Triangle of Doom, fan running constantly, HV battery issue?

The battery fan should not be running constantly UNLESS you don't mind the interior of your car being a little warmer than most people prefer. Once the battery temperature reaches 96°F, the fan will be engaged at its lowest speed and will stay on. So it's conceivable the battery fan in your car would be on most times during warm weather. However, at its lowest speed I can't hear the fan from the driver's seat in my car due to road noise.

There should be diagnostic trouble codes stored. If you don't have a code scanner/reader, go to Autozone or Advance Auto and they will check for codes for you.

 

That doesn't sound good. The slow speed, fan on, and wild swing in battery is often a sign of failing battery.
P3000 is not "out of gas" indicator, it is a "Hybrid Battery Malfunction" error code.
If the code and lights come back in a short time, that means it is not an intermittent problem and should be addressed right away.

If it turns out to be the hybrid battery, you certainly do not have to go to the dealer for the replacement.
I work with shops all over the country and would be happy to help your local mechanic, too.

I can talk to you or your mechanic. My phone number is in my signature.

 

The Hybrid Battery is covered for 10 years/100,000. If you live in a CARB state, it is more. Bring the car to a Toyota dealer. If it is the battery, it will be replaced under warranty.

 

Check the 12v battery first. Weird stuff happens when it needs replacement.

 

That does not sound good. Alot of these no gas incidents resulted in the Hybrid battery going dead as the posters used that battery to get to the next gas station. Not designed to do that designed to get you off the road. What happens is when the engine died the Hybrid battery took over and allowed you to drive it for quite a while before that goes essentially dead also. Hybrid battery gets very depleted some requiring a recharge from a special 200 volt battery charger that has to come from Japan.

Yours sounds like the hybrid battery didn't die but got very unhappy as evidenced by the P3000 and the battery fan on. You may have hyper discharged a borderline quality battery module (there's 28) and the battery ecu is nagging about it. Another words one of the modules was not in 100% shape to begin with prior to incident and you may have stressed it out. It overheats and will not take a proper charge from the system anymore.

This will show up as P3000-xxx codes and battery fan on and you may see the Hybrid battery charging and fast discharging from blue to purple and back again on the consumption meter.

It is imperative no matter what the next step is to pull all the codes including there 3 digit subcodes. Post them back here before you spend any money. These are Hybrid codes and need a special reader. Autozone etc won't see these codes. Sounds like your guy has the proper Techstream OBDII code puller.

But given that age of the car and the incident I think you may be looking at a new Hybrid battery.

 

Go to the toyota official web site. sign up as a toyota owner -- you will need to enter VIN of your vehicle. In addition to giving first "sales date" it will also tell you what recalls have or have not performed, any services performed at a Toyota dealer, etc.

Invaluable information when you are a second owner.

 

Your malfunction symptoms were like mine last week: Triangle, brake malfunction light, VSC light, and Check Engine light. My son works for Toyota. He tested my vehicle. Error Codes were P0A80, P3012 multiple times. After clearing code these errors reoccurred. This stands for Hybrid Battery Failure imminent. This was confirmed at dealership. My vehicle was 2006 with 102k just one month out of warranty period. Expired 4/14. Most common cause of this error is single cell failing in battery module. My regular 12 volt auxiliary battery had been replaced 5 weeks ago. If you are in warranty they will cover full cost. If out of warranty it will cost around $3100 in my area. I know this is terrible expense but not predictable. The failure rate for their batteries is 3/10000 which is the lowest failure rate of all manufacturers of hybrids. Most other manufacturers of hybrids have a much higher failure rate. As noted in prior responses the dealer will query the VIN and know the original sales date which is when the warranty period started running. Hopefully still in warranty period

 

Yes classic signs of soft pack. Don't feel bad about the gas incident as it was going to happen anyway just know its better to fill up on 2 pips. This car will kill you if you run out of gas.

There's quite alot of aftermarket places to buy a new pack reasonably so soon as we condemn it we'll talk about that. There's some good battery guys on here that can help you.

BTW: Prius Hybrid battery warranty on your car is 8 years or 100.000 miles no matter the owner used car status etc. Your under the miles so you might be under warranty!!! Its rare we see under 100K 2006's so it slipped my mind.
Run don't walk to a Toyota dealer as soon as you can and they'll run the vin and let you know it's status for free. Or bring the vin in to them. Should be no charge if covered!!!

!!!! Run girl run!!!! lol....

 

you should contact toyota, they have helped many here who were just out of warranty. i'm surprised your son doesn't know this.

 

Sorry I didn't realize you had 2 posts going at the same time and already discovered you may be under warranty.
Hope it works out for you.