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08 Prius stalling in rain.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by HexDarkwood, Mar 19, 2018.

  1. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    This isn't the first time this has happened with my prius. I can't for the life of me find any answers as to why it happens. But something under the hood gets wet, my car freaks out, shuts down and I have to call for a tow, wait hours and hours for whatever got wet, to dry, and then it starts up like nothing ever happened.
    I've towed my car now 4 times in the last year because of a wetness issue and stalling problems.

    3 times for heavy rain and 1 for a car wash.

    Does anyone have any insight as to what is causing this issue? What gets wet and shuts the car down?
    Like today, it was raining heavily. I was trying to make my way to work. Stalled out on the highway, made it to an off ramp and had to have it towed home because it refused to let me put it in drive after I had stopped on the side of the road.
    It's still wet and not working 2 hours later in my garage.
    This is what the dash looks like.
    20180319_101311.jpg

    Help?
     
  2. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Check the 12v battery area for water intrusion.

    You have trouble lights so there are trouble codes that will be a big help.

    Edit: I see the HV battery is very low in the picture. Are you still on the original HV battery?
     
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  3. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    To be honest I'm not even sure what a HV battery is..
    I'm not the most tech savy person when it comes to the prius.

    Also, battery was low because engine shut off on the highway and i used what remaining battery power I had to try and get it to the off ramp and down a ways so I wasn't stuck in the construction that was going on at the exit.
     
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    are you continuing to drive after the engine stalls? that would account for the low battery.

    iirc, water can get in from the windshield cowling and down into the spark plug wells.
     
  5. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    Yes, battery was low because the engine cut off while I was on the highway over the Missouri river. I used what battery I had left to cruise it off to the exit and down past construction so I wasn't stuck in a bad spot.
     
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  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    tell us about your repair experiences with detail, after having the car towed.
     
  7. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    There are none to report.
    Each time this has happened I've towed my car home and let it dry and with in a few hours it starts up just fine. No longer have red dash lights or anything on.
    At this time, that photo was taken about 5 minutes after I pulled over and that was around 10am.
    We got home around 11am. It is now 1:26pm for me and car is still not starting up properly.
    Lights, dash, things that run off the battery start up but engine won't come on.

    I'm trying to figure out what is still wet that I could try and dry off to get my car working again. Or at the very least try and figure out what is getting wet so I can try and get it fixed up so this doesn't happen again. I'm sadly not rolling in money and taking it to a dealership for me would mean a lot of out of pocket cost I can't front right this minute seeing as dealerships charge more.
     
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  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    could be spark plug wires. check the wells where the spark plugs are for moisture.
    how many miles on her? btw, you do not have a 'plug in base'.
     
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  9. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    I will go do that now, thank you.
    And I will change that. I'm not even sure what plug in base means at this point.
     
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  10. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    Oh and She's got 196K at the moment.
     
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  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    new wires might do the trick, but i'm just shooting from the hip.

    make sure the inside of the fuse box is dry.
     
  12. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    Checked spark plugs and fuse box. Everything is pretty dry up top. I'm just going to try and wait it out for the next couple hours and see if things dry off enough again.
    Thank you for the help. I do appreciate it.
     
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  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    check the air filter box, i'm just grasping at straws.
     
  14. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    I did that as well before I posted here. Google was hinting it might have something to do with the air flow sensor so I went and checked that and the filter. Both dry and ok as far as I can tell.
     
  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it's also possible you ran the battery down too low, and there's not enough gas.
     
  16. HexDarkwood

    HexDarkwood New Member

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    I was thinking about that. I'm at 2 bars for gas. Might later this afternoon if it's still not starting, try and get some gas with my gas can and see if that helps. I know battery wise though it was 1 bar from full before it stalled. Usually if it gets this low (I think it's called a battery dump? I'm not sure).. the engine will kick in and it'll be back to green and almost full 5 minutes down the road.
    Issue right now is, engine won't turn on.
    The car on the underside is still pretty wet. I'll come back and update in a few hours if anything changes.
     
  17. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    in normal driving, the battery doesn't go below two bars. when you drive after running out of gas, it will go until it reaches one bar and something needs to be reset by adding a few gallons before the engine will start. it's just a possibility that it is doing something similar. worth checking anyway.
     
  18. Stevewoods

    Stevewoods Senior Member

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    In the days of Romans throwing Christians to the lions....

    This would have been a classic case of an ignition coil going bad.

    I knew how to handle the old single coil cars -- on the Prius, as I understand it -- each spark plug has it's own coil. I would be tempted to test the coils. In the old days, I probably would have just replaced the coil -- but in those days there were only one coil.
     
  19. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    and by a few, he means at least 3 gals – in one fill. Even if the fuel gauge is incorrect and you did in fact run out of fuel, it may not fix things to just add fuel. The chances are high you have run the HV battery (that is the big one behind the rear seat) may be now too low to restart the engine. You may need a tow to a dealer to have them manually recharge it, unless you know someone with a HV battery charger.
    It is pretty much the same, except now 4x more fun. It helps if you can work out which of the 4 coils is a problem, as to buy a set of 4 is quite pricey.
     
  20. exstudent

    exstudent Senior Member

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    Hello everyone. OP is ignoring Post #2
    You know, Master Warning Light: RED Triangle with Exclamation point inside.

    There are CODES stored in memory. You need to have those read to troubleshoot.

    Dealer will be able to read ALL codes, but diagnostic fee might be pricey.

    Try an independent who specializes w/ Toyota, as they will likely be using Techstream software as well. Make some phone calls on equipment used to read codes and cost to read codes.

    Does this car have a salvage title?