Check Hybrid System Message

Hello all,



Cliffs for those who don't want to read the entire story of my problem:

1. I dropped off my car to get the radiator suppport replaced.
2. It was in perfect mechanical condition prior to having it worked on.
3. After the repair, upon starting the car for the first time a yellow warning light, check engine light and "Check Hybrid System" message appeared and didn't go away after restarting my car 3 times.
4. There was no inverter coolant in the reservoir.
5. When driving it to another repair shop there didn't seem to be any lack of power (though i didn't go over 40mph), but when driving and pressing the gas my mpg seem to only be getting 1-2 bars. However, when coasting the bars would go up to 100mpg.
6. When looking at the energy monitor, there were no arrows indicating the transfer of energy.


I have a 2011 Toyota Prius Two that i purchased from a local used car dealer in Oct. 2015. I purchased the car knowing that there was a damaged lower tie bar on the radiator core support. Recently i had a mechanic friend look at it and he suggested that the bottom part of the support was bent enough to warrant replacing the part, but nothing else in that region showed any signs of damage. After getting several local estimates, i went with the shop the had the best reviews and they quoted me a price of $500 all in. The owner was very personable and also mentioned that he does a lot of work for the city's fleet of taxis which are mostly Prius'. With that bit of knowledge, combined with his reviews i felt that I was in the right hands.

Yesterday I called up to see how the car was coming along and he said that it was being worked on currently, but also threw in a comment along the lines of "And boy did i underbid that quote... the part that you're replacing was welded onto the frame and we had to drain and remove certain parts... it was a lot more work than i was expecting...but i quoted you that price so that's what we'll go on." On one hand i commend him for sticking to his quote, but I was a little taken aback because the 2 other collision shops that i took it to quickly assessed and mentioned how everything would have to be drained, removed and how they would have to reweld the piece on, while also factoring that into their similarly price quote.

I dropped off my car on Monday and got a call today that I could come and pick up my car. Upon arriving i paid my bill and talked to the owner (who is very kind and friendly) and then got my keys and went to my car. Upon starting up my vechicle there was a yellow warning light, a yellow check engine light and a "check hybrid system" message. I thought that maybe i just needed to try restarting my car a few times to clear the warning, but all 3 warnings still remained. At this point i went back into the shop and told him about the problem. He seemed puzzled and came out to look at the warnings, but didn't seem to have any knowledge of what it could possibly be. After talking with him further it was apparent that he really only deals with body work and painting. He was suggesting that I should let the car run for awhile because it could be an air bubble in the line. I don't know anything about cars, so he could have been right, but that didn't seem to be something that would trigger those 3 warnings. He then went to get the guy who worked on my car, who seemed to be in his early 20s. The guy popped my hood and just stood looking at the same spot on the left side of the engine for the entire time. He ultimately just shrugged his shoulders and didn't know what the problem was and walked back to the shop. Then the owner called somebody to see if they could diagnose my problem over the phone. The guy told him that i might need a new battery or a few other problems that were over my head. At this point it was around 5:00pm and the owner suggests that i drive it to a dealer. But with the closest dealer being 30 minutes away, I didn't want to drive it that far in case there was a chance of damaging a very expensive hybrid system by driving it. I tried to check on these forums a bit while in my car in the parking lot, but i realized that i was way over my head. One thing i did notice though, when checking under the hood, is that there was no inverter coolant whatsoever in the reservoir. Upon finding this out, I showed it to the owner but he didn't even know what inverter coolant was. He directed me to drive to a local shop and that maybe they might have some that i could buy. At this point though i just wanted somebody to look at it who actually knew what they were talking about and not just guessing, so I called a local shop that deals with hybrid repairs. When i told him that i was going to take it to a shop to diagnose the problem he said "ok ,do that , and if it's something that I did, i'll cover the cost."

This comment also threw me for a bit of the loop because i got the impression that he thought that it wasn't something that his shop wasn't responsible for. It seems almost impossible to me that i dropped off my car in good working order and that these warnings occur all of a sudden upon starting my car up for the first time. The owner does seem to be a genuinely nice and honest guy so i'm hopeful that we'll be able to resolved the issue.

Sorry for being so long winded. I just wanted to be thorough to see if somebody here might have some idea of what the issue could possibly be.

 

I wanted to pop back in here to thank you guys for your feedback.

I was able to drive it to a local hybrid repair shop 2 miles away and they were able to look at it today. Luckily, the empty tank of inverter coolant was the only issue. They bled the lines, replaced the coolant and road tested the car for an extended period of time. From their perspective there was no damage they could detect, but cautioned me to get my car towed to a shop if there is ever a situation that arises where there is no inverter coolant in the tank.

On top of that, I took the 2nd shop bill to the original body shop and the owner cut me a check for the full amount without trying to only pay a partial cost. I think that's what they should have done, but I feel my result wouldn't happen in the majority of situations. The body shop owner then asked me if he owed me anything for the cost of my time, which I was thankful for, but graciously declined. So all in all it was the best outcome i could have hoped for.

Thanks guys!