The manual should indicate a prefered negative connection point to use for jumpstarting. Positive goes to this post, negative goes to any unpainted engine part. There is a 12-volt positive terminal inside the main fuse box of the engine compartment specifically for this purpose. You do not have to crawl back into the back of the car to get at the actual 12-volt battery.
The instructions on how to do so are in the manual. You should be able to "jump-start" the car to get it working again. It sounds like you ran the 12-volt battery down by accident, either by leaving a door open or an interior light. The 12-volt battery is used to "bootup" the computers, which in turn connects the high-voltage main battery to the car (it is isolated via relays when the car is off). Camry hybrid owners are having brake pump failures.Ĭheck out this wild new battery tech that Tesla has and why it will forever change the auto industry.Evanr1, pardon the questions, but how exactly did the Prius initially lock up? Also, how is that the "starter" battery is known to be dead but the main battery is known to be good? Generally, if the small 12-volt "starter" battery is dead, then you should get no dash lights and no interior lights. I look forward to seeing you in the following article. So if you are experiencing this issue, do yourself a favor and check that engine oil level before spending time and money on something super simple. I reminded my client that checking the oil level every time they fill up on their high mileage Prius will save them from an even more expensive repair bill. The culprit was nothing more than a low oil level. No master warning light, no "problem," and no intermittent oil pressure light. I was stumped at this point and hungry, so I went for a drive to get lunch.Ĭan you guess what happened next? I went to lunch with no problems. Transmission fluid, normal, and everything else I checked was fine. I checked the coolant level on both sides, normal. I found the engine oil was low and added a quart as any good tech would. I started with the most obvious stuff under the hood. After being in this industry for 15 years, I have learned a thing or two about checking the basics. Suspecting there was a root cause, I began digging around.
I figured this was normal since the engine shut off whenever the master warning light was triggered, no engine running, no oil pressure, right? Some of the time, though, the oil pressure warning light would be present. When the master warning light would come on, the display screen would say issue. There were no codes, but one thing tipped me off that led me to fix the problem in just a few minutes. I observed the issue for several days, with a scan tool hooked up. So for the light to come on and off randomly. Usually, though, it comes on and stays on. The master warning light can come on for a bunch of reasons. Intermittent Master Warning Light: Solved It would not store trouble codes, but it would intermittently set the master warning light and say "problem." I had to get to the bottom of it, and here is what I did to solve the problem. I recently came across a Gen 2 Prius that threw me for a loop. Most of the issues that I have encountered with the fuel saver have been relatively easy to repair. I am one of those Prius repair guys that have to find a solution to every problem.