Yesterday, my husband and I awoke to find that our other car, a Saturn, had a dead battery due to an accessory being left on. We decided to use the Prius to jump it.

We looked under the hood, then realized, "Oh crap, there's no battery up here!" We got out the book from the glovebox and started reading. We discovered you could use the battery in the trunk.

We backed the car in, and opened the trunk. On the left side, we took off the panel covering the battery. We hooked the cables up. The Saturn started immediately when we turned the key over.

That was the coolest experience.. We didn't have to get all dirty from under-the-hood grime. We didn't have to rev up the Prius to give the Saturn some juice. In fact, as much battery power as the Prius has, its probably the best car EVER to give someone a jumpstart.

Just thought I'd share...

 

Always be careful about the polarity. The auxillary battery provides power to the expensive control computers. Reverse polarity can be a disaster.

Bob Wilson

 

In addition to polarity cautions (above), it is best practice to disconnect the jumper cables before cranking the other car. In other words, use the Prius only to 'trickle charge" the other car. This may require 15 minutes or longer. Then disconnect and try starting the other car to see if enough power has been added to its battery. If not you could try again, the same way.

If you leave the Prius connected there is a possibility that more than 100 amps will be drawn from the Prius, and you are going to wish that had not happened.

DAS

 

I've had a few "instant jump start" experiences with my HCH. It's great being able to help out a stranger in need and then be able to talk about hybrid technology at the same time!

 

Does revving up the engine ever help? I jumped a few cars in my life (trying to work off some automotive bad karma) and each time, jumpee car started right away. Just make sure you know how to connect the cables, ie. negative cable on the jumpee part to ground, not to the negative terminal. Pretty much every time I happened on boost going wrong, that was the issue and each time I changed it, the car started right up.

 

I don't no if they did the same thing to the 2001 Prius but the 2006 has a connection under the hood on the right side in the back you remove a cover and there is a conection for the positive side connection for jumping the battery without going to the trunk.

 

It isn't in our NHW11, 01-03 Prius.

Bob Wilson

 

The 2004-2006 have connections under the hood for jumping the Prius. Just in front of the passenger seat is the Negative connection. Under a cap in the fuse box is the Positive connection. I don't know if there is a benefit to using these connections vs direct to battery except possibly:

• no chance of spark explosion
• no need to remove anything in the hatch to get to the battery

I don't know if those connections would work to send power to a 'jumpee'.

YES! If you live in a very cold place, the amps put out by an idling alternator are frequently not enough to get a frozen dead car going. While my Prius brethren in warmer climates may not be able to fully appreciate this - the Prius starts as fast at -20F as it does at +80F. Regular cars have a whole lot of cranking and shaking going on to start and warm up enough to drive when it is very cold. Frequently you need to crank it for 5-10 seconds, then let off the key (KEY!!) then do it again (and maybe again) before the engine will catch. And then it might cough and die, go back to step one. And I'm not talking junker cars that barely run anyway. A battery that is perfectly servicable in the summer may not make it during the winter. Prius? Push Power, wait 2-3 seconds for Ready, drive.



All the power in the Prius is in the BIG battery, not the LITTLE 12V. Since the 12V needs to do nothing more than power up the electronics when starting the car, it has LESS power (i.e. AMPS) than a regular car battery. The Prius ICE is started by an electric motor (MG1 I THINK) which gets its amps from the big battery. While you are correct that there is a lot of 'reserve' power, in the form of recharging the 12V from the big battery, the power in the big battery is not accessible. You wouldn't want to connect it to the jumpee's 12V, even if you didn't electrocute yourself in the process, that's for SURE. Also, I think you need the Prius to be in Ready mode or the big battery won't be connected through the inverter to the 12V.

I think the owner's manual says NOT to jump other cars though if you just trickle charge another 12V and disconnect before attempting to start the dead car, it should be fine (just make sure the Prius is in Ready mode).

 

Ok.. if you read your manual carefully, you'll find a paragraph or so about NOT using your Prius to jump start another car. The 12v battery on the Prius is a TINY, itsy bitxy motorcycle/scooter battery and is not intended and do not have the cranking power to jump start regular car. If you want ot be a good samaritan with the PRius, the manual advice you to hook up your prius tiny battery to the dead cars battery and let it sit and charge up the other cars battery for 5-10 minutes - then disconnect and start the other card.

Also, there is a battery terminal available (only the +-positive side) under a cover in the front engine compartment on the driver side. Use that to hook up the + side and the - side should be any metal part on the engine. The hook up is actually for another car to jump start the prius. Hooking up a jump cable to the battery directly (+ and - side) is dangerous - very. The last connect always result in some sparks and operating lead acid batteries have HYDROGEN gas emitting (remember the Hindenburg?) So, the last connection should always be made far away from the battery - to the body or the engine and since the Prius body is mostly plastic, it's should be the engine. So, please don't use the battery in the back - use the connection made available to you in the front.

 

If you jump another car with the Prius, under no circumstances shoudl the Prius be hooked up to the other vehicle when starting the other vehicle is atempted. You can blow all kinds of fuses in the Prius by doing any kind of conventional jump start with it.

Go out and get one of those dedicated jumping packages from an auto supply store or Costco. Keep it in the Saturn or the Prius or in the garage and use it to jump a dead car, but never use the Prius.

Just because you were successful this time, doesn't mean you will be the next time.