Toyota Yaris 2022 will NOT start: Hyundai & Kia have a solution 

That's a really difficult question!!! I live in a small hamlet 1.5miles from the nearest village where the village shop closed a few years ago. I am totally dependant on my car to get food and other stuff. I live by myself and only have 1 car so I am totally dependant on my Yaris. I treated myself with this car ... it is the Excel with the optional Tech Pack and I think it is absolutely fantastic but obviously with one major concern. One of the reasons for buying new is that I thought it would be 100% reliable ... and being a new Toyota I thought that would guarantee reliability. This is my 3rd Toyota ... Landcruiser, Yaris Hybrid and then this car. The Landcruiser was absolutely reliable up to 195,000miles although it did fail to start once. I called the AA out and he asked me when I had changed the battery - I told him it was still the factory fitted battery - at that time the Landcruiser was 12 years old!!! The 2018 Yaris Hybrid started every time even during COVID lockdown. I was very shocked when my new Toyota would not start. I think I am also very disappointed and angry by Toyota GB's position which is effectively ... it's a Hybrid so just get used to it - it's a small 12V battery which will sometimes go flat and sometimes you will not be able to start your car. Toyota GB's approach is not customer focussed and not what I expect from Toyota. For whatever reason my usage profile does not keep the 12V battery charged even though I am doing about 7,000 miles per year so I will only be buying another Yaris if I know that the 12V system has been re-designed or there is a 12V reset button or similar. At the moment I am not thinking of selling my car ... I am going to manage the problem with the solar charger, the NOCO and when I wash the car (typically every 7 to 10 days). I will turn the car on while I wash it so it is in READY mode and charging the 12V battery. So I wash and charge the 12V battery at the same time :) I picked this tip up from the Toyota Owners Club. However, if my Yaris fails to start several times on cold winter mornings I will probably sell it. I am concerned by how much trickle charging the solar panel can do on overcast days when there is little real sunlight. In your situation I think you need to consider: - how much mileage you will be doing on a daily and annual basis. The higher the mileage the less chance of having the 12V problem. - how many consecutive days off the car will have on a regular basis - what sort of driving you do on a daily basis I typically do country lanes at an average speed of 21mph ... I have started to use a route that is 2 miles longer but is A roads at a higher average speed which my dealer believes will charge the 12V battery better The other confusing thing is that I have read about people who do less miles then me but they have never had a problem starting their car ????!!!! - you have got the NOCO so you will be able to jump start within a few minutes ... but you will then need to leave the car running for an hour or more to recharge the 12V battery (depends how flat the battery is) or you will need to use the NOCO again to start the next time. The dealer told me that the car needs to be driven at 70mph for 45minutes to fully recharge the battery. As I have investigated further I am confused by this because I thought that the 12V battery was charged the 12V battery even when stationary because it uses DC-DC charging rather than an alternator in a petrol engined car where charging is faster when the engine is at higher revs. - do you have access to another car so if it does not start it is an inconvenience rather than a major problem. The Yaris has got so many good points that I absolutely will not say cancel your order ... but what I would say is just have a think about whether or not your usage profile means that you are likely to suffer the 12V problem. I will also mention something else that only occurred to me a few days ago when I remembered something else ... a few days before my car would not start I got a Recall letter from Toyota about the eCall system. The fix can be done with an over the air (OTA) update. The thought has occurred to me that if this OTA update was done the day before my car would not start - when I did not use the car - it is possible that the OTA update would have turned on several of the computers in the car to process the download and the eCall system would be turned on since it was updated. I live in a poor signal area so the OTA update may have taken a long time meaning that the computers were switched on for a long time and this would drain the 12V battery. I have phoned the Toyota helpline in the Recall letter to ask when the eCall update was done on my car but they didn't know. They gave me another Customer Service number but they didn't know either and they referred me back to my dealer. I could hear my dealer tapping away on his computer to try and find the info but he couldn't find it either. If the eCall update is the cause of my battery going flat then I will be very annoyed because: - it disrupted 2 days because my car was taken to the dealer who charged the battery overnight & returned my car at the end of the following day - I am now driving longer routes on A roads to charge the 12V battery - I have bought the solar charger and the NOCO ... which to be honest may well be a sensible investment anyway for a Hybrid If the eCall OTA did cause my problem then this will mean that I was just unlucky for the OTA to happen on a day when I did not use the car. Although it does mean that Toyota need to be aware that OTA's can cause customer's 12V batteries to go flat ... do they need to alter the OTA process to prevent this. The whole situation is a bit of a mess!!!! That's a very long message ... I hope it is useful :)

Can I please say thank you very much for replying to my message. The time and thought you must have put into your reply is extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. From what I have read I could well imagine that the OTA could very well be what tipped your battery over the edge so to speak. With the solar trickle charger and the insurance of the Noco battery booster I think I will go ahead with the purchase my Yaris. For your information I have purchased (approx £18.00) A "Ring Multi Socket" which has two USB sockets and two cigar lighter type sockets which can be plugged directly into your car cigar socket. The main reason I have purchased this item is that it also tells you the condition of your 12V battery using a traffic light system. The Ring item is their product RMS10 - I hope this might be useful for you to know. Finally, I do hope that you continue to post further info/news on any things that are relevant to your Yaris. Very kind regards and best wishes. David.

I am glad you have decided to proceed with your order. I really do like my Yaris which I hope comes over in all my other videos demonstrating its many features. However, I am glad you are proceeding fully aware of the small 12V battery and you have bought all the right kit to ensure that you can manage the 12V battery. I really hope that you don't experience the problem but if you do ... you are prepared 😀 Coincidence ... I have just bought something similar to your Ring Multi Socket - I have bought a voltmeter that plugs into the cigar lighter socket. This will give me the actual voltage rather than a traffic light but after I have used it for a few days I will know the normal voltage and then I will be able to spot when the voltage drops. From what I have read ... to get an accurate idea of the health of your battery you need to check the battery when the car is switched on in ACCESSORY mode. (Foot NOT on the brake and press START.) In this mode the 12V battery is not being charged so you are seeing the actual voltage from the battery. When the car is fully ON (foot on the brake and press START) the 12V battery is being recharged from the big traction battery so you won't see the actual 12V battery voltage. Note ... Do not leave the car in ACCESSORY mode for long ... the only thing powering all the electrics is the small 12V battery and it is NOT being recharged!!! Not sure how many of my other videos you have seen ... as a new owner of a Yaris Hybrid you may find this video interesting ... I had a 2018 Yaris Hybrid which had very good fuel economy but when I got my 2022 Yaris I was amazed how little fuel it used so I analysed the fuel economy over several months when the weather changed from cold to warm ... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Tvy1g-GbLCw.html

I use the MyToyota app and I have been wondering if the app could be causing battery drain so it's interesting to get your question :) My dealer has told me that when you switch a Yaris off it continues to use 1A for about 20 minutes. This implies that some computers in the car continue to work for 20 minutes. I assume that during this 20minute period the car uploads the lock status, all the trip information and probably other stuff as well which is then stored in a server. I assume that when I use the app to check... - the trip information in Hybrid coaching only the app and the server are involved - lock status is (I assume) stored in the server. The car only contacts the server when the lock status changes. So when I check the lock status the car is not involved. - location is (I assume) the same ... location stored in server and car is only involved when the location changes. The location will only change when the car is turned on so that's not a problem because the 12V battery is being charged. I assume that the car and the computers are only woken up (and the 12V battery used) for things like remote start, remote (un)locking, remote hazard lights. Do you know how the app works? Am I correct in my above assumptions? My app usage is: - every evening I view the "overview" trip information for the day & copy it to a spreadsheet so I can use the long term information in future videos. - I sometimes check the car's location on the map ... just because I can ... I don't need to do this!!! - Remote Start ... I used once about a month ago so I could respond to a comment on my Remote Start video. I then immediately used the car to go somewhere so I don't believe that would have drained the 12V battery. Before that, the last time I used Remote Start was January 2023. - Hazard lights and remote (un)lock never used ... except back in Feb or March when I made a video on these features.

@@Helpful-Stuff I guess its worth a try and yes, i know remote start in now upcoming winter is convenient. Sign out of the App on your smartphone and most important, also sign out of your account in the infotainment of the car. No, i don't know exactly how this Appthingy works and guess youre a little bit right. When you switch off the car it will send information and statistics to mothership Toyota. But also keep in mind, the car have to stay always connected to internet, even drive statistic send this is done. Because when youre doing for example remote start, lock - unlock etc. this things have to happend immediately and not say like after 20 Minutes when car periodically wakes up and check on server for "news". The server cant connect with a device in standby / sleep mode. And this "always on connection" is worry me a little bit, also aware a 4G LTE Modem will not take a lot of current. But things adding up, always listening for key (keyless entry), internet connection, in comparison to not hybrid vehicles a small 12 Volt Battery, .... My best guess is the infotainment will shut down / switch off the modem module when there is no account active. Take a Picture with your smartphone from speedo after a trip for your Excel datasheet. Please let me know the results if you give this a chance

That's a good point ... remote start works within a few seconds and does not wait for the car to wake up every 20minutes or whatever and check the servers so I agree there must be some sort of "always-on" communication between car and Toyota's servers and this will obviously be a battery drain. I recently got an official RECALL letter from Toyota for my car. The e-call system doesn't always start correctly and if e-call does not start then the car does not meet EU regulations so this is an official "Safety Recall" for my car. The good news is that my car does not need to go back to the dealer to be fixed ... the e-call system can be fixed with an OTA update. The letter does not say "ensure that your car is logged in" so that we can download the update to your car. So I don't think that signing out of the app and logging out of the infotainment system will terminate the always on connection. I think that the always on connection is used for other Toyota systems stuff as well. I don't think there is anything the owner/driver can do to terminate the always-on connection. When I was discussing the 12V battery with my dealer I was told that modern cars (not just Toyota cars) use about double the current of older cars when parked. I may have remembered the figures incorrectly but it was something like new cars 100mA and older cars 50mA. This is way more than just the current required for the 4G LTE modem which will have been designed for use in mobile phones and will therefore use very little current. So I think that even if it is possible for the owner/driver to terminate the always-on connection I don't think the reduction in current when parked would be significant. Another thought .... I received the letter about the e-call OTA update a few days before my car would not start ... I am starting to think this may not be a coincidence! What if the OTA update was done the day before my car would not start ... the day when I did not use my car. A computer would have come on to process the download. The e-call system would have switched on so that the update could be loaded into the e-call system. I live in a poor reception area so the data transfer speed would be low so the upload would have taken longer than normal and the computer would have had to be on for longer than many other cars. Could this extended activity have caused my battery to drain so that I could not start it the next morning? I have phoned the Toyota helpline in the Recall letter to ask when the e-call update was done on my car but they didn't know. They gave me another Toyota GB Customer Service number but they didn't know either and they referred me back to my dealer. I could hear my dealer tapping away on his computer to try and find the info but he couldn't find it either. So I don't think I will be able to get the date that the e-call system was updated in my car to confirm this theory. My car worked for 10months with similar mileage each week and therefore similar 12V recharging ... I am certain that something unusual happened to my car the day before I could not start it. It may be the e-call OTA update ... it may be something different. I will probably never know. Will it happen again???

I too recently purchased a Yaris excel. After a few days I noticed the car would not start and was making lots of strange noises and warnings. The dealer replaced the 12v battery. It's all a bit concerning as batteries normally last at least 6-7 years from experience. I bought the Toyota for the reliability, so not the best start to ownership!

Since my Yaris failed to start I have done a lot of research and I now understand the situation a lot better .... All hybrid's from all manufacturers suffer from the same problem - this is not a Toyota problem. There is no starter motor so there is no need for the big 12V battery used by petrol and diesel engines. So the 12V battery is much smaller both in size and also the electrical "capacity" of the battery. Hybrid's do not have an alternator which charges the 12V battery in a petrol/diesel car. A Hybrid's battery is charged from the big traction battery that drives the car's wheels. When the READY light is illuminated on the dashboard then the 12V battery is bring charged even if the car is stationary and the petrol engine is off. All modern cars have a lot of computers and some of these computers are still working even when parked so the 12V battery has to power these computers even though the car is off and the 12V battery is not being charged. If a hybrid is not switched to READY mode regularly enough or for long enough periods then the 12V battery will gradually be depleted and eventually the hybrid will not start. If you leave a hybrid in an airport car park while you on holiday for 2 weeks then there is a very high chance that the 12V battery will be flat and the car will not start. My personal frustration with Toyota is that they completely fail to understand that it is totally unacceptable for a 10month old Yaris to fail to start after a single day without use. Toyota GB say "It's a hybrid get used to it ... buy a jump starter and/or a trickle charger and/or sit in your car for 60minutes with the READY light on to charge the 12V battery". Some dealers are more customer focussed and work with their customers to help manage the 12V battery effectively. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cSfik4yyXfo.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o8MkFUPfdvQ.html Kia and Hyundai are also more customer focussed and have developed the 12V reset button which will cut off the 12V system completely if the 12V battery charge level drops dangerously low. Since you have just bought you Yaris I think it is worth mentioning something that happened yesterday that will hopefully reassure you that you have not made a mistake ....I was filling up with fuel and somebody else who was filling up their car shouted across to me .... "My other car is a Yaris ... it's a fantastic car ..." We then discussed the intelligent cruise control, the fantastic fuel consumption etc etc. I then asked if he had suffered from the 12V battery problem. He said yes ... twice !!!... he said has just bought a jump starter from Halfords but it didn't affect how much he likes the car. I would really like to see Toyota GB do something tangible to help their customer's manage the battery such as: (1) Put an electronic 12V battery voltmeter on the dashboard. It does not need to be permanently displayed ... it can just be one of the displays that you scroll through (like tyre pressure display). There should also be a warning when the 12V battery voltage drops to a low level so that you can charge the battery before the voltage drops so low that the car fails to start. (2) Develop something like the 12V Reset button in the Kia and Hyundai hybrids. It took 10 months for the 12V battery in my new car to go flat. You say that your battery failed to start the car after a few days which surprises me that it happened so quickly. I had a comment on another video from somebody who had bought a low mileage 2 year old Yaris that had been at the dealers for 3 months before he bought it. This car failed to start twice and the dealer changed the 12V battery under guarantee. I think the 12V battery probably went flat several times in the 3 months it was at the dealer because it would only do an occasional test drive. Every time the 12V battery goes flat it degrades the battery so after 3 months on the dealer's forecourt I think the 12V battery was so damaged it had to be replaced ... in fact it probably should have been replaced before the car was sold!!!

I have owned Toyota's since 2005 so I am very disappointed that a "reliable" Toyota failed to start when only 10months old when it had only had 1 day without use. There is a 27 page discussion on toyota.co.uk about this problem mag.toyota.co.uk/coronavirus-toyota-hybrid-car-maintenance/ and an 88 page discussion on Toyota owners club www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/217673-12v-battery-maintenance-issues-etc/ Toyota no longer has a reputation for building reliable cars.