Red Triangle, MFD Error Message

Most likely, the problem is that your 12V auxiliary battery needs to be replaced.

 

It seems a lot of these quirks are remedied by changing the 12volt battery. What I think should be done in future models is some type of gauge that monitors the voltage and health of this battery. Does anyone know if the scangauge is capable of that? TIA

 

There is a built-in selftest function (including a load test). It's easy to do and no tools are needed. I don't feel like reposting the 2004-2009 procedure for the umpty-umpth time, so try searching for
battery test jdenenberg

Oh, what th' heck. Look here:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ather-done-my-beautiful-prius.html#post991935

 

I'm sure it's the 12v. battery. Others have reported the same error message and it wound up being the 12v. battery on it's way out.

 

I had this same issue multiple times over the last year. I would be driving along, nothing unusual, and I would get that message ("There is a problem with the transmission "P" park lock mechanism. Please park your vehicle on a level surface and engage the parking brake").

The first time I freaked out and pulled over and they towed me into the dealership and said they found a "bunch" of error codes. They couldn't figure out what was wrong.

It happened a few months later while I was two hours from home, driving to VA Beach. I pulled over and started calling to figure out what to do. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I tried to restart the car. It restarted fine without issue.

Then, about 4 months ago, it happened a third time. I drove it all the way to the dealership. They took it in and told me the ECU (computer?) was bad and needed to be replaced. $550 later (I fought and got them to take off the labor charges) and I have not had the problem since.

I'm in a 2005 Prius at 97,000 miles. The first instance was at about 62,000 miles. If it was the battery, would it have been covered?

You can bet I'm going to raise holy heck if the error every happens again, especially after reading this thread.

 

It would have been covered. In fact the ultimate cause (whatever it is) is still covered since you raised the issue during the warranty period. If a bad battery is the cause then they owe you a new one, although proving that it's been the battery all along may be difficult. (And in fact that seems kinda unlikely: a battery that was bad 35,000 miles ago probably would have died long since. But perform the self test, or even just a voltmeter check, and see what you get.)

 

They told me it was only a 60k warranty, so it wouldn't have been covered even if they had been thorough enough to find it the first time.

She showed me the error code for the problem, and it matched one of the codes they found the first time (amongst 10 others).

AH, I see the self test link... I'll have to try when I get my car back tonight. Thanks for the info!

 

D'ohh!! Sorry, brain fart on my part: I was thinking 100K miles. No, the 12V battery was out of warranty at 62K. For a pointer to the 12V battery self test see a couple of posts back.

 

Better late than never