Hoping someone might be able to help me with this. About a month ago my '06 felt like it lost all power... moments later the dashboard lit up and the car would not accelerate or start. I ended up replacing the 12V battery and the car ran fine afterwards. Didn't have my actual code reader but all we could read was P3190 at the time. After nearly a month of driving with no issues the same thing happened, this time I was able to get codes P0A0F and P3190. Took it to my mechanic who thought it was the fuel pump but when he tested it everything was fine (good pressure and volume). He says he added some ether to the car and it started up just fine, no issues since (he's had the car for 2 days now). Car has been driving fine and completely normal. His next leading theory is the throttle body is on its way out, but even he said he wasn't 100% on that diagnosis. And replacing it will end up being a $750 job for something we're not certain about. Anyone else have any other idea what it could be? Planning on taking the car back and driving it around until it happens again, but it is scary feeling like I'm driving a ticking time bomb... TIA!
how many miles on her? you may need a better mechanic. those codes are simply pointing to an engine problem, like any gas engine. a good mech will go through a checklist, starting with the low hanging fruit and working their way up. here's some help, and there's more on the net if you're interested:toyota-prius-p0a0f-and-p3190-no-throttle-response-solved watch
I would clean the throttle body bore and blade (also clean the MAF sensor), then drive the car while monitoring short and long term fuel trim. Ideally, fuel trims should stay close to 0%. If there's a large deviation (say greater than +/-15%), then the ECM is trying to correct for some fault. There are different trims for different driving conditions: idle, cruise, accel, etc. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Thank you! About 173k. Yeah, fuel pump issues did not make sense to me (since the fuel pump was tested during a period where the car did not start and came back fine). Car ended up dying again randomly with the same issues. Only difference I noticed is that the engine ran really rough for a few moments prior. Still unsure what it is. Did this over the weekend! Cleaned the throttle body and MAF sensor. Hoping that it helps out. It's so hard to figure it out since this is happening so intermittently. Car died again randomly last week and the next morning I cleared the codes and it started up/ran fine since. I did clean the MAF after that, throttle body was cleaned prior to it dying again. Seems like there's no apparent cause each time. Will have to investigate and see how it looks going forward.
Small update, it's gotten worse since my last post. Had the car die on me right infront of my house on Sunday (not ideal but not the worst situation). Let it sit overnight and the car started up just fine the next morning. And now today the same thing happened, this time while I was on the freeway. Had it towed to a buddies' house who wanted to look it over and the thing started up just fine (about an hour or two after it died). Leading theory is that it could be the fuel pump overheating (both of these recent failures had about half a tank in the car) but still unsure. Seems like it'll be a game of trying to catch the failure with the right tools in hand to diagnose it.
When the car dies on you, do you get any warning lights on the dashboard? If you do, then you need to use a Prius capable scanner to read the trouble codes while the warning lights are on. I recommend the Autel AP200 scanner. It is about $60 on Amazon. Read post #1 and then scroll down to post #37 in this thread, https://priuschat.com/index.php?posts/3246758
Thanks for responding! I get the master warning light, check engine light, VSC light, and the brake warning light (exclamation point inside a circle). I'll have to look into that scanner, I've mostly been using an OBD2 device and Dr. Prius/Car Scanner app. Since it's fine an hour or two later it appears it's been hard to get it diagnosed in the "dead" state. Fingers crossed my mechanic experiences it dying on him so they can also take a look at it. Hopefully it'll give some more insight to what is going on. As of now I'm still stumped.
So far fuel pump has been ruled out, does this seem like it could be the hybrid battery? Debating on getting it tested to see but I’m also not sure if it’s even a possibility.
I sprayed the entire thing down with MAF cleaner but let me take a look at that again, was not paying attention to that specifically. Hopefully there's something stuck in there I didn't notice the first time. Is there a logical explanation to why the car only dies for an hour or two at a time and then starts back up again? Not sure if debris is shifting around in the sensor or something at that point. I'm hesitant to do anything with the hybrid battery yet. When I first got the car it tested really well with Dr Prius and I know it's been replaced somewhat recently (didn't get any records of it but I know it is not OEM). Otherwise any other potential engine issues causing the sporadic dying is out of my wheelhouse and I'm trying not to keep throwing money at the car if it's a dead end. Thanks for responding!
I wouldn't even touch the hybrid vehicle (HV) battery unless there were specific battery codes that led me in that direction. Of course, to obtain those codes, you need a proper (i.e. with a full function set) code scanner.
Thank you for your response! I'll work on getting the code scanner that was recommended earlier in the thread and hang onto it. Ofcourse the car is running perfectly fine right now, but it's so nerve wracking even attempting to drive it anywhere knowing it might sporadically die on me (I live in SoCal, not taking a freeway is near impossible). If it dies again atleast I'll have a stronger arsenal to tackle it. Fingers crossed when I get back to where it's residing now the MAF sensor will be dirty and I can maybe hope that it's been the issue all along. So far everything I've investigated has been such a dead end and I'm looking for something definitive to explain why the car is dying/reviving itself.
