Long parked 2001 Prius startup help needed
 

So we could argue for hours about who left what old hybrid sitting unattended for way too long, but let's just agree that mistakes were made and try to move forwards! 2001 Prius, low KMs, ran when parked a year or two ago. Put a brand new 12 volt accessory battery in it, all the dash lights and the LCD display come on. I get the "Problem" message on the LCD for the first 5 seconds, then it just looks like this:

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...psc9430d88.jpg

The "upper" dash display comes on fine and stays on, shows the mileage, fuel etc. If I cycle the LCD display, I get to this screen:

http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/...psfc51d358.jpg


I can hear relays etc clicking under the hood, and everything is still hooked up under there from what I can tell. According the the manual, the display should read "Ready" at some point then you can start the car, but that never happens. I am assuming it's because of the warning light on in the first pic. Car in park, e-brake on, foot on the brake pedal as per the owners manual starting procedures, and - nothing. Turn the key and the LCD goes blank, but the upper dash display stays on. Sometimes the LCD goes back to the Toyota splash screen and starts over again, sometimes it just goes back to whatever it was displaying before it went blank.

I've tried locking and unlocking the doors both manually and with the remote, just in case it's security system related. I even tried boosting it with another vehicle as per the manual instructions. Nada. I realize the 12v battery doesn't actually do the work starting these cars, but at this point I am out of ideas as to if there is anything I can do to get this thing fired up. Is there a relay or something that I can reset to wake up the traction battery, or some other trick? Thanks! :snail:

Got any DTCs?

Ive heard of little old lady parking those at the air port and when they return from flying south for the winter they need a tow to the toy dealer to have the pack grid charged or precharged so to speak. I think the non US models came with a maintenance charger in the back and time to time you can find those for sale on ebay.

Yes ev BATTERY LOST ITS POWER. Call for AD to pick and se if they can get it running. Car uses the EV motor to start ICE, and EV motor requires EV battery to rund.
Sorry - maybe some of the prius owners can be of more help?

Yup, those NiMH's self-discharge at a pretty good clip. They need juice!

I could be more helpful topping up the pack if it were a gen. 1 Insight, but then the gen 1 Insight was designed to start via the 12v system in the event of high voltage battery problems, so you wouldn't need my help anyway. :D

All you need is a 274 volt battery charger.:p
On the bright side, now that your pack is stone dead, is should charge up and be fairly well balanced.

Looks like you are going to have to drag it to the stealership.

What, and NONE of you guys just happen to have a 274v charger kicking around I could just borrow?? ha ha, I wonder of a forklift charger would work...no now that just has "Beginnings of a really bad idea" written all over it.

And trust me, the only people that hate having to go to the dealership for work more than people that aren't in the car business are - people that are in the car business. Anyone have any idea what Toyota usually charges (pun intended) to get that pack up and going again?

I hate chasing people off to other forums, but have you searched around at priuschat.com?

While that would be the logical next step, I figure y'all are right about what I need to do with this thing, I just needed to hear it from a few people that actually know what a Prius is for a start ha ha. I guess it'll cost what it costs, but at least then I can either drive or sell the thing. As the auctioneers say when you pay too much for something "It only hurts for a little while" :snail:

If you're comfortable working with high voltages, you could build a grid charger. I don't know how many volts you would have to do in order to balance it, but you could at least get the battery charged enough to start it with a few of the adapters from this thread on Insight Central.

I'd go crazy with a rectifier, a light bulb and some wires myself. ;)

Edit: I see Canada only has 120v, so you'd need to make a voltage doubling rectifier from two diodes and two capacitors.