Thanks for the advice from South Africa

Greetings from the Southern tip of the dark continent. Prius have been sold in very small numbers ( read 20 or less a year ) in South Africa circa 1995 and we started with the Gen 2 variant. There are no incentives for buying Hybrid here and ridiculous import taxes make this vehicle terribly overpriced. I used to run a Toyota dealership many years ago and when a 2005 Prius with 40000km was traded in 2010, I bought it for my wife. Our car now has 230 000km on the clock, and besides having to replace the Hybrid battery in 2015 at 170 000km at a cost of $3500 ( Toyota supply only there are no aftermarket options here ) the car has run flawlessly. Routine maintenance items have been the only other issue.

Last week the infamous triangle of death appeared on my dashboard and my heart sank thinking that it was time
for another Hybrid battery replacement. After doing my homework on this forum and reading of other similar problems being related to a low charge in the 12v battery, I charged this overnight and voila, everything sorted. I have been driving the vehicle for 3 days now without a repeat so am hoping that this was the problem. If it flares up again I will replace the 12v battery as it is roughly 3 years old.

 

So I didnt have any diagnostics done as the 12v needed replacing. I have since downloaded these and the following were stored :

P3000 Battery Control System
P0A82 Hybrid battery pack cooling fan 1 performance/stuck in off position
B1421 Passenger solar sensor circuit

None of these are showing current and the vehicle has done approx 500km ( 300 miles ) since replacing the 12v with no drama.

I will do some homework on the codes, the Hybrid battery cooling fan is a concern.

Any thoughts would be welcome.

 

Having done some research I will be cleaning the cooling fan as I believe this has never been done previously and could be interesting as there are regular fishing trips on gravel roads as well as hounds in the vehicle.

Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

Performed the clean up of the fan this morning and to be honest I was disappointed how clean the fan was . Clearly cleaning the fan forms some part of the Toyota service schedule because it was very clean and must have been cleaned at some stage. Whilst I had the fan out I tested it and it is perfect, so I checked the relay, and that was working too. As mentioned previously, she does not show any fault codes after replacing the 12v after 300 odd miles so I will continue forward bravely and hopefully this is the end of the problems.

Many thanks for the advice given

 

So the latest development is I got the engine warning light on my dash with no red triangle. Did the diagnostic tester and came up with a new error code P0A93 - Inverter cooling system. I have done some homework and the problem appears to be the Inverter electric water pump that is not functioning. I will now replace this.

 

Thanks SFO - with the very low sales of Prius in South Africa, there is literally no aftermaket spares available for Prius on the shelves. Goods bought online come with a hefty import tax. This results in OEM product being marginally more expensive and this then becomes a no-brainer. Having said all of this, parts are certainly not cheap. The pump cost me R2780 or $188 at todays exchange rate. I am picking up my part today and will give feedback once fitted. I'm hoping that this is the problem sorted.

 

Pump has been replaced which proved a remarkably simple process to do. The old pump shows clear signs of heat so I am hopeful that this issue is now sorted.