2006 Prius Red Triangle and unknown codes ? due to Generic Battery ?

Hello fellow prius owners,

I am Santi and this is my car "Six" a 2006, 209,000~ Miles, regular oil changes, and limited usage recently. with some front damage from accident that broke radiator/AC stuff. Now I am getting a Red triangle of death.

My current plan is ....
ask the Prius community what to do,
wait for an error code while at the dealership and get a $$$ diagnostic,
order the USB cable and do my own ODB diagnostic,
forget this 2006 car and buy a new one. ( also interested an any post about buying used prius)


Here is a quick timeline

• Car was giving some low power issues in the wintertime ( 8 months ago ), I checked the battery and it was right at the recommendation 12.1 or something.
• Car sat for a week or so in the recent Summer time South East NC,USA ( I know now not to do this again after reading post here, but I've let it sit for weeks before and no problem ? ), and would not power on.
• REPLACED 12v battery with AutoZone option ( couldn't walk to dealership )
• Car works fine for a few drives, then the problems start ...
• Car begins to give error codes I cannot read with my reader ( I know now I have a Questionable Bluetooth reader, odd since it worked previously ( when I had codes like P0A93 & P0A93 P, which was about three years ago )
• Car still drives good with good power on 12v, but the check engine code makes it so it won't go into drive unless I clear the code. ( my ODB is still able to do this )
• I drive it for about 700 miles and no check engine or issues, but I notice the MPG is slightly lower (41 dropped to about 36mpg)
• So I decide to do other maintains things to keep "six" on the road. I change the spark plugs since the engine IDLE sounds a bit rough, cleaned the carb, replaced the pcv Valve, and changed air filters. This didn't improve the mileage.
• Now the Red Triangle of death and sometimes a check engine light comes on.

I feel the 12v battery originally dying was normal and didn't think about potential issues with the car that could have caused this? Is there something I should investigate or should I blame all these recent issues on the 3rd party battery and install an OEM battery. In other words is the battery not being mfgr specs causing all these other issues, or was it something before the battery replacement i didn't notice.


A few of the things I can note or assume are my fault

I should have bought a OEM 12v battery and this generic brand is the cause of all the Death triangle?maybe.

There was a ton of water in the 12v battery area when I replaced it, I've checked recently it is still dry now. Was something else a problem in this area?

I might have been over generous with my Oil top off, and maybe over the 3.9 qt.

And there was no way my torque wench could reach the pcv value to get it to 5lbs so that is an estimate.


Are my concerns worth investigating?

 

For the spark plugs I bought Toyota OEM from dealership, and followed a post from here and a youtube video. spark plug replacement | PriusChat

for the carb cleaner I just used a rag, brush, mini vacuum when I was able to reach it