Triangle of Death

Hi All,

I have an '06, well maintained Prius by a Toyotal dealership since purchase. I had front end damage in August due to a road tire hitting my under-carriage. Gerber Auto "fixed" the damage and upon picking up the car I the car threw P0A93. Gerber then filled the inverter coolant and I was on my way.

Fast forward to a couple days ago. I'm driving and all is well. I pull in a gas station to fill my tires with air due to the low tire pressure light lit. I pulled in the parking spot and put the car in reverse to "right" my parking when the car made a high pitched alarm noise and the dash lit up with the Brake Light, Red Triangle, VSC, ABS, exclamation mark with a circle around it and parentheses around the circle, the tire warning light (which was already lit before the other lights lit up) and on the MFD display a car with an exclamation mark lit up.

I dropped my car at the dealership and they say they find nothing wrong with it and that they found 2 codes thrown -C1241 and P0A08. They said the auxiliary battery showed a drop in the voltage to just over 10 and could be what cause the issue. Today the battery tests fine. Note - I had my heat and headlights on but in no time that this occurred was my car just sitting for any time. I drove around 25 minutes before the event and was not stationary at the gas station when the event occurred.

I asked them to check whatever would throw P0A93 code (which I understand to be the inverter fluid) just in case Gerber's work wasn't completed correctly and continued to be a problem.

They checked everything out and find nothing wrong (which I find to be an unreasonable answer in light of the dash lighting up like this). Any ideas?

PS my hybrid battery was replaced a few years ago by the same Toyota dealer.

 

Gerber said there was a "bubble" that threw the P0A93 code in August. They fixed this in August and corrected the fluid level. There have been no issues since until the other day and the car threw those two new codes I referenced in my OP. Toyota checked the inverter fluid and engine coolant and both are at required levels.

 

Would a failed Inverter cause the car to light up 2 months after the P0A93 code was thrown and now cause only codes C1241 and P0A08 to be thrown (which are the only codes currently)?

 

I guess I wasn't clear - apologies. Also, I see I posted in the wrong forum. I have an '06 not a V. I'm hoping you have some input as it's clear something is wrong to have the dash light up as it did.

To clarify:

The P0A93 code was thrown in August '20, due to Gerber Auto Collision messing up the car. I brought the car back to them after the dash blew up with lights. The P0A93 code was discovered and they then corrected the inverter fluid level. The car has had no issues since.

Except:

A few days ago when my car made a high pitched alarm noise and the dash lit up with the same light as when the August issue occurred: Brake Light, Red Triangle, VSC, ABS, exclamation mark with a circle around it and parentheses around the circle, the tire warning light and MFD display lit up with a car with an exclamation mark in the car image. I now just brought the car to the dealer who finds nothing wrong to cause the dash to light up like this HOWEVER codes C1241 AND POA08 were now thrown. They only "issue" they found was a drop in the auxiliary battery voltage to just over 10 but they tested the current state of the battery and said it currently tests fine. Since the battery now tests fine, they said this shouldn't be the culprit for the dash lights to blow up as they did. The auxiliary battery is almost 3 years old.

My concern is that they can find nothing wrong when it's clear something is wrong to have the dash light up like that. Have you any idea what would cause the dash to light up as it did?

 

Hi there, RJ. This was super helpful. Thanks so much. I followed his exact instructions and the voltage was 12.0 or better until I performed step 3, whereby I put my foot on the brake and fully powered the car. Then the voltage went to 13.9. The heat was on and the lights were on. Does it sound like the auxiliary batter is the culprit or does the voltage sound about right in this state?

Concerning the inverter flow, I have to rely on the dealer as I'd have no idea how to even check this. I did mention the prior inverter code to them as well as ask them to look for any electrical shorts and check the fluid and they said all is ok there.

 

Got it. Thanks a bunch. I’ll check it tomorrow and let you know. Thank you!

 

I just figured I’d post a final status here. The issue occurred, again, so they replaced the 12v battery as it was still under warranty. This seems to have rectified the issue as the car hasn’t had issues since.

 

OK, guys..... Yesterday, the car lit up with the same lights: the ABS, VSC, Exclamation mark in a circle with parentheses, and brake light all lit up again. We took it to Toyota who said that, again, the diagnostics are showing a low voltage to the 12 volt battery (it's ready 10 volts). They said that deductive reasoning leads them to believe the DC-DC converter in the inverter is bad. They quoted around $3,600 to repair this, if that's what in fact the issue is.

2 questions:

What are the probabilities that the auto repair shop caused the dc-dc converter damage by not filling the inverter to the appropriate level after their repair of my car? The date of this service was in July of '20..

What are your thoughts about the quoted price for the inverter repair shown above?

Thanks.