Trying to keep my 2008 Prius on the road...

Hello,

I'm Diane and my car is Max. I've been stalking this site for a while but I only joined up a day or so ago because I am fighting, with a pretty low budget, to keep Max on the road Max is a red, 2008 prius with just over 224k miles under his belt. I think I bought him used around 2-3 years ago...maybe 3-4 years ago and he already had A LOT of miles on him at the time. He's currently experiencing some hybrid system issues. I have Torque Pro but my reader is failing (according to Torque Pro) so I have a new one arriving on Thursday.

I'm ignorant of the posting protocol here :/ Can I follow up to this thread and post the issues that I am having or should I post in the Gen 2 troubleshooting forum?

Kind Regards,
Diane

 

History of Issue:


On 11/17/17, while on the freeway, my dash lit up light a Christmas tree, very low power, and it seemed to stall so I pulled over, turned it off, restarted, and according to mobile tech #1 I limped it home in "safe mode". Basically, I could drive a little way and then the gear lights would flash, I'd lose power, and the car would "stall" for lack of better terms. I got it home and had mobile mechanic #1 come out on 11/21. He pulled some codes (which I don't have) and "rebooted" the prius and I was back on the road until 11/26 when the dash lit up again BUT, this time, the car was still running seemingly OK but the hybrid intake fan was on ALL the time. I had mobile mechanic #2 come out on 11/29 and he pulled codes (which I don't have and I know that's not helpful) and he said that most were pointing to a bad hybrid battery - something about inconsistent voltage and he did reference code P0A80 as being one of the codes thrown out. On 12/1, I had a battery rebuilder come out (because after looking on the forum for how to do it myself I decided against that) and together, we swapped out my failing battery with his rebuilt one (and cleaned out the hybrid intake fan while we were up in there) and I was back on the road with no dash lights til the evening of 12/3...when the dash lit up again BUT the car was/is running OK. On Monday, I had mobile mechanic #2 come out again to pull codes (and again, I don't have them - shame on me) and he said the codes referenced a communication loss. He didn't actively clear out any of the codes but said my car's computer system cleared out those codes after he looked at them so, the dash was fine and the car was running OK. The rebuilt battery guy also got back to me and confirmed that several of the cells on my old battery were misbehaving but now I have the rebuilt battery in the car. Last night, I got Torque Pro (based on things I read on this forum) and tried to get it working with an old BT reader that a friend gave me (because I am spending WAY too much on having people come out just to read codes) but the app said the reader was throwing errors so I ordered a new reader, from Amazon (with high ratings) which should be delivered on Thurs. This morning, I went to take the car to work and the hybrid battery intake fan is back on ALL the time. I chose to leave it at home this morning since I don’t want to risk overheating the rebuilt battery that we just installed :/

History of Semi-Major Repairs:

8/5/2017 - water pump replaced
6/18/2015 - serpentine/drive belt replacement, front brake pads and rotors
June/2015 - replaced 12v aux battery

Other notes:

I did use the onboard diagnostic screen to check the 12v and my friend (with the same car) said that he thought what I was seeing was good. It is only 2.5 years old after all…

I currently have a rebuilt HV battery in the car that comes with a 1-year warranty and I am in active communication with the rebuilder about my ongoing issues but I really don’t feel like it is the battery.

With the HV battery intake fan on again (all the time and I’m in the Bay Area, CA so...it’s pretty temperate all the time), I was reading about the inverter :/

With the “loss of communication” codes, I’m a little concerned that maybe it’s an ECU issue.

Current Plan of Action:

Wait for my newly ordered reader to arrive
Try to get it hooked up and working with my Torque Pro
Hopefully get some codes to post here and see what you folks think…

 

Yes, but I thought the inverter or something related to this is what is responsible for cooling the battery. I agree that I think the battery is overheating but I don't think the battery itself is the issue because it's a newly rebuilt battery. I think the issue may lie in whatever system is primary system for cooling the HV battery. The intake fan is just for additional cooling needs (as I understand it).

 

Could there possibly be something else wrong with the prius which is damaging the battery and making it overheat? I am aware of the failure risk with a rebuild, it's just that, mobile mechanic #1 actually claimed to have checked the hybrid battery and said it was just fine right before he "rebooted" the car. He claimed that the other codes that he got were related to the catalytic converter.(That was referring to the original battery in my car.) Since then, the rebuilder has confirmed that my previous battery did indeed need a facelift. Subsequently, mobile mechanic #2 said that his codes all pointed to a failing HV battery (which is why I swapped with the rebuilt) and he said something about the other codes were related to the inverter. It's all the "other codes" that are leading me to feel like something, *in addition* to the battery, is misbehaving.

I have reached out to my rebuilder to advise him of the overheating issue. He has been very thoughtful and accommodating. He is working on another rebuild to try in the car as well as having offered to make a special trip out to me tonight to pull codes from the car but, since I am borrowing a car for the time being, I'll just wait for the reader to arrive tomorrow night and hope I can get it working. If I knew, for a fact, that the *only* major thing wrong was the battery, then I would cough up for a brand new battery but I'm simply not yet convinced that the battery is the only thing misbehaving right now and I don't want to spend that much on a new battery only to discover there are other relatively serious things wrong as well. I was hoping that the rebuilt battery would buy me time to figure out if anything else is wrong or if it is, indeed, just the battery.

 

Yes...this is why I ordered the reader and downloaded the Torque Pro so I can attempt to get the codes for myself and see what they point towards.

My rebuilder is in the process of rebuilding another battery to try in the car.

Does the Torque Pro give subcodes? Honestly, I have only ever used the regular Torque (lite?). Pretty sure that one only returns basic codes. The reader is supposed to be delivered today.

Agreed. I'd just rather have time to find the right vehicle match for myself rather than being in the position of *having* to find a lesser milage car.

I am learning A LOT from this forum. I'm glad I finally joined and can troubleshoot with folks who know *way* more than me!

Thank you!

 

OK...as promised, here are the codes that I was able to get from Torque Pro after a bit of massaging to get the reader to play nice with Max and my tablet:

The "current fault" is P3012
The "pending faults" are PO303 and P0A80

I'm already familiar with the P0A80 :| That's the one everyone was getting and said to replace the HV battery... I haven't looked up the other ones yet but wanted to post the update as soon as possible.

I'm using Torque Pro with a Samsung Galaxy tablet. It doesn't *seem* to give "subcodes" but I could just be ignorant and not know what to look for :/

Hoping to collect piles of pennies as you contribute your 2 cents worth

Thanks again,
Diane

 

Agreed! I sent the codes to the battery rebuilder and he's hoping to have the "new" battery ready soon...

So...in the meantime, he said that I *could* drive the car even though the battery is overheating. I'm not sure that is such a good idea if I don't absolutely *have* to drive it (which I don't since I am able to borrow my mom's leaf) but, generally speaking, *is* it "ok" to drive with a battery that is overheating? I mean, I know it's obviously not ideal but I don't know what is "likely" to happen if I needed to drive the car. I mean, it runs fairly normally for the most part and just get's relatively bad MPG. It is operational though.