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2004 Prius acting very strange

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by babsrocks, Jan 24, 2007.

  1. babsrocks

    babsrocks Junior Member

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    Greetings.
    My baby has been acting a bit funny and I'm not sure what it all means. Any advice is appreciated.
    Here's a run down of everything:

    1) The ! is the triangle on the dashboard comes on at start up acompanied by a beep, then it goes off after about 2 seconds, and it does not do it every time, just sometimes
    2) I remove the key (base model no smart key) after shut down, and open the door and the warning beep for the key left in the igntion goes off...
    3) it's awalys had a humming sound coming from the engine after shut down, which is normal, but now it sounds different, can't really describe how's it's different... just different.
    4) Also the ICE engine has seemed to have gotten louder over time, doesn't sound bad persay, just louder.

    Hopefully this makes sense to someone.
    The dtails on the car:
    2004 Prius, base, 82,000 miles, it has had regular oil changes and scheduled maintence.
    I called the dealership, they cannot get it in until friday.
    Thank you in advance.
     
    #1 babsrocks, Jan 24, 2007
  2. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Those are odd symptoms.
    If it were me, I would wait until Friday and take it to the dealer and see if they can pull some error codes from the computers.

    Here's the catch: Some people have reported in the past that if the owner requests that the mechanic pull error codes, that's a chargeable service. On the other hand, if the service tech pulls the codes as part of their troubleshooting process, then it's not a chargeable service. So perhaps you might want to imply that it would be nice if cars had features like your PC does in which there's a memory dump when it crashes telling the IT guys what went wrong. With luck, this "innocent" inference might nudge them enough such that they volunteer to pull the codes.

    Good luck and keep up posted.
     
    #2 TonyPSchaefer, Jan 24, 2007
  3. babsrocks

    babsrocks Junior Member

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    Well, the dealer checked it over, and over and over.. checked for error codes and came up with nothing.
    Over the last few weeks I've still been having trouble and have been stuck with a dead aux battery on several ocassions.
    So my thinking is that the aux battery is the source for many of my problems. Problem is finding an aux battery. Dealer is backordered on it and has no idea when they'll have 1.
    Some thoughts, someone told me a 12v Mazda Miata Battery would work... any experience?? Or another idea is to get 1 from a junk yard. Not sure about this.. no real idea of how good that one would be.....
    Any ideas appreciated..
     
    #3 babsrocks, Feb 26, 2007
  4. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Vehicle:
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(babsrocks @ Feb 26 2007, 08:29 AM) [snapback]396641[/snapback]</div>
    I didn't see your thread when originally posted, but whenever you start seeing odd things like that in an older Prius the 12v is often the cause.

    The Miata hack worked for the 1G prius, but I don't think it'll work in the '04/2G prius. Try calling other dealers and looking online, the change out is pretty simple, but you have to reset a few things like the auto window and such.
     
    #4 efusco, Feb 26, 2007
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