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2006 prius - 3 lights went on tonight!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Casper, May 16, 2012.

  1. Casper

    Casper New Member

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    Location:
    los angeles
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
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    N/A
    my much adored 2006 prius just got three warning lights as i was driving and slowing down at a light. The big red triangle- "Master Warning", the Break System Warning, and also, the Hybrid System Warning. It was like warning lights galore... i'll bring it into the dealership first thing tomorrow, but any clue what's going on? I regularly maintain it- i'm at the dealer every 6 months, so i'm up to date on all recalls. please tell me this won't be expensive! i'm in california so i have a 10 year warrantee on the battery, but i'm not covered for anything else. the only other thing that ever went wrong with my car is that the touchscreen quit working years ago, and i refused to spend the 3k for them to connect a silly wire. any insight as to why my lights went on and is this something serious?
     
  2. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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  3. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Let us know what codes the dealership finds.
     
  4. Casper

    Casper New Member

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    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
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    N/A
    It's not the water pump, that was fixed. All my recalls are up to date. Prius has been at the dealership since 9:45 this morning and no news yet. They're still trying to figure out whats wrong. This morning the car wouldn't go into drive or reverse so the lovely AAA tow truck driver came by to try and jump start it, but nothing came from the gas pedal. So we towed it over to the dealership. I just spoke with them and the car is moving now but they still don't know what's wrong with it. This morning the rep said maybe it's the smaller battery. I'll let you know when they call me...
     
  5. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    FYI, this is NOT normally caused by a 12V battery problem. Once the car is in Ready, the 12V has done its part and simply is a parasitic energy draw after that. Now, if the 12V ran down between the initial Christmas tree of lights and being seen at the dealership, it is possible that the codes were erased, meaning that you could replace the 12V yet have this same problem within days or weeks of getting the car back.
     
  6. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Agreed, but it's not impossible. While not common, the 12V battery can fail with an internal short, which drags down the 12V bus regardless of the best efforts of the DC to DC converter.

    Tom
     
  7. Casper

    Casper New Member

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    Location:
    los angeles
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
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    It's not the battery... but it could be the transmission. They can't figure it out right now. So they're going to keep the car overnight and let me know tomorrow what's happening. They said it's running but they don't want to give it back to me just yet, they want to figure out what's going on. I should mention for a 2006 I don't have that many miles on it. I'm not even at 40K yet.
     
  8. nusskiller

    nusskiller Junior Member

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    Location:
    Sacramento, CA
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
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    Hi. I have the same problem. What was it with your 2006 Prius?