I own a 2006 Prius and have replaced the battery two times.
It only has 60000 miles on it. The battery dies after not using the car for a few days; something I cannot avoid.
Toyota claims I am not shutting the hatch properly and therefore it is draining the battery.
My own theory is that the hatch is defective and won’t completely close (no light ever goes on to indicate that the hatch is open).
Has anyone had this problem.?I’m ready to trade the car in This is the most unreliable car I have ever owned.
I’m assuming this is the small 12V battery that is used to power up the electronics, not the big NiMH battery used for the Hybrid system, right?
For the Prius, this battery has a minuscule amount of power compared to a regular car battery. It doesn’t take much of a drain to kill this little thing. If the shop believes the hatch is at fault, why can’t they adjust it? Every latch on this car should have adjustments.
Electrical problems are the most difficult to track down. It sounds like they don’t want to fix this for you. You may need to complain to a regional service center above this dealer.
Sounds like a classic “put the customer off until the warranty expires” situation.
If it is the hatch, they should be able to adjust it as said before or track down if the switch is faulty.
It is likely that the switch that controls the cargo compartment light is defective. These are frequently mercury-type switches that depend on the angle of inclination of the hatch or trunklid in order to decide when to turn on and when to turn off.
Years ago, a simple fix for this problem was to slightly bend the mounting for the cargo area/trunk light in order to change its angle slightly. You might want to try this, since it seems like the dealership is not going to help you.