31 Blogs of Christmas
Day 31

On Christmas eve, I had to take my car in for a flat tire, an oil change, and to get a belt replaced. When they were done doing all that, they told me I should probably replace my battery soon. Unfortunately, I was running late for work so I didn’t have time to get it done right then.

My car then sat in the driveway for five days while my family and I went to Disneyland (in my mom’s Prius). I went to start my car on Monday for my first day back to work…no love. The battery had died. No time to jump start the car, my wife drove me to work. The next day, my plan was to get up early, jump the car and get a new battery. But I attempted to jump start it and it didn’t work. The lights and whatnot came on, but the engine didn’t even crank and the horn started going off like a car alarm (which I don’t have…or so I thought)

So I take my wife’s car to the auto parts store and buy a new battery. I look up how to change a battery on my phone and I eventually get it done. But as soon as I hook it up, the horn goes off again. I try to start it, same result. Every time I open the door, the horn starts honking again. At this point, I’m convinced that the dead battery must have activated some security system that prevents the car from being stolen.

I look it up in ten owner’s Manuel…nothing.

I spend half the day Googling it…nothing.

Finally I have to go to work, leaving my poor wife responsible for driving me there and back. Yet, she took it upon herself to try and solve my car problem. She called AAA to get my car towed to a repair shop. But for some reason they didn’t send a tow truck, they sent a car expert who was gonna help. My wife explained the situation the guy suggested several things that didn’t help before giving up and calling the tow truck my wife asked for in the first place. when tow truck guy gets there he tries to trouble shoot the problem too but gets nowhere.

The car is finally towed to a shop. Just as I get off work, we’re told the car is ready. My wife drops me off and the mechanic says to me, “Here’s what you do if this happens again…”

He then pulls down on the plastic below my steering wheel to reveal an access panel. I see several wires and a flashing red LED light. He tells me I need to press the button next to that LED light and that will reset the alarm.

…then he charges me $120…and insists I pay cash.

All because Toyota doesn’t make it easy to find out how to reset the stupid security system that they don’t even warn you that you have. So hopefully this finds some poor soul googling this information in their hour of need…

My 2007 Toyota Yaris’ battery died. When I went to jump start it, the engine wouldn’t crank and the horn started beeping. It turns out there’s a button next to an LED light that you need to press with your key in the ignition to turn the security system off. There’s an access panel under the steering wheel. Remove that and then look for the LED light.

There, I just saved somebody $120.

Ok…bring on 2014!