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2008 Prius with new 12 V battery won't shift; lots of warning lights

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by SuzyGS, Aug 20, 2017.

  1. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Hi volt leak in trans is not intermittent at least have not seen that here. It also will have an accompanied bad shudder mostly felt in the front passenger wheel area. That is because one or more of the 3 phase windings is comprimised and the power delivery to the motor is out of phase. You basicly have mg2 shaking violently., If you have a trans hv leak failure it is very noticeable as driving quality is immediately greatly affected.
    A leaking winding is because somewhere in its life it was driven extremely hard and one of the windings went over current and blew out. Blow out meaning the winding got so hot it's conformal coating failed exposing the conductor. This does not repair itself. There is no winding/fluid interaction but reports here have said fluid smelled burnt when removed with a trans winding blowout. When a winding blows out it's a pretty good scorching of the winding pack. Even a pinhole will blow out a winding as you have 500 + volts there at very high current. It blows out high voltage flashover and it's done.
    There's many youtubes about it and lusciousgarage garage repairs a lot of those.
    Extreme hills a lot of weight & Low hybrid battery charge & high power demand by floored gas pedal is the perfect storm to blow out a winding. Your basiclly stalling the motor under extreme load.
    Current draw goes off the chart. Toyota was very concerned about over rev and high current draw
    On mg which is why traction control is always on. You can switch it off in inspection mode but it has Valera warning on the mfd not to drive the car in that mode.

    If the car immediately throws master caution and the turtle on the mfd and no other signs of failure or drive ability it is not the trans. If the car starts to shudder bad and won't drive and has all those dtcs logged it's a tow home and it's the trans.

    Hi volt leak in the battery is sometimes very intermittent. Ground fault is highly monitored. It's the top of the master caution list. Slightest conduction from leaking electrolyte to ground in the battery will trigger that circuit. You can clear it and it may be ok for a while.
    Leaking electrolyte is a constantly changing thing. That continues to get so bad it sets that code all that time.
     
    #181 edthefox5, Sep 23, 2017
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2017
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  2. tstab

    tstab Junior Member

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    I'm gonna run through LG's diagnosis checklist a little later. Drivability on my car is great if the codes get wiped... it comes back on about 2 mins into the drive and drives normal till i turn her off.
     
  3. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    If during the DTC logged the car is driving ok it's not the trans. If u can clear the codes and motor on down the road just fine it's not the trans.
    That is classic hybrid battery cracked and leaking electrolyte and has been leaking fir a while and very bad corrosion causing tiny current path to ground.
    Take the battery cover off and check it out. Look for green corrosion under the nuts and on the buss bars.
    Hundreds of posts about it on this site.
     
  4. tstab

    tstab Junior Member

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    I am planning on checking her out tonight, the only reason I immediately pointed to the transaxle is because most post for the p0AA6 info codes 526 613 point at the transaxle
     
  5. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Good luck. May just need a battery cleanup. How's the battery been? Going into purple real fast when stopped or fast charge and discharge or mileage tanked?

    Based on what I have seen here very few trans failures winding blowout wise. Seen a few with failed diff bearings which is usually lack of maintenance and beat hard.Basicly it's an incredibly reliable transmission.
    Really a spectacular piece of engineering. And when it fails you will know it. If it loses a phase it will feel like the trans is about to fall out,
     
  6. tstab

    tstab Junior Member

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    Pulled the battery, uses a meter to test each module they are all coming in at 7.97 . Corrosion is ... you guys tell me... is this enough throw those codes... i'm gonna clean up all these contacts and throw this beast back in in the morning... I'm not trying to hijack Suzy's post so if you could shoot me a link to a solid rundown i'll bow out of the convo... Thanks again!



    IMG_3220color.JPG IMG_3220color.JPG
     

    Attached Files:

  7. strawbrad

    strawbrad http://minnesotahybridbatteries.com

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    It's really hard to argue with the sub code that points to the transmission. When a transmission winding gets bad enough it will feel and sound like there must be broken metal being ground up inside.

    Steve from Phoenix Hybrid Batteries has seen dozens of leaky Gen 2 batteries. In MN I have seen just one. It's a heat thing. All of the leaky Gen 2 modules cracked inside the small cavity next to the mounting bolt insert. The fault is too small to see. It takes bubble soap and an overcharge to spot. A voltmeter can work also. Gen 2 modules do not leak at the terminal's like the Gen 1 batteries did.

    leak.jpg

    Brad
     
    #187 strawbrad, Sep 24, 2017
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2017
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  8. tstab

    tstab Junior Member

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    Thanks Brad,

    Yea I cleaned all the brass connections in the batteries and my multimeter said all the modules were running at 7.97.

    52797097198__9459F455-C265-4C65-ADF5-B3717520ABAC.JPG

    I threw her back in cleared the codes and it took longer but they returned... at first the 613 didn't land but then on a second attempt it showed up . Like i said car seems to be driving fine.... autozone said the battery was good but i think im going to replace the 12v for good measure... it seems to lose juice pretty quick when im troubleshooting this stuff. I've had them charge it twice in the last two days.... thats my next step... could a 12v being messed up cause the computer to throw such a specific transaxle code? i've been searching around for a while...

    Thanks everyone
     
  9. SuzyGS

    SuzyGS Member

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    Welcome to the forum, tstab! I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. With an hour commute, a nice used Prius should have been the answer for you. I've been amazed at all the support I've received on this forum, and I figured all along that this particular thread would help other people in the future.

    My latest update: Friday afternoon, my daughter's car got the triangle of death and other warning lights again. She disconnected the white plastic connector but nothing happened. Saturday morning we went and disconnected and reconnected the battery cables as instructed on this thread and as promised, the car started up just fine (on the second try). The first try didn't work, but I noticed the death triangle was missing, at least! I guess I was hoping we'd never see that code again but no such luck.
     
  10. SuzyGS

    SuzyGS Member

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    Hey, quick question: I see the asterisks on your document, but they aren't a different color and I can't click on them. Was I supposed to be able to click on the asterisks? And where did you find that document?! It's pretty interesting. If you just type the main part of the URL, share.qclt.com - /, there are all kinds of repair manuals for different cars. But I didn't see a Prius repair manual. Then again, some of the original URL shows up in Japanese in my address bar!
     
  11. SuzyGS

    SuzyGS Member

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    [QUOTE= I'm not trying to hijack Suzy's post
    Hey, since this is all related, I think it makes good sense to be on this post. If any links are shared, can we just leave them in this thread?
     
  12. strawbrad

    strawbrad http://minnesotahybridbatteries.com

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    After disconnecting the 12 volt battery it always takes two tries to start the car.

    Did you read the code before disconnecting the 12 volt battery? The snowflake icons will link to the freeze frame data and the sub codes.
    Try again next time the triangle comes back.

    Just a quick Google search.
     
  13. SuzyGS

    SuzyGS Member

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  14. Max Finch

    Max Finch Active Member

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    Yes you'd need to bring your husbands laptop, load the virtual windows 32, plug it into the car, and read the codes. Is Toyota Techstream on the virtual machine?
     
  15. tstab

    tstab Junior Member

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    I just had to do this so i made a post in another thread here it is
     
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  16. Max Finch

    Max Finch Active Member

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    Great write up
     
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  17. SuzyGS

    SuzyGS Member

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    My daughter's car final!y died again and my son came over and ran the mini VCI on it. But it didn't give us a sub code! Three codes appeared. They were P0AA6 again (Hybrid battery voltage system isolation fault); C1378 (capacitor communication malfunction), a new code; and B1421 again (solar sensor circuit passenger side). My son said it didn't give him any sub codes.

    Does anyone out there who has used the mini VCI know how to find the sub codes? Is there something special you have to do or click on?

    Thanks in advance.
     
  18. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    To the left of the DTC there is a light blue icon that is suppose to look like a snowflake to represent freeze frame data. Not all DTCs have freeze frame data, but P0AA6 does. Click on the snowflake and it will open the freeze frame data. Look for the lines "Data Code x" where x = 1-5. These fields contain the sub-code(s).

    Here are two images:
    TS FF Snowflake.png TS FF Data.png


    Hope that helps.
     
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  19. SuzyGS

    SuzyGS Member

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  20. SuzyGS

    SuzyGS Member

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    I finally got the code. The sub code is 526. I took a picture of it and also a picture of the whole page that had all the information from the snowflake. Now maybe this can really be diagnosed! It took so long to get to this point, I hope that the people who have been helping me can still see these messages.
     
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