A Little help please...

I bought a 2004 that was hit in the front. I have it mostly put back together. However, after doing the major work I wanted to start the vehicle and move it. So I plugged in the main battery plug and re-hooked up the 12V battery. Then the dash lights lit up as well as a bunch of the idiot lights and I could hear the inverter making noise. When I push the power button, nothing. I am at a loss because when I bought the vehicle it had a broken engine mount. When I was putting the car in neutral it tried to start and I didnt have all the dash lights lit up. Of course I turned it off immediately because of the engine mount. Now I have a bunch of lights on and no start....any ideas??

Yes you do not have the main hybrid battery orange plug seated properly.
Its tricky. There's a lever that has to be engaged. I have never disconnected mine so do not know exactly the procedure but your is a common complaint.
I see it all the time here. Wait until someone else weighs in with exact procedure.

Im pretty certain it is seated properly. When you plug it in, you need to kind of pull the plug down, then flip the lever...Im 99.9% certain it seated properly the second time I did it. But by all means, I will try again tomorrow. Thanks for the reply...keep them coming!

Ok its probably a result of the major work then.

... And then slide the lever back in. Believe me this is a very common step to miss.

I will confirm tonight. I knew this was common. Thats why I did it twoce. And the second time was different than the first. But I will do it again a few times and see if I get a different outcome. Will advise tonight.
Thanks!

The car needs to be in "P" to start as well. It won't start in "N".

If it lights up immediately when you connect 12V power, that means (1) the 12V is very weak or (2) it is in a confused state, try holding down the power button for several seconds to turn it off.

OK. so here we go. I played with the big battery plug and it was set properly. So I thought about the brake switch not making contact or reading properly to allow the vehicle to start. Because we had to replace the brake resovoir, we decided to bleed the brakes again. It started....now I have another issue. The engine cylinder number three was making a noise. When I bought the car we had to replace the intake manifold. It was shattered. We did our best effort to make sure no shrapnel was in any of the intake ports. But when the engine tried starting (It actually ran) number three did make a prominent noise. So we did a compression test. We had 200 lbs (seems really high to me) in every cylinder except #3. It had 100. Any ideas what to look for, or do I swap engines? Also as of now I ran it briefly for probably 30 seconds at a time. How long is it safe to try running for diagnostic reasons without cooling fluid in either system at idle? And just so I dont run the big battery low, is there a way to charge that pack? For now, thats all I have....
Thanks,
Jeff

PS- one other strange issue...the passenger window worked prior to starting the vehicle...now it doesnt roll up. The other windows work. We tried the passenger door switch as well as the drivers door switch for that window....

How long has the motor been sitting? The valves tend to get sticky. You might wanna Seafoam it.

If you can let it idle for a couple minutes at a time, that is more than enough to keep the hv battery charged. As soon as you start the car normally, it should be charging the battery, unless you have HV DTCs set.

As I understand it, about 5 months before I bought it (5 months ago). I'll try the seafoam...its a cheap test, considering the alternative. I dont know what HV DTC's are, so pretty sure Im fine there...
Thanks, I will post the results next week. I am away from the car til then.

Consider that when you are performing an engine compression test on a regular vehicle, the engine might be spinning at ~250 RPM. Compare to the Prius where MG1 is spinning the engine at ~1,000 RPM. That is why the compression test is showing 200 lb reading. If chemical means do not help Cyl 3, you'll need to replace the engine.

I am wondering whether the gasoline engine actually was running and consuming fuel, or if you were just observing MG1 spin the engine.

I would not say it is "safe" to run either the engine or inverter for any length of time, without coolant.

Having a lack of knowledge does not mean you are fine.

The question is what diagnostic trouble codes your Prius has logged. A generic OBD-II code reader cannot retrieve the hybrid system DTC, and that is needed if you want to troubleshoot your car in a more systematic way. After you've completed all of the accident repairs including refilling all fluids to the extent you can, I suggest you have the vehicle towed to your local Toyota dealer so that the DTC can be read and a diagnosis of remaining issues provided to you. Good luck.

Ok. I didnt understand, and still dont have a thorough understanding of the whole prius system at this time. This is the first prius I have worked on. I will complete the repair and try seafoam. Then bring it to a place in Denver called Adopt-A-Part. They have the toyota Prius diagnostic equipment and seem pretty knowledgeable from the few times I have been there picking up various parts for this repair. And I believe they dont charge as much as Toyota for diagnostics in my area. If anyone knows of a dealership that will perform tests for less than $150 in the area please let me know.

I believe the engine was running, only because when we took put the plugs to do the compression test I could smell fuel, and had great spark. And when I walked behind the engine when we put the plugs back in, there was hot exhaust coming out of the tailpipe.

I thank you all for your advice. Most likely I will be here looking for some misc answers. But I do have the bonus of having my girlfriends Prius to look at while doing the repair for any visual inspections. When I got the car, it was partially taken apart already. So I am missing some parts still.....

As for the HV DTCs, when I posted that I took the previous post as this would be something I set. But now that I have gotten some sleep I believe that stands for High Voltage Diagnostic Trouble Codes?

I cant wait to get this car running. I got 49.2 MPG in my girlfriends car going 100 miles to work on the car at my friends shop, costing about 6 bucks....that same trip in my truck would have been about $25-30. God will I be happy to drive the Prius!:rockon:

If you are suspicious there might be -something- in the cylinder, remove all spark plugs and let the engine spin (try to start it). If there is anything in there it will come flying out the spark plug holes, so keep clear of them!
If the cylinder was producing 100 PSI on the compression test it's certainly not destroyed. I would wait until you have it -fully- running before panicking.

Yep that sounds like it was running.

One other quick test that you can do to make sure that it's running and producing power is to let it start and let it idle for a short time in "P". If you look at the energy monitor display, then after a few seconds it should look like the picture in the attachment. Note the direction of the arrows (into the battery) show that the engine is producing power and that it's going into the battery. All very good signs. Also note the number and color of bars in the battery display (two purple in this picture). Ideally you'd like to see about 4 or more here. Don't try to leave it charging like this though, it will take too long and you'll cook the engine or inverter until you get the cooling systems online. You should only need to run it for about 15 seconds to do this test.

BTW. If cold it should start idling just a few seconds after it's powered on to "ready". If it doesn't then you can usually make it do so by just tapping the accelerator pedal.

It is almost impossible to get all the coolant out of a block without pulling the heads and turning it every-which-way. So the motor is relatively safe for a few minutes at a time. The inverter is another story. Chances are that the pump has already burned up. If possible, bypass the radiator i.e. have a hose connecting the outlet and inlet directly, with some fluid installed, because it would be possible to cook something.

David,

When we did the compression test we pulled all spark plugs. Then hit the power button, and the engine would start turning pretty much right away. Nothing come out, nor did it sound like there was a noise like pieces of shrapnel. I would lean more towards the suggestion that it was valve noise. Thank you for the idea.

Uart,

I think at this point, now that I see the electrical and contril system managing the ICE works, I think best bet is to at least put the cooling systems in place and then run it for a longer period of time. When the ICe was initially started, the noise was quite a bit louder than the last time I ran it for about 30-45 seconds, just to park it out of the way at the shop. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that Seafoam or something will loosen up the possible sticky valve.

All I did as far as running the car so far was run it where the ICE was turning for about 10-15 seconds at a time, probably 6 times total. Then parked it, with about a 30-45 second run time. Hopefully I havent ruined any pump, etc. I guess time will tell.

If anyone has any other suggestions on how to free up the valve(s) please chime in. I am thinking about pulling the valve cover off and seeing if it is possible to push each valve spring while there is no load on the valve from the cam. I think this should be fairly easy, just turn the ICE over with a ratchet on the crank...but as I mentioned before I havent worked on a prius prior to this one.

One last note, does it really matter which coolant I use for both coolant systems? I dont really care to buy from Toyota, as I am pretty sure it will be stupidly expensive to buy anything from them....

Thanks again all for the help!
Jeff

If a valve is stuck it will free itself once you get it running for a bit. Does the Prius have hyd. lifters or solid? If hyd. then it is possible a lifter has lost its prim? Hal

Im not sure. I was planning to take the valve cover off next week to inspect. I am grounded until then.....girlfriend wants to suck up my time all weekend...

Hybrid Vehicle system Diagnostic Trouble Codes

It doesn't hurt to remove the valve cover. The valves do not have hydraulic lifters. You could just rotate the crankshaft by hand and satisfy yourself that the valves for cyl 3 are moving up and down as the camshafts rotate.

Regarding the coolant, Toyota Super Long Life Coolant will cost in the low $20 range per gallon, premixed. Although more costly than some no-name brands, it is a better coolant.