Car Won't Start

Please post the DTC (diagnostic trouble codes) that your car has logged. Ask your service writer for this info if you don't have it yet. It's hard to say much about your situation without knowing this.

Also, what is your odometer reading? If under 60K miles then the HV ECU, inverter and transaxle are all still under warranty so no worries. From 60K -100K miles the HV ECU and inverter will be covered.

 

If the READY light is on, the car is on. If you then push the START button, you are turning the car off.

Just thought I'd mention that for innocent bystanders.

 

DTC P0A1D does point to the hybrid vehicle ECU having a problem. Since that part has been replaced, does the same DTC reappear or has a new DTC come up?

If P0A1D persists, what is the three-digit info code that accompanies this DTC?

If no other DTC appears, I am wondering whether your car might have a wiring harness problem. Was the car in a significant accident prior to this problem appearing?

I agree that your car is no longer covered under warranty. What repair action does your dealer want to take now, and are you willing to authorize that expense?

 

OK, I assume that the car was in a severe accident three years ago, and that you know the location of the damage. You'd have to look at the wiring harness that would have been stressed or damaged by the accident, and examine the wires and the connectors very carefully.

 

No, except that job is going to be a big pain in the a__. Good luck.

 

P0A1D has 57 different information codes associated with it. Of those 23 are given as 'Impossible to drive' in the fail-safe chart. For nearly all of them, the solution given is to replace the HV ECU. There are a few where the service manual says to check and resolve any other DTCs first.

INF code 142 is a self-check on the 'start' (ST2) pin's connection. It's supposed to be about 5V coming from the Power Source Control ECU (monitors the power button) to the HV ECU. If it's more than this the HV ECU assumes it's shorted to the 12V bus and sets the code. The fail-safe action is to fail to start. Check the wiring harness between the ECUs. If that seems to be OK replace the Power Source Control ECU.

The HV ECU does have two separate ground connections, although they do ultimately connect to the same chassis ground point. I don't know if it would behave strangely if one (or both) had a poor connection, thereby causing a voltage to be seen between them, but I think it's a possibility worth checking for.

 

Check that the 5 volts supply is 5 volts. I had mine fail. I made my own 5 volts supply, rather then replacing the ECU. Car works fine now.

 

The HV ECU to the Power Source Control ECU. The PSC ECU appears to be behind the steering wheel, behind the panel that the START button is mounted on. The HV ECU is behind the glovebox.

It looks like this is the main Instrument Panel Wire harness. There's a joining connector between two parts of the harness behind the combination meter (i.e. dashboard display). The Wiring Diagrams part of the manual seems to say that the connector joins the Instrument Panel Wire with itself, which seems unlikely.

If it's a $2,000 harness - and I can believe it is, since it has something like a hundred wires in and many custom connectors hanging off it - it's worth checking continuity and stability of the various wires and connectors, and repairing only those wires and connectors that are damaged. As Patrick says, it'll be a pig to replace as it runs right across the width of the dash, and connects all the major ECUs together.