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My 2013 Uber vehicle died after making a loud noise.

Discussion in 'Prius v Main Forum' started by gromittoo, Oct 8, 2021.

  1. gromittoo

    gromittoo Active Member

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    I was driving for Lyft today with all the windows open at about 4PM. I was a block and a half from dropping of my passenger, and I heard what sounded exactly like a firecracker bang go off under the car. From the reverberations off of the parked cars net to me, I am guessing the sound was directly under the battery. The smell reminded me of a firecracker as well.

    I was baffled, but nothing seemed wrong, so I kept going. As I was turning left onto the passenger's street, I had no power steering. I was lucky that his street went downhill, and there was a parking space two car-lengths long in front of his house. Then I noticed all the dash lights. The Hybrid battery bar graph was at zero. Once I put it into park, it would not go back into gear (only neutral).

    DashLights20211007_171031.jpg

    I tinkered with an ODBII adapter I had with me and Torque Pro, but only got two errors: B1000, and some error involving the downstream O2 sensor being low. I tried disconnecting the battery for 5 minutes, no change.

    I recall that an overheated inverter might recover briefly if allowed to cool down. I waited, then restarted the car. The ICE came on, then shut off after 20 seconds. A strange whirring noise would come from the vicinity of the AC and ICE water pump while the engine ran. At one point, I saw two bars on the Hybrid battery indicator, but only once.

    I checked, and all fluids were at their proper level. No part of the engine compartment was unusually warm either.

    Then I called AAA. It took 3.5 hours for the tow truck to arrive. As I said above, I had previously been able to get the car into neutral. Not after 3 hours listening to the radio, and charging my phone.

    10 minutes of futile effort of trying to get the car out of the parking space while in park, and it just wasn't working. The street was crowned, and I was too close to the car in front of me. I then turned the car back on, and I luckily, I could get the car in neutral. This made the tow truck driver happy, since he and a neighbor was able to push the car backwards far enough to clear the car in front, while I steered.

    By 9:15PM, the car is now sitting at the dealer I trust 15 miles away from home.

    No I haven't pulled codes using techstream, since my laptop was at home, and my VCI cable is awol.

    Oh and how do I get the PriusChat app on my android phone. Apparently you can't do much on PC with a phone's web browser.
     
  2. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    Priuschat app, I don't have major problems with it on my android phone.


    Sorry to hear about your car. Sounds pretty serious.

    Did you check your oil level? Someone once heard a loud bang when the engine threw a rod out the side of the lower block.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
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  3. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    I just checked the Play Store and I don't think PC app is available on Android. I use TapaTalk. Pretty feature rich.

    REVVL V+ 5G ?
     
  4. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    Hmm, I've got priuschat installed on my Samsung S20 FE. Screenshot_20211007-191206_Settings.jpeg

    But! I also can't find the app in the Play Store.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #4 xliderider, Oct 8, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2021
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  5. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    OP, do you often drive with all the windows down? What was the outside temperature?

    Here in Hawaii, it's better for the high voltage battery to drive with the windows up and AC on to keep the battery cool.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
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  6. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    Sorry to hear about your issue.

    DTC B1000 means that the ECU has been damaged or shorted,

    It is often related to the SRS ECU. That might be the cause of the big bang that you heard.

    If the SRS ECU has been triggered, the car would go into limp mode or not function at all.
     
    #6 Georgina Rudkus, Oct 8, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2021
  7. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    Just learned how to take a screenshot: Screenshot_20211008-040136.jpg

    I guess it's Android 10 compatible but not 11. (My CC # kept getting stolen and attempted use so I wanted to change to latest Android with security update. 10 on Moto G7 Power stopped updating last Feb).

    OP-. I'm also sorry to read about this. I've had a 12V flooded explode on me and someone in the same room had accidentally hooked up a chip wrong in EE lab. Both go pop like a firecracker. With the IC chip I smelled burning a split second before a pop. 12V had a gaping hole and IC needed replacing...

    REVVL V+ 5G ?
     
    #7 jzchen, Oct 8, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2021
  8. gromittoo

    gromittoo Active Member

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    Can you decode what you mean by ECU and SRS ECU?

    The dealer called, and the diagnosis will cost $280, since it is surely a Hybrid system problem. Surprisingly, they think they will get it looked at today. Also, the car has 102k on it and is on the hairy edge of 96 months. My first thought was hybrid battery or connections to the battery, given the location of the noise. The service advisor told me that the battery warranty is 100k 96 months.

    Ouch.
     
  9. gromittoo

    gromittoo Active Member

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    From the searches on my phone, I found that PriusChat is no longer on Google Play. The .apk file can be downloaded elsewhere, and manually loaded. That requires turning off a security setting to allow opening of .apk files that did not come from the Google Play store. I found some links to download it, but I kept getting broken links.
     
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  10. gromittoo

    gromittoo Active Member

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    OK I googled SRS ECU. SRS == airbag.

    I have been swapping steering wheel switches between my two cars lately, because I don't have the "Voice Command" button on the left side switch of my Prius v two. I always removed the negative terminal of the 12 volt battery when doing this, since you have to remove the steering wheel airbag to get the switch out. I did this last week to put the "Voice Command" switch back into the 2017 for a trip out of town last weekend.

    OK I googled Toyota B1000. There are a lot of hits with B1000/31, which have to do with the SRS system. Torque Pro did not give me any subcode, so I assume from this chart that I have "ECU failure, No Further Information Available".

    upload_2021-10-8_9-34-55.png
     
    #10 gromittoo, Oct 8, 2021
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2021
  11. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    [QUOTE="gromittoo, post: 3193588, member: 152675"I am guessing the sound was directly under the battery. The smell reminded me of a firecracker as well.[/QUOTE]

    If the bang was from behind you, it may have been a battery module blowing its top. More commonly happens to people who have a P0A80 and are pushing to see how far they can keep driving on it. Bang plus bad smell can be the way the question gets answered.
     
  12. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    Sounds like my kind of luck. If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any.

    ECU means electronic control unit or computer. SRS means supplemental restraint system like airbags.

    A small bang might have been an airbag actuation without it being deployed. Even if it happened at the front, it may have been heard as coming from the back.
     
  13. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    You might gave your dealer call Toyota Corporate. Since it is only a few thousand miles beyond the warranty period, they might cover it as a "good will" exception.
     
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  14. gromittoo

    gromittoo Active Member

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    The noise was clearly coming from under the car, based on the echos I heard off the parked cars on the street. The smell was sort of like gunpowder, but came in through the windows, so was outside the car. I recently had the same dealership flash the update to the Inverter as part of a recall. IIRC, that recall was supposed to prevent something like this, or at least improve the limp mode.

    There was nothing unusual about the ride that would trigger an airbag, although the gunpowder smell suggests airbag. I was going about 25mph on one of the few streets that does not have potholes when the noise occurred.

    I have not had any MIL or other warnings of pending problems whatsoever.

    I texted my nephew, who works at a Hybrid shop in Colorado, and he and his co-workers were stumped. The thought of a High Voltage cable breaking or shorting was considered as a possibility. That would explain the Hybrid Battery indicator being zero most of the time.

    The ICE did start a few times, but cut out after 20 seconds. This suggests that the Hybrid battery was connected at least intermittently after the bang.

    There is hope of a diagnosis by the dealer by the end of the day (6PM EDT).

    It is fall in Philadelphia. The outside temperature was a nice 73 degrees. It was a rare day that justified all the windows down.
     

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  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I'm pretty sure if any airbag had deployed, you would be looking at a giant bag in the cabin, and not wondering what went bang.

    Another part of the SRS is the front seat belt retractors. Those are also small firecrackers, and they are low down in the car. Not as visibly obvious as an airbag going off. You might see some distortion or discoloration if you popped off the lower B pillar trim and looked.

    From really under the car, I would also kind of wonder about damage to the frame wire, though I'm pretty sure it would be the first such incident I've heard of if that turns out to be it.
     
  16. Air_Boss

    Air_Boss Senior Member

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    Can we rule out IEDs?
     
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  17. gromittoo

    gromittoo Active Member

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    Something that puzzles me is the "O2 sensor signal low" error I believe it was the downstream sensor. Could damage to the "frame wire" be related?
     
  18. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    If the ECU is not controlling the car's functions correctly, the fuel ratio would not be correct and can easily trigger a fault code for the O2 sensor.
     
  19. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Too bad the car is 15 miles away ... if the bang was frame-wire related, there is probably a nice bang-colored spot on the bottom of the car that wouldn't be too hard to see.
     
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  20. gromittoo

    gromittoo Active Member

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    Maybe in some neighborhoods in Philly it could have been an IED, but not this one.

    I was stranded in my car on a small clean residential street in the Germantown neighborhood. Mostly black working class people. I got numerous offers of help including bottled water and use of their bathrooms. I did use a bathroom of a black couple who were fixing up an apartment for rent. Generally good folks, who appreciate that a rideshare driver is completely comfortable of driving anyone including black people (about 60% of my passengers are black).

    There are neighborhoods where an IED might have made sense. On the other side of town, is Kensington. That is ground zero of the Opiod epidemic. Trash everywhere. Homeless zombies everywhere. Kensington is a neighborhood where you have worry about getting attacked by anyone, especially the white people. Drug addiction will do that. My windows would have stayed rolled up, and I would worry if the tow truck driver would show up. I would not have waited 3 hours for AAA to show up, I would just start calling calling tow truck companies to find one that could come quickly.
     
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