Why Does My Toyota Prius Battery Keep Dying?

With a hybrid, the signs are likely to include things like: 

If your Prius is less than ten years old and having none of these symptoms, you may be very confused about why your battery still keeps dying. You may be happy to know there is a likely culprit that could be causing your problem that is very easy and completely free to fix! Here is what is most likely making your Prius battery keep dying: the automatic lighting feature .

Most people use the automatic lighting feature these days. It’s easy and you never have to worry about forgetting. Who doesn’t like a feature like that?

The main problem with the feature is that it only works correctly with the proper sequence of events. You absolutely must turn the car off completely before you open your car door to exit the car or the lights will remain on and then you will have to deal with that dreaded dead battery scenario. 

For the most part, this is easy enough to remember and won’t cause too many headaches. However, there are always those unusual situations where you find yourself talking to someone when you pull in or finish a text sitting halfway outside your car with the door open, that will leave you susceptible to your lights staying on automatically if you do not reach in and manually turn them off. 

Another common situation that catches a lot of people off guard is when they go to the car and open the door and turn the car on, therefore turning on the lights, but for whatever reason, they fail to ever get into the car and turn it off and shut the door. In this case, the lights stay on and drain the battery. This can happen when you have gone to your car to retrieve something or perhaps have forgotten to roll up the windows and return to do so quickly before the rain starts.

Typically once this has happened to you and you understand why, you are not likely to let it happen again, however, if you find this is going to be an ongoing issue it is easy enough to not use this automatic feature and just turn your lights on and off manually each time that you drive. 

If you are in need of maintenance or auto repairs, please schedule an appointment with Taylor Co Automotive , a leader in Japanese auto service, proudly serving Pomona and surrounding areas for over 30 years!