Prius Virgin, Good Deal or Lemon? Possible Bad Battery and Intermittent Blower Fan

Hello, all. Very excited, just bought my first Prius, a Gen I - 2002 a couple days ago. Thus end a long era of Geo Metro driving and finally joining the rest of the world in the 21 century. Found it on craigslist advertised for $3,800. Got the guy to come down to $2,500. Wanted to get a Gen II, but there seemed to be a huge price gap between the Gen I and Gen II and at this point I thought I would start out with this one, though I have my eye out for a good deal on a Gen II. Somewhat strange circumstances as it was for sale at a salvage yard and he didn't have the title in hand, though, he had some other paperwork from the dmv. Couldn't understand the exact circumstances as to how he acquired the car, my friend thinks he said lien sale. He said he turned in the title already to put it in his name, so he sent me to this other lady operating some sort of DMV service out of an office trailer in another salvage yard to transfer it to my name. Today I went back and picked up my plates and stickers. I know your probably thinking this sounds pretty shady, which was what I was thinking, kept trying to figure out what the scam was. But I decide to take a chance and go through with it. I signed up on Toyota.com with the VIN and it gave me the whole service history, which revealed some good, some bad. The good, serviced exclusively and regularly at the dealer the original owner bought it from up until the 12th of this month. Did many extra services like engine flush and fuel line flush or something like that. The bad, went in at least 4 times for problems with the air conditioning system. Which is still problematic as the fan was not coming on at all, until just tonight when it came on for the first time. Was somewhat relieved when I checked and verified that both heat and A/C were working. I checked all the fuses, all looked good.

Any idea what would cause an intermittent blower fan problem?

The other bad was the last record of service which says:

01/12/2011
CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ~|~CUSTOMER STATES THAT THE WARNING LIGHTS WERE ON SINCE FRIDAY DROVE IN AND LIGHT WENT OUT CHECK AND ADVISE ~|~ ~|~P3000-9 BATTERY LEAKING $3720.00
CUSTOMER PAY

Which I asked the dealer today about and they said it means the original owner took the car in because the check engine light was on, they read the codes and P3000-P3009 came out which is indicative of the hybrid battery leaking (which he said means leaking voltage, not battery acid) and is bad and needs to be changed. They owner declined to pay the $3720 to change the battery. So at this point not so sure if my good deal is that great anymore. Wanted to verify the battery pack is actually bad as the check engine light or any other warning light hasn't come on since I have owned. Took it to Autozone and was sad to find out that they no longer will read out error codes for free as they were apparently sued by the people who charge people for this service.

Can I read out all the errors my self with a standard OBD II reader or is there some information that only Toyota can read with a special reader?

Is there any other way to tell if my battery pack is bad?

Already found 1 salvage yard that might have one for $500, but is it a good idea to get one from a salvage yard?

They said if I install it and it's no good they would refund my money. Toyota wants $2,300 for one.

Was this a good deal or did I get ripped off?

Please excuse my ignorance as I am only a 2 day old Prius noob, but already I'm addicted. And thanks in advances for any guidance

 

First thing I want to do is make sure it's actually bad or going bad. Is there anything you can to stop it from going bad like cleaning off the corrosion or something?

From reading some of the posts on here is sounds like Toyota sometimes jumps the gun in recommending a new traction battery, when it may not actually be bad. So I definitely want to make sure, especially since none of the warning lights are on.

Is it possible that the seller could have disabled the warning lights in order to sell the car?

Because I know for sure that they took it into Toyota and were told the battery is bad.

Also I read somewhere that when the main battery goes you can no longer start the car. Is that true and something that can happen quickly or does it die slowly?

Thank you for your kind help.

 

Today I scanned my car's computer with an ODB II scanner and it didn't find any DTC's stored in there.

Anyone know why the DTC's P3000-P3009 would have been on a week before I bought it and now they are all gone and haven't come back?

What do P3000-P3009 mean exactly, please?

Thank you.

 

Well, now I have sold that car, but not because it gave me any trouble. Actually despite that ominous error codes which were never fixed, in the records, no warning lights ever came on while I had the car and it seemed to be working fine and I put a lot of miles on it around town and cross country. Guess I lucked out on that one. So maybe the lesson there is, when Toyota says your car needs $3,700 in repair, like they did on mine, make sure it really needs it, cause at least in this case it seems not.

Also the p-3000 and p-30009 have to do with the battery and not the transmission, as far as I know. Not sure why you would need a new transmission, might need a new battery though or could be something related to the battery such as wiring. In my case seemed to have been triggered for no reason.