I have some check engine lights which I will try to post pics. And there is one light on my monitor screen in the top left. That one is a hybrid system warning light I think. I'm sure I need to connect it to something to read the codes. It is running fine, but the engine doesn't seem to shut off and mpg in city is kinda like a normal car, and I think the battery drains too fast. No matter how slow I take off it won't use the electric motor alone. I wonder if that is the battery causing engine to have to stay on. One pic shows as if engine is off and not running car but it really is still on, other pic shows engine running and charging battery while I'm parked. It keeps cycling off and on charging the battery, but engine never shuts off. Other pic is of dash with warning lights.
Give us info. How many miles. How long owned. What maintenance have you done to it. Has the Inverter coolant pump been changed yet? Is it the original 12 battery? Not the Hybrid battery the little one in the trunk. Have you ever had to jump start this car? Does your ac blow cold?
193k miles I haven't done any maintenance. I've only had it a day. Not sure what the inverter coolant pump is, but I'm pretty technical so I would understand if I read about it. I'll google it. Not sure if it is the original 12v battery. It starts up fine when I press the start button. AC blows perfectly cold. This just happened to me now on a busy freeway back to back. Car seemed non-responsive and was moving slow and couldn't really accelerate. The hb batter went all the way down to 1 bar and the engine was idling but not charging back the hb battery. I think I was just driving on the electric motor. I exited of the freeway and pulled over. I shut off everything, then turn it all back on and then it started charging the hb battery and it drove fine after that. The hb battery stayed green and even 100% charged. I've read that the 12v battery if it fails can cause different problems. I will check it. I read it is in the back somewhere. Thanks Edthefox
Take a look at the pics in my reply #10 here: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...95561-maintenance-repair-in-anchorage-ak.html Unfortunately it sounds like it could be a problem with the HV battery. Check the 12V battery and inverter coolant first though, since they're easy.
I followed some youtube instructions and used the diagnostic system to check the 12v battery and it was perfect. I used your picture to check the flow and I could see it was flowing nicely. Kinda like when you take the top of a radiator cap of when the water isn't so hot, you can tell it is pumping. If it is the prius battery I can buy one on ebay, but I think we can take it out and change the cells right? I'll need to research how to check them. So a bad battery can cause the engine not to be used? I would think if the hybrid battery went bad that it would only use the engine to run the car, but I wouldn't know. Thanks Uart
The engine was running wasn't it? The lack of power is because even when the Prius is running from the engine it still requires electrical power from the inverter in order for the transmission to work properly (that is, it cant efficiently get the engine power to the wheels if hte HV battery is bad). Unfortunately the Prius just cant run properly with a dead traction battery, even running off the ICE.
The engine never stops running, that's one of the funky things. It was running and when I got off the freeway I couldn't rev it. It just idled. Oh ok, I get it know. Kinda like needing electricity to power a solenoid to engage something. Ok that makes sense. There is a guy that will come and take out the battery and charge $50 per cell and $180 for labor to get the battery pack working fine. I really would like to do it myself if I can. I've hacked modems, wii, brakes, alternators, stereo and amp install yada yada, so I think I can do something like that. I just need to know how to do it and diagnose the bad cells.
I'm doing google searches and youtube searches, but only see Gen1 instructions for repairing hybrid battery. I would think it would be a sticky here somewhere. I'll keep searching.
One more thing to add and the seller could have been lying. He said when he got it, that there was no error codes or warning lights. That after he had it detailed, inside, outside, and engine compartment, that when the codes came on. They sprayed the engine area with whatever detailers use. It is super clean looking, but has an oily shiny film over everything. Maybe that hit something?
There could be water in the spark plug wells. There could be water inside one of the HV connectors, if it was broken in the past by an accident. Did you check to see if this was a salvage rebuild? But what you described in your initial post is typical of a failed HV battery. The timing is typical too: 2004, 193K miles. Get the codes read to confirm. To fix the hybrid battery is very similar to 2001-2003. There's three ways to go about it for DIY. First is just like the shade tree battery repair guy would do, drop in a good module to replace a bad one. Better practice there is to replace both modules in the block pair, because the good one has been overcharged to compensate for the bad one. Most people that do this never report back with another failure, so it either works, or they are too embarrassed. The second is to do a bench reconditioning. This resolves the voltage depression that develops due to keeping SoC in a limited range. You can also buy a fresh salvage battery. Supply in California is tighter now that Healdsburg Ted has a full scale recondition/retrofit operation of using Gen II batteries in Gen I cars. To be honest, if you are going to pay the shade tree guy $280 (modules + labor), you would be better off to DIY a salvage replacement. The going rate in SoCal is $500. There's one out of a 2007 in Fontana right now -- car-part.com.
I would take it to a Prius Tech.to pin point the problem. Check out www Reinvolt.com they rebuild packs. Hal
Good friend Seilerts also rebuilds Prius batteries so he is "what you call, an expert" an knows of what he speaks. JeffD
Exact the same light in mine this week. The inverter coolant pump was dead. Pinpointed it with trouble code P0A43 with my scanguage, searched info through priuschat and there is a tread about replacing procedure for the pump. Took me 45-60 minutes to replace it. Pump cost is 104$. With your car in ready, touch the pump that is located just in front of the fuse box under the hood and you must feel small vibrations indicating it is running.You can also check in the inverter coolant tank with the cap removed you must see small coolant movement. If none of this.... you pump coolant is dead. Check this tread : http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-.../65173-how-replace-inverter-coolant-pump.html
I did a craigslist search and didn't see any ads for 04-09 batteries. How are you searching them, or did you just happen to know Fontana has one? I am definitely comfortable swaping the whole battery out. Is there step by step instructions for that here?
also, where do I get a prius scan tool, I'll do a search now, but I'm thinking it isn't just an obd II tool? Ok, so it looks like it uses a standard OBD2 scan tool. I imagine I can go to autozone and pull all the codes. Do you recommend resetting them and rescanning again after new codes pop up. I should probably invest in a scan tool. Will the basic one for $79 work? Do use the tool I should press start but not step on the brake so it can read the codes right?
Despite the cost of doing it yourself, Toyota should be covering that repair under warranty regardless of your warranty period. I was able to seek reimbursement for the same repair performed a few years back based on a letter mailed to all Gen II owners suspected to be affected by this problem. If it is indeed an inverter coolant pump problem, you could risk damage to the inverter by repeatedly operating the car in this condition.
Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market to search for salvage parts in your area. Search for "Battery" to find HV battery. There are a lot of batteries around LA but most are out of 04-05. An 09 is of course ideal but most of those cars get rebuilt or stripped quickly. A parts store will be able to give you the code if it is the HV battery, such as P0A80. Most generic code readers will get you that far.
Our 2005 with 95K miles displayed the Red Triangle and other dash warning lights this week. No apparent loss of performance or any thing only the warning lights being lit but reading here on Priuschat indicated a dealer visit would be wise. Karl Malone Toyota in Draper, UT did the SSC A0N inverter pump recall and the SSC 90L recall for free. Much better than the thousands I imagined the repair could turn into. All is well. Thanks Priuschat contributors.
If you're close to Pasadena I can plug my computer into it to see what it says. My drove fine too, but when I watched the battery it went too low too many times and didn't come on when it should have to charge back up the battery other than that I couldn't tell the main battery was going bad.
