The battery in your hybrid vehicle is important. It’s the part that powers the electric motor, as well as the auto locks in the doors and trunk. Therefore, whenever it runs out of charge it means that you will have much trouble opening the rear hatch, especially. Remember, you need the jumper cables often, which are usually stored in the rear hatch.
So, how can I access the rear hatch on my Prius with a dead battery? You can quickly access the trunk of your Prius by flipping the rear seat to find a tiny gap behind, through which you can reach the locks.
7 Steps to Open The Prius Hatch When the Battery Is Dead
1. Enter the Vehicle
The first and the most significant step to opening the rear hatch is entering the vehicle itself. It’s usually at this moment that it occurs to you how important a key fob is to the car. With the car’s battery dead, it means that you can’t open the doors automatically.
So, How Do You Enter the Car, in the First Place?
The fob usually has a metallic key for use during such emergencies. Based on the type of key fob that your Prius uses, you may have to open up the gadget to access the key. Once you have the key, you need to open the handle cover of the driver’s door.
Opening the cover gives one access to a keyhole, where you insert the key and turn to open the door. You can as well break into your car using a Slim Jim or thin metal to work on the auto locks.
Related Article: How To Change A Toyota Car Key Battery
2. Flip Down the Back Seats
Once inside the car, your first move should be to prepare the way. The rear seats of your Prius are designed to flip down and that’s based on the situation at hand. Often, people flip the seats when they want to carry a load from in there, which can damage the material of the seats.
You can as well flip the seats down whenever you are faced by an emergency and that requires you to access the trunk. Flipping the rear seats isn’t a complex task as you accomplish it with a press of a button.
3. Pull Back the Carpet
With the press of the button, the rear seats should be out of your way. Now, what’s next? You should see a carpet behind those seats. You are needed to first get this carpet out of your as well. Therefore, go ahead and pull it back.
4. Open the Toolbox
After the carpet is off the picture, the next thing that you should work on, to pave way, should be the toolbox. With the carpet out, you will spot a tiny fabric somewhere near the back door. This is the component you need to help open the lid of your toolbox. Opening the toolbox is easy as you only need to pull on the fabric. The lock may not work for the first time. However, this shouldn’t add more pressure to that which you already have.
How Does the Toolbox Lock Work?
How can you tell if it’s open or not? That’s much easy because you only need to look for the direction of the lock. Say, for instance for the left side lock, the arrows on it should face the left side. The right side lock should also point in its direction. Therefore, if you realize that the arrows on the lock are pointing to the rear door, it means that the toolbox is tightly locked.
5. Remove the Plastic Cover in the Box Lining
After several attempts, you should be able to open the toolbox. When open, you will discover a small plastic cover. What is the work of this cover, you may ask? Well, this plastic cover helps prevent access to your rear hatch’s door. Therefore, you will need to get it off the way to deal with the lock from that point.
The plastic is easy to remove as it’s cheap. Some drivers even opt to do away with it for good for the sake of next time the rear latch fails to open. You can as well join the bandwagon because it can’t do you any harm.
6. Deal with the Door Lever
Often, this is usually the hard part of the entire procedure. First, you should know that the lever is usually buried somewhere inside the rear door. The fact that you are reaching it through the toolbox liner makes it even a bit tiring. However, it’s usually a straightforward job, if you know what you are reaching for and the location.
For the first-timers, you should know that you are reaching for a c-shaped lever inside the rear door. Hence, you should first stretch your fingers until you reach the silver lever. You should pull the lever towards you. By doing so, the trunk door should fly open, giving you access to what you need to work on the car’s battery.
7. Close the Toolbox and Pull Pp the Rear Seats
Now that the trunk is open, it means that you are a few minutes to jumpstarting your Prius. However, before you even get the cables to jump-start the car, you should get the rear seats, as well as the toolbox lid in order. Pull up the seats after locking the toolbox. With that done, you should go ahead and jumpstart the car to continue with your journey.
Here is the great YouTube video I found for you below:
Conclusion
Prius is one of the few vehicle models that hit the market and was met by plenty of criticism. Most people, if not all, felt that the price of batteries in these vehicles was high and hence risky to use. But, the records have proven otherwise. Judging from the number of Toyota Prius hitting the highways today, there is nothing to worry about the battery.
Whenever the battery fails, it doesn’t mean that you can carry on with your daily duties. Explained in this article is a step-by-step guide you ought to follow to open the trunk when the car’s battery is flat. Read through the piece to understand how quickly the procedure can be accomplished.
Related Article1: Toyota Prius Battery Life Expectancy, How Long?
Related Article2: Can You Drive A Toyota Prius With A Dead Hybrid Battery?
