Prius 2005 problem

Hi All,

I have a 2005 Prius with 111,000 miles on it. A month ago, the car lost power and came to a complete stop. Had it tow to a Toyota dealership and they said all I needed was to replace the 12v battery, the A/C compressor belt as well as the cabin and air filter. I was relieved that it cost me only $767 thinking the car will be good for at least another few years. Well, in the 100+ degrees heat in Southern California today, my car again lost power and dropped dead. Right before that, a dash warning light went on (a red triangle with an exclamation point within it). Also to the right of the triangle is another warning in yellow with an exclamation point within a circle. When I turned the car to the drive mode, a message popped up saying "The batteries will not be charge if the transaxle is in neutral" even though I did not put the car in neutral.

Could this be the time to replace the traction battery? If so, how much will it cost? I asked the mechanic at the dealership if there is a way to check or do a test on the traction battery and he said there is no way to do it. A friend of mine said her cousin had it done at a Toyota dealership before.

Please help. I had the car towed to the same dealership earlier. I'm afraid even the dealership will not tell me the truth just because they know I am a girl and probably don't know anything about car which I really don't.

Thank you so much in advance.

 

Thank you so much for your reply. Just got a call from the dealer. He said the codes for this time are P0A0F and P3190 and it has nothing to do with the battery. I am just wondering why they did not detect the problem a month ago.

On the invoice from the service last month, it clearly said they replaced the "Belt (A/C Compressor)". Was the dealership honest here?
Thank you so much.

 

Hi exstudent,

Thank you so... so much for taking the time to reply to my post. Greatly appreciated. I definitely will bring this up at the dealer later but probably will not do any good because I am pretty sure I do not have this cover.

Again, thank you so much for your help.

 

Good thinking. The answer is no. I actually had 2/3 of a tank when the problem occurred.
Thank you.

 

Here we go again, my car broke again today with the same issue as the last two times: a dash warning light went on (a red triangle with an exclamation point within it) and the car quickly lost power as I was driving at 75 miles an hour on the freeway. It was very fortunate that I was on the carpool lane and able to pull into the center divide right away. They replaced the manifold airflow sensor the second time when I brought my car in and said the problem should be taken care of. I used to think that the dealer would be the best place to bring your car in for services but I am not so sure now.

 

The dealer said the codes this time are the same as the last two times which are P0A0F and P3190. They could not find out what caused the problem, have checked everything and not sure how to fix it. The regional Toyota technician suggested to recalibrate the fuel gauge. Help! Any other ideas that I could relay to them. Thank you so much in advance.