Walmart then triangle RED light

I think he said he bought it at auction. All sales final. No warranty implied.

And yes this dealer was clearly taking the op for a ride...in a hybrid.

Or clearly incompetent. Hard to tell we see so many of both on this site.

 

Any updates for us Shash_bro?

I'm interested to know what was the original cause of the problems.

 

I believe it may have been sold. it was on craigslist yesterday for 2999 as is("needs to be towed")

 

I'm glad he was able to recoup some of his investment. This could have ended being more expensive of a lesson if he chose to fix the car and continue driving it......

 

Surprised we don't see hundreds of threads like his. So many totaled Prius's out there. But we do see alot of threads with the poster saying he pulled a fast one on the lot he bought it from because the lot "didn't know what he was selling"

That one cracks me up.

 

Thanks for the info P&T.

It looks like we'll never know the full extent of the problem, nor precisely what the root cause was.

 

I would at least want to see the dtc's that were pulled. Just to rule out walmart. The OP was in a bad position with the car at stealership toyota and he needed a working car.

SM-N900P ?

 

Thanks for the update shash bro. I'm sure I wasn't the only one interested to know how a routine oil change could turn into what was basically the total loss of the car. Something like this is obviously very concerning to all owners.

I know that there's still some speculation about exactly what part walmart played and what part was due to preexisting issues with the car. But let's look at it like this: You had driven the car for approx 1500 miles and two months without any problems, then within 0.2 miles and a few minutes after picking the car up it's dead. Personally I believe the odds are firmly on some failure during the oil change.

Yes I know that the records showed problems with the car before you bought it, but the car yard obviously fixed those before selling it to you, otherwise you couldn't have driven it for those 2 months without issue. How well they fixed it we will never know, but to me the odds on this are simple: 1500 miles without issue then 0.2 miles and failure puts it at 7500:1 that the initial problem was caused by something that happened during the walmart service.

So my assessment is still the same as it was in my first reply on page 1 of this thread. With 7500 to 1 certainty here is the chain of events:

1. Walmart overfilled the oil causing the intake to foul with oil. (common issue btw)

2. Engine stopped producing power and dash warning lights came on.

3. Continue to drive and eventually the car stops and wont restart (to protect itself). This is a common condition when people run out of fuel also. Exactly the same thing happens (if you continued to drive), and even after adding fuel it wont restart until the code is reset. As I said, this is to protect it from thrashing the HV battery.

4. Here's where things go from bad to worse. One thing that has been observed with people running out of fuel and continuing to drive is that although the car shuts down and wont restart (to protect itself), there is a counter in the software. So if you try enough times with off then on again, it will eventually reset the code and start. This is handy if it was just low fuel that caused the loss of engine power, after adding fuel you can eventually get it to restart with just repeated attempts (btw other methods are to remove 12v power, or reset with a code reader, or just not keep driving in the first place). In your case however, this restart after repeated attempts (without original "no engine power" problem resolved) merely gave you a second opportunity to kill the traction battery. A second opportunity that apparently was successful.

 

uart, I think you hit the nail on the head. and as for the mystery of what's the matter with the car...

The root cause of the problem is that the guy bought a used car with 200,000 miles on it and didn't get a pre-purchase inspection. It's a bummer for the OP, but totally predictable, hybrid or not.

 

Reading the information from the dealer, an hv battery would probably solve his problems. There are many people on Craigslist that will repair a Battery cheap. ... possibly 300 to 500 dollars. Sell it once it's repaired

SM-N900P ?

 

I think Jiffy is the least of the over fillers. At least they pull the dipstick and check before they start the car....most of the time. Jiffy at the end of my block I use once in a while. I stand there and watch them.

The dealer is the worst on the over fill. I believe its because they use vat crap oil and a vat oil pump which is notoriously inaccurate and they will usually give it one more pull on the vat pump trigger just to make sure its at least full.
Hundreds of dealer over fill complaints on this site.

Bottom line is if someone else changes your oil your nuts not pulling into a gas station after picking it up and check the oil yourself.

 

The problem with that is the majority of people in there getting serviced at the dealer are women. At least at my dealer. They neither know or care. That's why there at the dealer. There getting it done "right". Lol.

 

Exactly!

 

[/sexism]

 

Yes I think we need an intervention to try and curb the blatant sexism in this thread. Please watch these up to date training films to help combat the problem.

 

One thing is unique to the Prius more so than my other cars. The oil drain back takes a real long time. Maybe because its the only oil driven VVT system in any car I own and may have oil trapped up in its VVT oil filter and cam assy
but if pull into a gas station and after a couple of minutes check the oil it will always read a little low. Once you know that "lowness" your ok but its no where close to accurate.

You must check the oil in the morning on flat ground before you start the car. After the car has sat for hours. Radical difference in oil level like close to a 1/4 of an inch on the stick after total drain back. Plus it will not have that "oil level is different on either side of the dipstick" we see. It will show correct on both sides in the am.

If your not doing this you may be constantly chasing a false low dip stick reading.

Anyone chasing an oil burning Prius needs to try this.

I am referring to my G2 not sure if the G3 is the same.