red triangle of death!

a few mornings ago I started up the car and got the red triangle I quickly killed it and started agauin and it was still there! I repeated and this time it was gone. Today I did a search and suspected the battery but I wanted to confirm it with the system diagnostic...... No matter how many times I tried I just could not put the car into system diagnostic! At one point I started the car and tried and it actually let me in- the battery showed 14.4v but that just proved the charging system was working.

So I tried a few more times to put it into Diagnostics and as I was holding down the info button all of a sudden the car beeped once and the error message about parking mechanism came on the screen- as well as more red triangle alerts

So finally when I got home from work I tried again a few times- more red triangles and volt meter directly on the battery said 10.5v but with all those headlight on and offs I was not sure if that drained it. Nevertheless I picked up a new oem battery for $150 and wrestled to get it in....

Right away I was able to get into system diagnostic! 12.1v to start...

I went for a drive and all seems ok. I was not able to throw the car into red. I am hoping this was all a matter of a bad battery. What do you all think?

My car is 3 years old with 41.5k miles on it

 

well it is the morning after the battery adventure and everything still seems good. Just to check, I threw it into system diagnostic mode before starting it up and I was reading 12.1v on the battery. I have not seen anymore red triangles so I am hoping it is all solved.

It was not like the triangles were appearing all the time, only when I was messing with the car to get it into diagnostics or that one time in the morning.

But I am thinking that the morning event was maybe due to losing charge over night. It may even have been that I was driving the previous night and shut the car off but was slow to turn the headlights off so the battery was in an even weaker state the next morning. Then the triangles appeared again with all the headlight flashing in ACC mode. I guess batteries all have to be replaced sometime.

I was not expecting it to be so difficult to change the battery! but then again I did it in ther middle of the night with just a flash light. I made the mistake of closing the trunk with the positive terminal disconnected because I needed a tool from the apartment. I guess it would have been good to know that you cannot open the trunk without any power! thankfully I was able to crawl into the trunk from the back seat and reconnect the positive terminal again long enough to pop the trunk again.

So here are the key lessons from this adventure.

1. random red triangles on start up could mean battery
2. if you are normally able to enter system diagnostics and suddenly cannot, this may also point to battery.
3. If you are changing the battery, do not close the trunk hatch with the battery disconnected because you cannot open it again.
4. do not forget to reconnect the venting hose to the battery and try to do it after everything is back together. Getting it in with the plastic vent in the way is nearly impossible.

As far as prices, this is an expensive battery. The OEM toyota discount website that usually has everything really cheap has it listed for 138.00. The local dealer here in south florida had it for the same price but after taxes it is just shy of $150.

I actually had the Optima kit on stanedby but learned there was no local place to actually get the Optima that fits in the Prius so I went the quick route and hit the dealership.

 

wish I would have known