2008 not driven 11 days, now red triangle and more

Our house sitter forgot to drive my 2008 Prius as agreed while I was out of the country, and when I tried to start the car yesterday I got an array of lights including the infamous triangle and I was unable to start. Today I "reset" a connector to the 12v and was able to start up right away, but within a minute of slow driving around the yard the red triangle is back on. Despite trying different readers, I have had limited success with ODB diagnostics. I'm not able to change out hybrid battery modules or do anything other than the basic wiring and mechanical repairs (the most advanced thing I've managed has been to remove, disassemble, clean and replace the hybrid battery fan a couple of years ago, if that is any indicator of what I can do myself). Can anyone point me to a similar poster situation or thread, or recommend what I steps I can take at this point? Thanks so much to this community for keeping me and Sydney (the Prius) rolling since 2016..!!

 

Hi @JC91006 , do you know if I can have a local mechanic provide me with a readout of the codes or can you recommend another approach for my situation?

 

Hi @bisco , I was gone for a month, but our house sitter drove it twice during that time and she said there was nothing amiss. She last drove it 11 days before we returned. I just found an independent mechanic who has dealt with this issue and regularly works on older hybrids, I will try to drive it there (about 5 miles) tomorrow. I'm still interested in any suggestions or advice in the meantime! Thanks.

 

Update: so I misplaced my keys for a day and after finally finding them I rescheduled with the shop for a different day when my spouse could follow me (in case I couldn’t make it to the service garage). In the meantime I kept seeing so much humidity in my car even with dehumidifier packs and airing it out and finally a few days without rain (it’s been monsoon season in Savannah!). I was *sure* I wasn’t having the water in the 12v battery compartment issue - like some others here, there was a good deal of moisture behind the passenger seat and I knew there was no way it could be related - so I confidently stuck my hand down by the battery just to make sure and SPLASH! - lo and behold, it was full of water. Also lots of water in the tire well. Long story less-long, I followed several threads of advice and instructions here (as well as a super helpful YouTube video that showed how you can pull rubber plugs out to drain these areas instead of just having to rely on a wet vac or a bunch of towels to remove the water). I got everything cleaned up and sealed those deceptively tiny cracks, and after I hooked the 12v battery up again the control panel reset. I started the car just to pull it forward a few inches to try to maybe protect the new tires I put on a couple months ago. I noticed the battery was showing a lot of blue bars, which couldn’t be right, but I turned it off really quick (I don’t know. I guess I was just trying to put off having the red triangle return). This morning I went out there with the thought “maybe there’s been a miracle.” I started the car and immediately started driving it with the idea that somehow this might recharge the hybrid battery in spite of everything. It was showing two purple bars on the Trip Information screen and then they went down to one bar as I kind of expected but I was still trucking along, making sure I didn’t go too far from the house, knowing that was probably gonna need a tow and just waiting for the red triangle show up again. But it didn’t! And then some blue bars appeared. And I kept driving around the neighborhood and trying to see if it was going to show that it was actually charging, and then it did start showing as charging (the teal arrows)! So basically now I’m back to 6 blue bars which is where I have been for a long time, so I think this is another chance for me to take care of the battery proactively instead of from wherever I’m stranded on the side of the road.

 

@pasadena_commut - it was definitely like a sauna in there. We've had record levels of rain and record levels of heat this summer...
@gdanner - I haven't seen this before, thanks so much for all of your information! I'll have the hybrid battery inspected asap.