slightly. As a result the chime would sound to say that the boot was open and the courtesy light would start to come on. Just as quickly, the boot would move back into position, so the alarm would deactivate and the courtesy light would go off. In some cases, the movement was a bit more prolonged so the red "door opened" warning graphic would also light up, but by the time I looked at it the car was travelling in a straight line again so the hatchback would be back in position and the light would go off.

I stopped and pushed the boot lid down into position - gremlin sorted.

Posted in case this catches somebody else out... learn from my stupidity!

[Chris Dance]

Thank you for that it is very easy not to close the boot lid securely. If you leave the car overnight with the boot lid not fully locked the Battery goes flat.

[johalareewi]

Thank you for that it is very easy not to close the boot lid securely. If you leave the car overnight with the boot lid not fully locked the battery goes flat.

If this happens a lot, there is a manual switch on the rear interior light which can be used to turn the light on and off. Turning the light off by hand means the light doesn't flatten the Battery if the rear door doesn't fully shut.