check hybrid system light came on

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by bobby515, Nov 25, 2025 at 2:05 PM.

  1. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    On my way home today, my check hybrid system light came on. I hooked my my basic cheap Bluetooth scanner.
    I was wondering what codes came up as I was on the way home. I hit clear. They went away. The Car is safely parked.
    Seems like the engine had a smell and was hotter than normal. 240k on it, new OEM water pump. My inverter flow was never able to see if it was running. I think maybe the pump could be bad. I want to get a more advanced code reader tool to check the car out. Any idea. Rebuilt 6 months 6-month-old. 100% don't think it's the battery, as it charges and discharges properly to me.
    Any advice. And what's a basic better black friday code reader to get? Going to load test the regular battery.
    I think it's an inverter or pump..just guessing..new headgasket 1 year..
    I put 60k on the car in 2 years...
    If the inverter is bad, is eBay bad for a used one? Thanks in advance
     
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    There are about 200 reasons for "check hybrid system", so if you want to guess you have to be very good at guessing.
     
  3. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    Is thier a scanner tool i could be to.narrow it down.??
    Any ideas where to start. I have tools and experience. Just the hybrid is difficult for me.
     
  4. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    Question on a gen 3. Invertor plastic tank. With the car running is the fluid supposed to be flowing while car is running. Mine never has. .
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Gen 1 and gen 2 used a single-speed pump that's always on whenever the car is IG ON or READY.

    Gen 3 has a pump that runs at variable speed as needed for cooling. So it's harder to check just by looking at fluid in the reservoir.

    As there are around 200 different trouble codes that can give the warning you've got, best next step is to read the trouble code(s). Then you'll know whether the pump even has anything to do with the code(s) present.
     
  6. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    Can you recommend a black friday code reader that will give me more info or the type I need. I got the basic cheap $15 Bluetooth one.
     
  7. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Autel AP200 gets pretty good talk around here. I have one and it does the job. I wish it did not require signing in to their cloud (thus requiring an internet connection) every week or so. After you do that, it will keep working for a week or so even if you're on the road with no internet, but I'm sure some day I'll leave on a road trip without remembering to sign in first, and then need it on the side of the road somewhere and it'll say "signin needed". (n)

    Other than that it's pretty great.
     
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  8. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Senior Member

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    The Autel AP200 is my recommendation. It can communicate with all 18 or so ECUs in a Gen 3 Prius. What that means is that it is capable of reading all the trouble codes, not just some of them. It can do everything that the Toyota Techstream software can do. The price right now on Amazon is $49.99 + tax. I own this model, and I also have Techstream.

    The following two linked threads are good reading.
    https://priuschat.com/index.php?posts/3248209

    Read post #1 and then scroll down to post #37 in this thread, https://priuschat.com/index.php?posts/3246758
     
  9. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    I posted on here yesterday about the hybrid check engine light on. With a basic code reader, i removed it car was ok. Came on again I reset it.
    I brought a rebuilt battery, it went bad in only... they game me another one.
    While being stumped all night. Thinking maybe inverter or something else and ordering a better scan tool, I remembered i got the Dr. Pruis app.
    I did test today to see if the battery was ok. Test is bad, 33.3% capacity left it says at the end of life, weak block 8.
    Before buying a rebuilt battery, I got some used cells on eBay and installed them. Was better. But later on, I treated myself to a rebuilt battery.
    My question is. I will put in pictures at the bottom.
    Can I last a few weeks like this?
    I can take out and battery apart. Should I just replace 2 cells in #8 block? Happy Thanksgiving, thanks for reading.
    you guys think i will get stuck..i can put cells in myself sunday..advice
     

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  10. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Have you found out why the check hybrid light is on, yet, or are you just assuming that because of the Dr Prius battery life report, that must be what the car wans to tell you about?

    You haven't included any screenshot where Dr Prius shows you trouble codes. I believe it is able to show some trouble codes. It can only show codes from a small fraction of the ECUs in the car, and it miscategorizes some, but it may well show you the codes that apply here.
     
  11. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    Screenshot_20251126_074457_Torque (3).jpg
     

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  12. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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  13. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    Thanks for fixing this. The senior treats people like we're stupid 200 things can be wrong. Why say such a hi number.
    I worked my career customization of cars.
    My buddy of 45 years is an EV tech at Cadillac. Since 1979. Yes 79. His only job. Some here rough you up. I know 1 thing for sure my car will be fixed really soon. Thanks for the help.
     
  14. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    Come on 200 things. Ok . You know, i'm a forum member on an uber forum with over a million subs. I share my experience and wealth and knowledge with a lot of people.Some of you guys with the knowledge like you above seems like you don't really want to help at all.And with so much advertisement on this forum, maybe I need to move to a different one.This is the only prius forum.
    There's no urgency to help nobody the one man that posts all the diagrams and online files from canada.He seems really nice.
     
  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The list of trouble codes in a gen 3 that can turn that light on appears in compact form in the "DIAGNOSTIC TROUBLE CODE CHART" for the Hybrid Vehicle Control System.

    If you don't have a subscription to TIS, you can look around for an oldish PDF copy of the 2010 Repair Manual that floats around on the net. If you find it, that compact list of the codes will be on pages 3917 through 3952 (inclusive, so that's 36 pages).

    The number of codes on each of those pages varies. The first page has just 5, the next page 12, the next page 7, the next two pages 4 each, the page after that 7 again, and so on.

    My estimate of "around 200" would call for the average number of codes per page to be around 5.6.

    How exaggerated or unrealistic do you think my estimate is?

    He is. If you're interested, he might post pages 3917 through 3952 of the manual for you, and you can go through and count the trouble codes one by one, which I admittedly didn't do, then come back and tell me how far off I was when I said "around 200".
     
    #15 ChapmanF, Nov 26, 2025 at 9:43 PM
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2025 at 9:49 PM
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  16. bobby515

    bobby515 Member

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    You're making it sound like building a rocket. Ok, take to Toyota. Pay $300 to look at. Fix what they say is wrong. Pay for reprogramming if someone needs it done. or borrow my foreign neighbors $2500 scanner he dont know how to use and deal with his albaninan headache. poor english he has. no matter what whats wrong is not major. my car earns me $5000 a month. i just dont have any hybrid shops i ever used.