Prius (2004-09) :: Putting Car In Neutral With Dead Battery?
Aug 17, 2015
A little back story my hybrid battery went out about 4 months ago ago and I've been saving money to get it fixed. I've been trying to remember to start it and get it moving every so often. Well I guess I didn't do it enough because go to drive the Prius yesterday to get it started and moved since it's been awhile and the main battery is dead. The way the Prius is parked I can't even get to it to jump it. I'm wondering is there a way to put it in neutral with a dead battery? Or is there a way to charge the battery, since it's actually inside the car? And I'm assuming since the 12V is drained, I'll have to replace that as well correct?
I'm about over this car, while it done great the first 7 years I had it, past two have been a royal pain. Ready to go back to a normal engine and car.
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After getting on the highway, the red triangle of death, the amber ABS and the VSC lights came on, and little exclamation point came on on millage/audio screen, while battery power went down from high blue to one blue bar. Pulled car over to parking lot, and put in park. After putting it in park, the car would not go out of neutral, but the power still worked.
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I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but if you need to put an 01-03 Prius into Neutral with dead battery (i.e. to push the car so you can reach it with jumper cables) you need to remove the rectangular panel on the bottom drivers side of the steering column. It's tiny, smaller than a postage stamp. Use a strong pen-knife or very small screwdriver to pop the panel out.
You may want to remove the panel when things are good, so if you ever have to use the gearshift release you don't have to hunt around for a knife since it's on pretty tight from the factory. (just leave it off once removed).
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Dealer advised the following procedure for parking car:
1. Come to a stop, foot on break
2. Put car into Neutral, make sure Neutral is lit up
3. Then press the Park button.
They said this is better for transmission. Didn't see a mention of it in the manual, and have no problem doing this. Or are you just coming to a stop and then hitting the Park button, skipping the Neutral step?
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My fiance has a honda civic that has been sitting in an indoor garage for around a year. I move the car about 6 months ago with no issues. Recently we needed to move it again and of course the battery was dead so I decided to push it. With the key on, I released the shifter lock and put the car in neutral but the car wouldn't budge an inch.
Is it possible this is more than just rusted brakes? If it is just rusted brakes do I need to take off the wheels to free them?
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i was trying to align my headlights last night and forgot to switch them off. now the battery is dead and i need to shift it to neutral to roll it out of the garage and jump it. but it won't shift. the dealer said to turn it to on and step on the brake. doesn't work. i just get a buzzing sound coming from the engine compartment. is there any way to shift it? or do i just need to take the battery out and get it charged?
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I took my 2005 Prius to dealer and was told both battery computer and battery CPU were bad (easy $4,000.00 fix). So, I pulled big battery, located bad cell and replaced with similar voltage (7.9 VDC used cell). After re installing, the car will only go to neutral and will not start. Note, before tear down, car would start and run (I drove home from dealer). Before pulling big battery I could reset trouble lights for short time by removing ground to AUX 12V battery. Now, lights don't change and are always on. Car will not start or run and will only go in "Park" and "Neutral" and "B" does not show on dash like usual.
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Ran out of gas. Continued driving car til it stopped.
Filled car with two gallons. No however, the car won't start. First push of on button will turn console on, but can't boot up car with second push. Battery shows one bar. Tried jumping/charging with a friend's car, but didn't make a difference.
Is there a way to solve the problem without taking it to the dealer?
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I've had my 2006 Prius since Jan. Today it started giving me a warning when I put it into drive. The warning was the battery couldn't charge while it was in neutral. It told me to place it in park. I did. I repeatedly tried and even drove out of my parking but it continued to say this with the ! in the triangle appearing. I've never even put it in neutral before.
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Problem: I left a dome light while in the airport parking lot when I went on week long trip. When I returned the 12V battery was dead.
Question: How do you get to the 12v battery in the rear of the car? Rear hatch will not open without power.Using the key to get in the drivers door, I had to get someone to crawl over the back seat and connect cables to jump start the car.
What am I missing? Is there a better way to jump start the car? Is there another way to open the rear hatch without the 12v battery power?
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My 2006, with original 12V battery, finally failed to start. It was stone dead. I've been expecting this for awhile, given the age of the battery, but so far it has exhibited no warning symptoms. It was just stone dead in the garage, having not been used for five days.
I used my jump box, which I keep in the back of the Prius. Everything fired up without a hitch, other than the alarm going off when I applied power (rather loud with my head under the hood.)
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I have had this happen before (and drove right to the dealer but it was fine when I got there) and it happened again today. Its a very hot day and I had forgot to turn off my AC and radio when I shut the car down. So I started it up put it in drive (or reverse) and it would just jump to neutral and the battery was drained (purple lines) because this had happened before I knew that if I held it in place and turned off the AC I could drive and be fine in a few minutes and that's what happened. Is it just because on a hot day it drains the battery too fast. Its a 2008 Prius with no other problems but this. Its just an annoying thing that makes me crazy.
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I went to open the hatch this afternoon to see if my new painting would fit so I could take it to the frame shop, and the hatch would not open. Nor would the door-unlock button work. The fob wouldn't open it either. Then I realized no dash lights were on, and the car would not start. I thought there was supposed to be a way to open the hatch from the inside, but I crawled into the back and could not find it.
So the 12-v battery was dead.
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I have a 2007 Prius Package Six. I went away on vacation over Christmas and when I got back the battery was dead and the car wouldn't start. No problem as I was easily able to jumpstart it with a portable battery jumpstarter. However I kept having the same problem as apparently the battery wasn't maintaining a charge. So obviously my battery is kaput and needs replacing. I've watched the videos and plan on replacing it myself.
However when I went out this morning to jumpstart the car it wouldn't jumpstart at all. When I hook up my battery jumpstarter nothing happens. Nothing lights up. The car won't start. Even if my 12v battery is completely dead and cannot maintain a charge, shouldn't I still be able to get the car started with a jumpstart? I realize that as soon as I turn it off I will have to jumpstart again. But I can't figure out why a jumpstart won't even get the car fired up.Am I missing something?
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2007 Prius with 88K miles.
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If this has been posted before feel free to remove. I searched everywhere and didn't see exactly what I experienced with our Prius when the 12v battery was in it's final stages of death so I wanted to share.
Below issues all occurred within a one week time period 3-7-16 to 3-14-16. 2005 Prius with 145k miles, replaced traction battery on 7-30-15 / 127k miles.
First occurrence - happened a few seconds after starting and driving the vehicle. The ABS light came on and the power steering faded out and then came back, just briefly, and the car did not die. Turned the car off and back on again and all was well.
I performed the 12v battery test by entering maintenance mode. (hold the display button and turn the lights on/off three times, vehicle signal check, battery check) the battery was reading 11.9volts with the car off, I drove the car and it was charging at around 14.7volts and then was reading 12.2 with the car off after driving it. Which at the time seemed a little weak but nothing that was a red flag. I've read that you're supposed to replace the 12 volt battery every 4 years but I swear the one I removed looked stock.
Second time - again happened just a few seconds after starting the car and driving. ABS light came on, red triangle of death light, brake light, power steering was gone, and the power steering light came on, the car did not die. Restart fixed the issues again.
Third time - Happened about 30 minutes in to the trip while the wife was driving on the interstate around 75mph, wipers were on due to rain but visibly lost power, radio came on and off, all the lights on the dash (warning lights included) flickered on and off, power steering was gone, car died completely and would not restart. Tow driver had to boost the battery long enough to put the car in neutral so we could load it on to the tow truck. When we got the car home the battery was completely dead again.
I ordered an Optima Battery 8171-767 (DS46B24R) YellowTop Prius Battery from Amazon which appears to be a direct replacement, and simple to install. I drove the car for a few miles, returned to the house, performed battery test again via maintenance mode and the battery was charging at 14.0 and reading 12.5 when off. I can't be certain but I think the battery check feature may be displaying false information if the battery has dead cells and the car is trying to charge the battery? I took the old battery to Advanced Auto Parts and had them run a diagnostic check and the tester stated that the battery had dead cells and needed to be replaced. I gave them the old battery even though I didn't buy the new one from them and got a 10.00 store credit, unexpected and nice.
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Have replaced dead cells on wife's HV battery over a month ago. Threw this P0a80 code today and will barely move. She idles into dealership and they say it's the battery, really!
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About 1500 miles ago, I replaced a cell in the battery pack. Now the triangle of dead is back and the code is "replace battery pack" again.
I tested all the cells and here are the results.
(the previous one I replaced was 4.5 volts, very low and easy to find)
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I went out in the 9 degree temp this morning to start my car and take off for work. I sat down and hit the power button and some console lights came on. The gear lights were blinking with a square light around each letter (P, D, R, B...) and the pips on the fuel gauge were blinking, beeping during each blink. Also, the green light on the power button was blinking and the little light showing that the key was not in the car was also on but the key was beside me. I turned it off to try it again.
Before I turned it back on, I inserted the key in the slot and hit the power button again and just the Check Engine light came on and everything else was black. There was a slow tempo click-click-click-click... sound coming from under the hood and the Check Engine light was just sitting there. I tried to turn the car off but the power button was not doing anything. All I could do is let the Check Engine light stay on and the click-click-click-click... sound chirp away. I went back out in a couple hours and the battery was dead.
Just seeing if that might mean something specific before I go drop about $200 on a new 12v battery later today.
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Yesterday when I pulled in my garage, my 2007 Prius starting locking over and over by itself- it was freaking me out.
In doing some internet research and on here, I realized that my unlock key was “stuck†and could not be pushed in, and I assume this is what was causing the automatic unlocking. I have played around with it, but so far I have not been able to open it up or pop it back in place as some have been able to do.
A couple of questions:
I think this has caused the battery to die on my FOB, because none of the buttons work now, and the red light doesn't flash when a button is pushed. But, the smart key system still works, the doors unlock when I touch the handle, and I can drive the car. Will that continue to work with a dead battery in the key FOB??
What bugs me about this is I NEVER use the buttons on the FOB- always use the smart entry, etc, so I know I didn't do anything to cause the unlock button to stop working...
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The prius stock battery is weak compared to my wifes Mercury Mariner battery. The Mariner acceleration on battery alone is excellent - she can get up to 30 mph in no time on just the battery. In my prius it has very slow acceleration at a dead stop while running only on battery. Is it possible to buy aftermarket (stronger) batteries for the prius so I can at least driver the car up to 30 mph only on battery?
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