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Triangle of Death - Problem

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by Justin1432, Apr 26, 2024.

  1. Justin1432

    Justin1432 Junior Member

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    So I was driving home from work, as usual. On the freeway i had to brake a little harder and longer than usual, no vsc lights, no skiding, fairly normal. Then out of nowhere the beep and red triangle of death appear, my lcd display popped up a title that just read, Problem. It went away immediately and didn’t come back on for the rest of the drive, even with multiple hards braking…to test to see if it would come back on. Wondering what happened here, is it an early sign that something might be failing or maybe just a glitch?
     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    What kind of mileage hybrid battery original to that mileage etc etc. Break actuators are going out in these cars at various miles generally over 150 something like that but it could be something that could be time or year sensitive too so there's always that It never rains in California and weather is generally perfect so we've got the best shot on longevity generally speaking out that way supposedly.
     
  3. Justin1432

    Justin1432 Junior Member

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    You know what it did rain today where I was! It has about 210k on it.
     
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Are any warning lights still showing?
     
  5. Justin1432

    Justin1432 Junior Member

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    No, nothing continuous just popped up for 3 seconds then gone. I also just check my oil, it was about 1.5 quarts low…. Maybe could’ve been a warning to check engine oil.
     
  6. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If it was that, don't let it get that low again. Check the dipstick regularly.

    A 2008 doesn't have a warning to check engine oil, because it doesn't have any oil level sensor.

    The only thing it has is a low oil pressure indicator, which isn't a warning: when there's so little oil the pump can't find it and the pressure drops, engine damage is already happening.
     
  7. Justin1432

    Justin1432 Junior Member

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    Yea, normally i never let it get that low. It definitely wasn’t the low oil pressure indicator. It was just the master warning that popped up for a second and the lcd screen at the same time just read Problem.
     
  8. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I don't know how the generation 2 knows to do that but the three or four that are here the one that's easily using oil when it gets low and I go around the corner the master warning light will come on and immediately go off I generally don't ever allow this to happen I've only seen it like twice and both times the only thing that was going on with the car at all was the fact that it was low on oil other than that the car runs stellar so we never have any lights on any funny business on the dash at all in this particular car so I don't know if that's not a thing or what's going on but it's happened in this particular car twice and that's that I couldn't make any sense of what else it could be because there's nothing else wrong with the car at all I hate to say things are perfect but pretty close
     
  9. Justin1432

    Justin1432 Junior Member

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    Hopefully that’s what it was, the oil was super dark, and really low, even though i hadn’t even hit 5,000miles on my oil change… never going to let that happen again. Thanks!!