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Lots of Codes Being Thrown - Primary U0293

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Prodigious, May 29, 2024.

  1. Prodigious

    Prodigious New Member

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    So a few days ago I was driving home from a quick trip and suddenly a bunch of lights tripped and the screen said PROBLEM. The triangle of death, check engine light, yellow exclamation point, and the VSC lights all turned on. The thing I had done just before that trip was fueling up my car (less than a mile from fueling up my car to the lights) so I thought maybe the fuel cap is going bad? Cleaned it up, the yellow exclamation and VSC light turned off. By the time I left work the next day to pick up a replacement cap to be sure it was that they turned back on. The new cap did not turn them off (but at least doesn't look like it smokes). Couldn't find my OBD reader, bought a new one and ran it. Codes for damn near EVERYTHING. But the primary one it gave was U0293 which it states is the 12v battery. Didn't replace it when I bought the car, don't recall if he said when it was replaced. I bought it fall 2022ish. 95% of the other codes were losing communication with X. 43 codes in total for all of them. The only others that stand out to me are "C1300,C1313", C2318, C2315, and P3000. All of which could possibly be from the battery? No current (will make sense later) PA080 code to replace the Hybrid battery.

    I carefully drove it to a nearby Oreiley's today and had him test the battery. He put in the specs of the battery (which don't match any they have for the car. It was a little better than their superstart ones but less than the Optima) and it read 12.75 volts and that the battery was bad. Screen literally said "BAD BATTERY". This was maybe five minutes after I parked and turned the car off, if that. So I had him order the Optima battery. Earlier I had ran the display check screen to see what it thought it was getting and the screen showed around 12.4 with just the power on and 14.1 when I turned the car on. I did that again and kept it on when I drove to Oreiley's and it stayed consistent at 14.1V. I tested it with a multimeter at home, directly to the 12v battery, and after about an hour or so sitting turned off it was around 12.4-12.5V. I am going to leave it until the morning and see what the voltage is then. From what I understand the battery COULD cause a lot of these problems and, more importantly, this past winter there was a REALLY bad freeze and since I don't have a garage to park in one day it would not start and I had to put a lot of work into getting it to even start. So it could have possibly been slowly decaying since then?

    Other things of note:
    1. The hybrid battery went out a few months after I bought it. The guy had it redone buy somebody who offered warranties so they fixed it for free. The car drives differently now compared to that. The only real issue now is that the regenerative braking doesn't seem to work. Everything else as far as I can tell works fine?
    2. Today as I was driving to Oreiley's the hybrid battery fan kicked on pretty loud. It was a pretty sunny and hot day out (nothing super crazy but you would definitely be uncomfortable in jeans) and, again, no garage. I had somebody drive me to work so it just sat in the heat all day. I do plan to clean out the fan if i am going to replace the battery since I'm taking a bunch of stuff out anyway.
    3. I checked pretty much any fuse I could. I pulled out and looked at the 20A HEV fuse. Most of the others I ran a continuity test and they all worked. I did also check the 5A on top of the 12V battery.
    4. I did not check the connections in the back by the battery. I saw some people say you can get corrosion (primarily what looks like a 13 pin connector that sits around the vent) as water can get in. It was raining A LOT lately and there was some water pooled around the battery.
    5. About 110,000 miles on it right now.

    I am probably going to check the voltage again in the morning. I have a car jumper/charger so I am thinking of hooking it onto the jumper spot under the hood and seeing if charging it up fixes anything. Is replacing the battery a good idea? Should I get a second opinion on the battery? I fear going to the dealer and spending a butt ton for what could be a simple fix.
     
  2. Prodigious

    Prodigious New Member

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    Update: Checked the voltage after leaving it in chilly/cool weather for 14ish hours: 12.2V. Unhooked the battery for 10 minutes to reset it and the first start was fine, second was not. A lot less codes though but U0293 and C1300,C1313 still active. I pulled and inspected the ABS relays in the fuse box, nothing looks damaged.
     
  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Those codes or something what kind of scanner are you using
     
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    why didn't you test the hev fuse?
     
  5. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    I think that the P0A80 is intermittent but definitely your concern. That would explain all the warning lights and the battery fan coming on high speed.

    You can use a scantool (such as the Dr Prius app plus a compatible OBD adapter) to monitor block voltages while driving the car. Once VOLTage DIFFerence gets consistently above 0.3V, you can get battery codes. (A failed module results in the affected block having voltage 1.0-1.5V lower than others under accel-discharge, but some higher than others during decel-charge)

    There could be a small chance that there is a problem with the voltage sense wiring or corrosion at the orange connector on the battery ecu. But I would not be surprised if the battery has one or more bad modules.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    Brian1954 likes this.
  6. Prodigious

    Prodigious New Member

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    Was the fanciest version of the walmart hyper tough one.

    That was one of the fuses I specifically mentioned checking?

    Ding ding ding. I didn't want to delay not having a car any longer and the dealer confirmed modules are dying in the hybrid battery. They quoted a little under 4000 for a refurbished Toyota battery and installation. It's a lot but from what I heard alternatives like Green Bean are hit or miss.
     
    #6 Prodigious, May 31, 2024
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 1, 2024
  7. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    You buy the battery online from Toyota You get a big discount somewhere around 1745 to 1850 then you go pick it up turn in a core that meets the specifications they put a hold on your credit card for around $3,000 then they knock off $1,300 for your core and then you're done It's easy to put this thing in My kid could do it he just can't pick it up so if that's not in the cards then well I guess you have to pay for retail and all of that and the battery is not refurbished from the dealer it is brand new rack of modules brand new not refurbished this is what you want.
     
  8. Prodigious

    Prodigious New Member

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    Do you have a link to the battery from Toyota? Because looking online at the toyota online parts shop I cannot find the battery. The part number is G951047031 but nobody seems to have it in stock and the online parts store doesn't have any results for it.
    The one I have in there was also probably a refurbished one installed by the guy who I bought the car from so I am not sure I would get the 1,300 back. The dealership quoted me around 2,700 for their battery and didn't mention a cut in price or anything so I don't know if they forgot or if they just determined it wouldn't qualify.
    I am personally not completely comfortable doing it myself. My dad is more so confident (which he always is before he has to actually do something). There would also be no warranty if I did it myself?
    But if I can't get the 1,300 back that would be 3k into a battery that is worth more than the car at that point. Kelly Blue book puts it at 4.5kISH working perfectly fine and 2.5k with problems.
     
    #8 Prodigious, Jun 1, 2024
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2024
  9. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Yeah I don't know how that works when the dealer installs a new Toyota battery for you I don't guess you get a $1,300 discount and you pay full retail for the battery I don't know how that works I wouldn't want to know The battery may be out of stock in the US right now it'll be back shortly I don't have answers for that either but if you buy batteries elsewhere they're going to be $2,300 plus for whatever it is you're buying the next cell lithium thing or I don't know I would not expect the Toyota battery to be out of stock for very long but they have been giving fairly decent deals on it I've done it twice