Hybrid battery code cleared, glitch?

My first post, and its a fun one.

I had the dreaded triangle of doom pop up on the dash this morning as I was driving to work. I pulled over and turning the car off and on, same problem. Took it to the dealership and they confirm that the battery needs to be replaced, for $3400. Before I did anything I started looking at my options besides the dealer and found I can buy a replacement batter with a 36 month warranty for 1500. Since im a machinist, my dad is a electrical engineer, and my cousin is a Toyota certified hybrid mechanic, i figure my odds of success going this route is pretty good.

So I have them wrap up and figure i'll tow it home to work on. They parked my car in the middle of the service center surrounded by cars, and i figure i'll help them and the tow guy out by moving my car in to the parking lot. Turn on the car, no errors starts fine seems normal. Pull out into the parking lot, no issues. Decided to drive it home and forgo the tow truck (probably a dumb idea in retrospect, but too lat now.) Drive home, no issues drives normally, battery is charging like normal, get home without incident. And I haven't got any error codes driving it around the neighborhood.

So now my issues is is there anything that can cause a glitch in the hybrid system to get the error without it actually being a bad battery. Unfortunately I didn't read the code, so I cant confirm the error code was for a bad battery. And so far no errors to be found. Any suggestions on things to check?

 

I opened the reservoir and the liquid is about mid was between the high and low marks, and I have turbulence so its definitely flowing through it.

 

Yeah, I'm not opposed to rebuilding it, but I want to make sure I am going in the right direction before I tear it all apart just to find out it wasn't necessary.

 

OK ill start looking into the charger and code reader. And I actually had already contacted Tampa Prius to explore my options and they just got back to me. So, I've got that as a backup if I decide its not something I want to deal with.

The car has 108k miles on it and have had it serviced almost exclusively at the dealer. I checked all my fluid levels and everything is well within range. I'll have to tear into the fan to clean it, as it most likely could use a cleaning.

 

Yeah thats kind of where im at with it. I just wanted to see if there were anything else i should check. I just want to make sure i covered all my bases before going ahead with everything. Something similar happened with the AC. Dealership said the blower was bad,checked out the forums and just cleaned it out with compressed air, worked just fine and didnt need to spend the money. Granted on a different price scale, but doesnt hurt to try.

 

Thankyou to everyone for all the reply's.
I actually drove it to work yesterday ~40 miles without any issues, mpg was right around 46 with the battery charging and discharging normally.
So I pretty much chalked it up as a one time glitch. However, when I went to drive home, turned the car on and the error was back, plugged my reader in and got the hybrid error Pa080.

I opened up the back of the car and check out the fan, its got some dirt on it that I'm going to clean off, hoping that maybe it just got hot in the afternoon. I do live in Florida and its been in the mid 90's, so not exactly ideal battery conditions.

 

Well for a follow up update. I decided to go ahead and replace the battery, the last trip home was, I felt, the final sign that the HV battery was on the way out. So I ordered a replacement battery from Green Tec Auto last Thursday. Spent all weekend repairing another vehicle so I could make it to work (drove an f150 for 2 days at 75 miles round trip each day, now I remember why I switched to the Prius.).
Battery was shipped out Friday, arrived from Maryland on a pallet Tuesday. And I spent the morning installing it today.

Secured the new battery, plugged everything in, did a couple hail marys, and pressed the power button. Everything came on, but still an error, with no code. Tried to figure out if I missed plugging something back in. I then muttered "idiot", and slid the lever down on safety disconnect, THEN pressed the power button again. Everything came up normal, no error codes, took it for a test drive around the block. Everything charging and discharging like normal. Looks like im back up and running. Just have to put all the covers, seats, and trim back in.