Ema - Red Triangle, No Gas Engine, No Codes Thrown?

For those of you that have read my posts before you know my 2006 Prius is named Ema. She has 396,000 miles on her and has been a great little car. I was hoping to make 500,000 since she has been running so well but now don't know if I will even make 400,000.

On the way home from filling her up tonight before my trip to the airport tomorrow I had to stop to let a herd of deer cross the road. While stopped I got the red triangle of death, VSC, tire low, etc... etc... I also had the MFD give the "Problem" error with the red car with the exclamation point in it at the top of the screen. All of these indicate a big big problem but since I was only 1/4 mile or so from home I drove her home and parked her in the garage.

I tried to run a Scan on my scangauge and it came back with no errors found? Now there has to be something wrong to generate the red triangle of death and all the other lights on the dash. I went into the diagnostics screen and under Service Check everything listed as OK which doesn't tell you a lot I know. Ema will start but the gas engine doesn't start and I don't get the voltage above 11.8 volts or so. The Optima Yellow top is about 4 years old but if it starts the car I don't see were it being low would keep the gas engine from coming on?

I disconnected the battery in an attempt to clear the codes to see if the car would start. After leaving the battery disconnected for about 20 - 25 minutes I reconnected it and got all the same lights except the "Problem" on the MFD but it came back about 30 seconds after I tried to put the car in ready. I can shift her into Neutral but that's it no reverse no drive and the power button which normally shows green when she is in Ready is showing red.

I don't know what else to try to get her to run other than disconnecting the battery and without codes on my scangauge of anykind the next stop appears to be a tow to the dealership? Anyone have any ideas? The only thing I can think of is the something is wrong with the gas tank from my fillup but again I don't know why there aren't any codes generated.

Thanks for all the help.
Chris

 

To top pip, just changed out a couple weeks ago.

 

All 3 pumps were changed about 2,000 miles ago. I had the water pump fail at 206,000 so replace all pumps around the 200K as a preventative measure. This was done a few weeks ago when I got new tires, new suspension, oil change, ATF change, etc... She has been running fine since then.

I know a low battery can cause goofy things to happen but I don't see how it would keep the gas engine from starting? I guess I can pull it and through it on a charger but since my flight is at like 5:30 AM I don't really have time until I get back from Texas.

Thanks for the help. I appreciate the ideas.

 

She actually doesn't go into Ready mode, I don't get Ready on the screen only all of the warning lights, red triangle of death, "Problem" on the MFD, etc...

The voltage I am seeing is from my scanguage. When I got into the system diagnostic and check it there it may read .1 volt higher or so. Say 11.8 on the scangauge, 11.9 in diagnostics.

It does seem battery related but I am not sure why the disconnect and reset didn't clear it and am also confused by absolutely no codes on the scangauge. Would have at least expected the worthless 0000 one.

Thanks again for all the ideas everyone.

Could be but that would seem like a really odd coincidence. The Shell I bought gas at I have bought from dozens of times before.

 

[/QUOTE]
1. Measure the voltage on the 12V battery using a digital multimeter.
2. Fully-charge the 12V battery now. There is no need to remove the battery from the car.
3. If no DTC can be retrieved that either means that your Scan Gauge is not capable of retrieving the DTC (at minimum, the skid control ECU has logged DTC if the VSC light is on and the hybrid vehicle ECU has also logged DTC because the car with ! icon has appeared), or that means the 12V bus voltage is sagging way down, thus clearing the memory of the various ECUs.
4. Get Mini VCI to reliably retrieve the DTC. Your Scan Gauge may not be able to retrieve DTC logged by the HV and skid control ECUs.
5. Make a taxicab reservation to get to the airport since you cannot make the Prius READY.[/QUOTE]

I put my charger on the battery from about 11:00 to 3:00 when I left for the airport and it was up to 80% or better according to the charger when I left. I tried to start her again and it didn't make any difference. I will put the charger on and fully charge the 12 volt when I get back to North Carolina. I don't think that is it however. I am afraid it is battery, inverter, fusible link, ... IE something major.

I ordered a Mini VCI from Amazon so it will be there when I get back as well. I will have to dust off my old D830 with Windows XP to run it apparently but that should be to much of an issue. I will certainly post what codes it generates for opinions and ideas from everyone here. I really wanted to get Ema to 500,000 miles but now might not even make 400,000

I guess the best case scenario at this point is bad gas or I overfilled it even though nothing squirted back out and caused an issue. Bad gas would be on the station although an overfill would be on me I would think it would be cheaper than hybrid components. Ohhh well, I guess we will see when I can pull the codes from her.

Thanks again for everyone's help and ideas. Keep them coming if you think of anything else. I will let you know when I know more.

Chris

 

No it didn't and actually now that I think about I had a new light. Brake was on as if the emergency brake was pushed down. I tried cycling the emergency brake but the red brake light never cleared. I think this is probably because I disconnected the brake ECU to get a little easier access to the negative battery terminal even though I reconnected it after the 20 minute clear process.

The only other time I have had this many errors lights on was when frozen slush built up around my front tires so much you couldn't turn them hardly. She threw all kinds of lights including the red triangle of death but after everything melted and I did a couple of restarts they all cleared. I think I even had something on my scangauge then where as this time I don't.

Chris