Dead batteries...

[Santii]

Well, when I went to have a test drive, the dealer couldn't open the door electronically and once inside the car wouldn't start...

transpired that as the car was immobile for about 7 weeks, all batteries were drained! And had to be started with a booster !

is this usual?

what should one do if not using the car for a while? Particularly thinking if parked at airport for say six weeks?

should we carry a charged booster ?!

[CPN]

I doubt it was ALL batteries drained. Probably just the 12v one. If this is low, none of the ECUs will boot up correctly and hence the car won't "start" even though the main traction Battery will probably be ok? I've suffered this myself and now keep a charged booster in the car all the time these days... 

[Santii]

That seems correct...so are these boosters expensive? Any make I should look for/avoid?

[Anthony Poli]

You don't need a heavy duty one, since there is no starter motor to power. 

Are you likely to be parked up for 6 weeks?

If so I would suggest as a precaution to disconnect the Battery instead and prevent deep discharging the Battery.

Some owners have wired up a solar panel to top up the Battery during the day, some have put an extra battery in parallel to add extra capacity (Ah). 

The hybrid 12v batteries have a low charging rate and when completely discharged, are best taken out of the car and charged with a external charger. Since charging while driving or stationary would take something like 9 hours. 

I used a booster to keep the car powered while i removed my battery overnight, didn't want to reset everything.

[Duffryn]

I managed to flatten the 12v twice on my previous Prius by twice leaving the interior light on overnight. On each occasion phoned Toyota Breakdown following morning, both times AA were here in well under an hour, took 20 seconds to start my car, left engine running for 20 mins, problem over - although I don't use the interior light anymore.....

[Anthony Poli]

I managed to flatten the 12v twice on my previous Prius by twice leaving the interior light on overnight. On each occasion phoned Toyota Breakdown following morning, both times AA were here in well under an hour, took 20 seconds to start my car, left engine running for 20 mins, problem over - although I don't use the interior light anymore.....

Done that over the weekend with my first car. The Battery went down to 5 volts. It survived the experience but no without shortening its life ;-)

In the hybrid I just left a obd to wifi adapter plugged in. So much for it having power saving.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Santii]

so leaving me toothbrush on a charge is out! Daamn!

[CPN]

The booster I settled on after a lot of research was by DBPOWER which I got off Amazon for £59.99 and so far it has been super reliable with very little charge loss over time. It's also a useful and well supported package overall too. 

[Santii]

CPN, thanks v much!

trolling through it, found many with different ands etc... which one did you get?

will get one just for the peace of mind!

[Santii]

CPN, thanks v much!

trolling through it, found many with different ands etc... which one did you get?

will get one just for the peace of mind!

[PeteB]

I got one too - in my case the "RAVPower 500A/12000mAh Jump Starter" fro £59.99, about 14 months ago.  Also useful for charging phones, iPads etc.

I keep it in the seat pocket on the back of the driver's seat, since the boot will not open if the Battery is flat!

[CPN]

7 hours ago, Santii said:

CPN, thanks v much!

trolling through it, found many with different ands etc... which one did you get?

will get one just for the peace of mind!

Mine is the DJS30 rated as 16500mAh/61.05WH Start Current 300A Peak Current 600A

Looks like it has already been superceded by this one...

[CPN]

3 hours ago, PeteB said:

I keep it in the seat pocket on the back of the driver's seat, since the boot will not open if the battery is flat!

Same with the Yaris except I still keep mine in the boot in a boot hold-all directly behind the smaller half of the split rear seat which can be pulled forward after manually entering the car...

[Santii]

Thanks again CPN.

that seems good enough for me and my tooth brush!

Will order it asap

[PeteB]

7 hours ago, CPN said:

Same with the Yaris except I still keep mine in the boot in a boot hold-all directly behind the smaller half of the split rear seat which can be pulled forward after manually entering the car...

If the car was deadlocked and the Battery is too flat to work the central locking, the rear doors (and front passenger) won't open either, so it'll mean climbing over the driver's seat to get there...

OK if you're young, fit and agile - I'm none of those!  

[johalareewi]

Once the 12V Battery has been flattened, it is more likely to do it again. Can you get the dealer to fit a new 12V Battery?

[johalareewi]

2 hours ago, PeteB said:

If the car was deadlocked and the battery is too flat to work the central locking, the rear doors (and front passenger) won't open either, so it'll mean climbing over the driver's seat to get there...

 

Or you could pop the bonnet and use the jump point there.

[PeteB]

3 minutes ago, johalareewi said:

Or you could pop the bonnet and use the jump point there.

Sure, but I'm talking about getting to the jumpstarter if it's in the boot...

Certainly if the OP buys the car he's talking about it sounds like the 12V Battery has been flat for a while, and therefore probably very near death!

Fortunately, the relays for the HV Battery will have been open so it's unlikely to have harmed that.

[Joseph D]

2 hours ago, PeteB said:

If the car was deadlocked and the battery is too flat to work the central locking, the rear doors (and front passenger) won't open either, so it'll mean climbing over the driver's seat to get there

Can you just not reach around from the driver's door and manually unlock the rear door?

[PeteB]

4 minutes ago, Joseph D said:

Can you just not reach around from the driver's door and manually unlock the rear door?

Nope!  That's the whole point of deadlocking - if a thief smashed the window he can't undo the locks (and a good reason for not deadlocking if you leave people or animals in the car).

When you unlock with the remote (and the battery's good) it electrically releases the deadlocks and unlocks the doors.

It's easy to demonstrate: leave a rear window open, then deadlock the car and try to unlock a rear door.

[QuantumFireball]

@Santii apparently has a Prius Plug-in - AFAIK the 12V Battery will get charged when you plug it in, however I'm not sure if it can even start charging if the 12V is already dead.

Might be worth considering replacing the 12V Battery as they don't seem to last very long, and being left discharged for weeks won't help it.

[Joseph D]

54 minutes ago, PeteB said:

Nope!  That's the whole point of deadlocking

Oh yeah, the double locking thing.  Forgot about that.

[johalareewi]

On 1/30/2017 at 9:49 AM, PeteB said:

Sure, but I'm talking about getting to the jumpstarter if it's in the boot...

Ah. I see. And if the boot is also fully loaded with gear...

Perhaps the jumpstarter would fit in the toolkit under the passenger seat?  The OP has got a plugin.

[PeteB]

No, I mean if the 12V Battery is flat, the electronic boot opener won't work.  Also, if the car was deadlocked (double locked in Toyota parlance) you won't be able to open the back doors either.

So it's a case of how difficult it is to get to the jump starter so you can connect it under the bonnet/hood.

[Santii]

Hi Pete B

when I went to see the car, he opened the car door with the metal key from the fob. Once to hoop was opened he just connected a booster to start it...