'07 Prius - Battery Draining and Other Failures

First of all, I'd like to thank the regular users of this forum. You have been an invaluable resource for me since my wife and I bought her Prius last year. So thank you! Now if I may draw on your knowledge some more...

My wife's car is a 2007 Prius with approximately 152,000 miles. We bought it in the LA Metro Area, and according to Carfax, it had not previously been in any collisions.

On her way to class, my wife called me and told me that the red triangle on the dash had lit up. I advised her to just park it and go to class, and I'd take it to Auto Zone when I got off work and pull the codes and see what's wrong. Well guess what? When she got out of class, it wouldn't start. The ignition would go on, but it would not engage the gas engine. The transmission would stay in park or go in neutral, but would not shift into drive or reverse. I tried several things, and the only piece of information I could get the car to give me was this:

Applying and releasing the parking brake did pretty much nothing, so I left the damn thing where it was and came to this forum to see if I could find any similar situation. Log story short, I wound up replacing the 12V battery with the yellow-top Optima, and everything seemed fine.

Not so much, though. Two days ago, she calls me and tells me that the red triangle is back. I leave work so I can deal with this. I test the battery and find it at like 13.4V while the ignition was on. So of course I take the battery out and return it to the Batteries Plus Bulbs I bought it from and ask them to charge and test it. A couple of hours later, I get it back and put it back in the vehicle. The next day she drives it to school, and the red triangle is back. This is what I get on the dash:


I have her leave the car where it is and I came and switched out my truck for her car, and drove it to work where I could leave it in ready all day where it wouldn't be disturbed.

Mayve I'mm a bit old school, but I'm thinking "brand new battery easily drained? ALTERNATOR!"
I take it to Auto Zone and pull the codes, and get c1310 (Malfunction in HV System) and c1378 (Capacitor Communication Circuit Malfunction). I did a little searching, and mostly found stuff here, of course. I put it into Vehicle Signal Check, and this is what I got:


You'd think that would be ok, right? From everything I've read and seen, the best I can figure is that the brake power supply is malfunctioning and draining the 12V battery it's wired directly to. Then again, maybe that's just wishful thinking because I could do that by myself in about 5 minutes for just over $100.

Would anybody care to shed some light on my situation and save me some time and the hassle of going to my Toyota dealership?

Thanks,

Jeremy

 

Right, that's what I was thinking might be draining the 12V somehow. I left the ignition on all night, since I know it won't start again if I turn it off. Since its in maintenance mode, I drive to work with no radio and no heat, lol. Guess I'll have to bring it on in to the dealership and see what's up this morning. Thank you!

 

So, update. I brought the car in to the local dealership yesterday afternoon. I had left the car in ready the entire night before, since I knew I wouldn't be able to start it again had I shut it off. I took it there, went through the whole back story with the guy at the desk, and they took it. The guy called me right before closing time and told me that they had it up on the lift, and would finish checking it out in the morning. Said he'd be off tomorrow and another lady would be filling in for him.

I hadn't heard anything all morning, so at 11:30 am I gave her a call and was told "Oh yeah, I was about to call you, your car is done." Said she had to get some more information, and would call me right back. After waiting over half an hour, I called her back, and once again, she was ""just about to call" me. This time she says that there are "transaxle errors, power errors" and something else I don't remember since I was too busy being flabbergasted after I'd spent the last half hour thinking I was going to pick up my wife's car and everything was fine. She said "They want to authorize four hours of labor to run diagnostics." That would've been $500! When I balked, she said she'd have the service manager call me.

He called me back (about 3 hours later), and told me that after the car spent the entire night shut off, it started right up! And that it had been started up and shut off several times throughout the day. I told him that I had pulled codes c1310 and c1378, and he had not been told that, that he had only had the Red Triangle of Death pop up, and got one code; a general code meant an HV failure. Said he'd have to run diagnostics on several different areas, which could take up to four hours, hence the $500. I told him I'd just come get the car, since I'd previously been told it was done (she later told me "oh, I meant it was just 'done' in my system"), and now they're asking for $500 and can't even tell me what's wrong. He said that he could have it ready within half an hour.

So I go to pick it up, and there are NO warning lights on. The lady said "Since it was a foreman that did all this, we're not charging you for diagnostics." Which works for me, since I wouldn't have paid a dime, anyway. I drive away, and within 5 minutes, the RTOD pops up (along with the VSC and ((!)) lights), just like before. I take it to Auto Zone and (without shutting it off, of course) ask them to pull the codes. They get NOTHING. No codes come up at all. I bring the car home, park the car in the garage, and shut it off. And it won't come back on. Which is wonderful, of course.

Thanks for the suggestion, Bob. I went ahead and got my fuse tester and tested every single fuse. They were all good.

So here's my plan. I'm going to get up a little early in the morning, take the battery out, take it with me to get it charged, then go pick it up in time to bring it back to give my wife my truck to take to school, and find somewhere else to get this car serviced and right again.

Any suggestions to do otherwise, or does anyone know of a good place that knows Prii in Ren/Sparks?

I'm at my wits end.