2005 Prius dead

2005 prius with 190k,,,,,,wishing to get 300k.

Started car, ( let ac cool down car) walked in house, returned to car after 25 minutes, backed out of driveway, drove down the block, Prius stopped all systems dark.....12 v battery was dead, towed car to dealer.

Dealer had car for a week, burnt through several 12v batteries tring to figure out cause of drain. Inverter damaged, wiring harness damaged, main battery damaged. Estimate 7k for repair of everything...Ugh. Yes I should have been reading the chat from 7 years ago... They did play with it for 10 days.. The orange Prius c loner has been fun.


Went to sales after shop was closed.
So the sales folks offer me us$3500 for my dead Prius as a trade-in...which still doesn't run (I visited it on its death bed).

Thoughts?

How the heck did "Inverter damaged, wiring harness damaged, main battery damaged" all happen?

Bad service department? Where are you located?

Missing something here. What caused all that damage? And what does "they burnt through several batteries" mean?
Are you Sure the car's 12 volt battery just died and then the dealer reversed polarity jumped it and destroyed the Inverter?
I would Google that dealer and see if they are known for dirty tricks becasue all the years here on PC I have never heard anyone complaining of so much damage in one event. And if your in NJ the car dealers there are the absolute worst. They will try to steal your teeth if you'll hold still long enough.

There's fuses. And the main battery damaged too? Thats not right.

Yeah, I'd only guess NJ because of Meadowlands. OP, please update the location in your profile.

New Jersey...

The only thing I think I could have done wrong was turn the ac on and let the car cool down for maybe 20 minutes (I was thinking I would be right back outside). When I walked back to car and drove off all the badness happened within 100 ft of my house.

Wow thats crazy. Give us a more detailed step by step what happened because your scenario is very very rare and we suspect the dealer is not being forthright.

OK--back to week one--these are all the potential contributing causes with the car/battery and inverter back to day 1. at 498 miles I ran the battery to near zero discharge because I ran out of fuel--made it to gas station on battery only. Drove down hill battery charged to 100% after first fuel fill up. (I thought I could drive 500 miles on a tank of fuel)
2. At 75K I left the 12 V discharged because I left the dome light on--car jmped all is well
3. At 100 K ran our of fuel --battery discharge to near zero-stopped fueled up--battery recharged by itself
4. At 125 K I left the 12 V discharged because I left the dome light on--car jumped all was well
5. At 170L-- intermittent red triangle of death comes on for a few seconds... I noticed that "oil" shows on screen I get oil change all is well
6. Again--At 176K-- intermittent red triangle of death comes on for a few seconds... I noticed that "oil" shows again (once) on screen I get oil change all is well
7. Again--At 182K-- intermittent red triangle of death comes on for a few seconds... I noticed that "oil" shows again (once) on screen I get oil change all is well
8. same day...Listed to radio while getting oil change--12 V drawn low. Car does not turn over. For Third time--car jumped--test 12V at the oil change garage--all was fine with charge.
9. At185K Dog needed to go to vet so I cooled the car off w A/C while parked (10 minutes or so)
10. At 185K+ hour latter took dog from the vet--let car sit with A/C to cool it down again (10 minutes or so)
11. At 185K+ Drove home-- battery was >40%
12. Next morning I did the AC thing again-- car does not want to move
13. Wait 5 seconds try and try again. car moves goes out of drive drives gfeet everythign goes blac,
14. call wife--she deals with AAA tows car to Toyota. I get on a plane to California
15. Dealer says 12 V low.. replaces. calls back second 12 V drained. calls back says they will need a while.
16-20. Service attempts to diagnose problem continues to drain 12V batteries. Comes back with diagnosis that inverter, main battery and wiring harness are all damaged.
21. I return from California.--dealer offers $3500 on trade in after telling us the service repairs are $7K and car is selling for $5,500 in similar markets.

that's about all I remember. should have been on the forum step 2-21/

Did you ever get the inverter pump replaced? See LSC A0N - HV (Inverter) Water Pump; Dealer Letter and Technical Instructions | PriusChat.

When you say "oil" shows on screen, are you talking about a maintenance reminder on the MFD, a the MAINT REQD yellow light that comes every 5k miles between resets or something else?

Stop listening to the radio in ACC or IG-ON mode. You should have it in READY. Obviously, no oil change should be performed while the car is in READY. Who "tested" the 12 volt and how? We've found dealers tests of that to be useless and a waste of $. You should try Weird stuff happening? MPGs dropping? Test The Battery | PriusChat after the car has sat overnight.

The Optima Yellow Top also supposedly handles being run flat better than the OEM Toyota 12 volt.

It still blows my mind that those guys would make such claims about all those parts needing to be replaced. What codes did they provide? How did the wiring harness damage happen?

No... When the red trainge showed the words oil and/or an oil can showed on the nav screen! It would stay on for a millisecond and dissappear..... Yes I will never listen to the radio at the oil place again.. Good suggestion! The guys at the oil place tested the battery.... Was fine ....no codes were provided... I would have grabbed the, but the car was "dark" even after AAA tried to jump it....they could not.

Are you not checking the oil level semi-regularly?

We're looking for codes from the place that has your car now, to help provide evidence that all that work is actually required.

I have been changing my oil ever 5000k.. I stopped checking it in between changes.. Bad habit..but the true oil light never went on.


I will get the codes

I have been changing my oil ever 5000k.. I stopped checking it in between changes as it was not low when I checked it.. Bad habit..but the true oil light never went on. The triangle thing would last a flas of the eye. By the time the tone rang i would look over and the the triangle was gone.


I will get the codes

Look into making it a plug in prius. the price is about the same. And you will only have to buy gas quarterly

I'm going to guess that when you were running the A/C you did not have the car fully on (that is, with "Ready" lit on the dashboard) and shifted into Park. Repeatedly draining the traction battery that way will destroy it, just as repeatedly draining the 12V battery destroys it.

With 50 mile trips to work each way the fill ups will be a little more frequent than that. Although I could charge up at work for free as we have four bays to plug in.

That would explain the guilt I feel. I did not think you could run the a/c unless you were in ready mode though.

The wiring and inverter damage *is* kinda surprising in this scenario. If you have any suspicions about this dealer you could have it towed to another dealer for a second diagnosis and opinion about the underlying cause(s), but in any case at this point you're probably stuck either with an expensive repair or selling the car. There are remanufactured traction batteries that cost a lot less than new ones from Toyota, for example Remanufactured Hybrid Vehicle Battery Packs . Good luck.

Codes:

P0A09

P0A08, P0A0F

The following show up because of the top three are on the report

P3190
U0293
C1259
C1310
U0293
B1421
B1260

Sorry but I have to tell you that you're a slow learner when it comes to recognizing that your aging engine is starting to need a top up between services! While that's bad for the engine however, it has no relation at all the what you're currently seeing!

Actually I've read through all your points, and everything points to a simple 12V battery failure. Should have cost you about $250 to fix. Somebody tried to jump-start that car and foobared it with the wrong polarity, 99% certain.