2002 12 volt battery and warning light problems??

With only 16K miles in 4 years, you don't drive much. Lead-acid batteries (like your 12V) age not only by miles but also time and temperature cycles. You may just need a new 12V battery. They are expensive for this car, because they are non-standard. Search the site and you may find some alternatives (requiring some modification), or just bite the bullet and let the dealer test and replace it.

 

wow it made 4 years that's just about a record for a Classic Prius. I'll second Phil your due for a new one.

 

I agree that replacing the 12 v battery ought to be seriously considered. I think we have posted earlier some alternatives to Toyota's battery. Although you are free to choose whichever one you prefer

But I am not ready to accept the idea that the warning lights resulted from 12 v battery weakness. Odds are that you are in need of technical service bulletin EG011-03, or a throttle body/fuel induction system cleaning.

If the Toyota shop finds a P3191 trouble code, I will say "aha"!

 

Hi Raven you are having the same exact problem I am having with my 2003 Prius--I have had all service done before necessary such as the extended service I had to pay for $249 recently, December 2005, before I moved from Florida back to New York...only have 24,000 plus miles on it and puchased it new.
On way from Florida, after staying overnight in Virginia I believe, in the morning the warning light on although the car started and sounded fine and after was warmed up the lights went away-no more problem on the trip, but now that in New York almost every day when I start the card all those warning lights again.

This is continuing and I have written to other sites on here to see if there is a diagnostic service at a dealer which will check things out and see if the batteries are ok. The Prius had a recall to refluid the batteries and reseal them last summer and I have had no problems with the warnings until now. I live a long way from a dealer here, had the starting, I guess they call it 12 V, replaced under warranty once when it went dead after sitting without running for 5 weeks.

The service I just paid for was supposed to be covered but the dealer I took it too was not the selling dealer so he said I had no service coming- but I paid in full so I would not be having any problems on my 1400 mile move.

I once had an engine check problem with the warning lights on a previous trip which was corrected by a dealer on that trip who said just something in the settings and fixed it without charge.
Is there a real problem with these warning systems that they seem to malfunction frequently or have you heard of anything. I wrote an inquiry on another site on Prius owners online, but not very sophisticated, and cannot find my way back to see if anyone answered or suggested anything except go to dealer and have checked.
probably will end up doing that but seems funny with only 24000 miles I should be having such problems
Hope you get answer to your inquiry and me too meanwhile have good day
lois228

 

P3191 is "engine does not start", more or less. It is a generic code, not just for Prius/hybrids/etc.

In the case of the 2001-2003 classic model Prius, it seems to have been an indicator for the commonest thing that needed (needs) fixing. That is the TSB EG011-03. This TSB is posted in the files section of the Yahoo toyota-prius-sat1 group. I think I could copy it from there and repost it here, but please try to access there first. Those files are a useful large compiliation of most of the problems.

What EG011-03 fixes is generally not whether the engine starts, but the amount of time allotted for the starting up, before a trouble code is thrown. The engine control module (ECM) is replaced by another with more 'tolerant' or 'forgiving' programming. A more serious EG011-03 calls for the replacement of the fuel pump relay or the entire fuel tank assembly, if it is found that fuel undersupply is occurring. This has happened, but is much less common than the ECM replacement.

If your car has never had this ECM replaced, it is at least a likely consideration whenever the "bad lights" are seen.

 

why not put a jump on it with an external battery or even a battery charger and turn on the car and see if you still get the warning lights etc with adequate 12V power?

If you don't, my guess is your battery is bad. The next question "is something pulling it down" or is it just old?
If a lead acid gets pulled down just one time to dead and is left that way for very long at all.. even overnight, even though you can charge it back up, it drastically shortens its life.
If you do this to a mediocre battery that is 4 years old.. thats enough to go ahead and take them out.

The plates get sulfated up when deeply discharged and it hardens if allowed to sit and does not completely come back off upon recharge... the areas of the plates that remain coated with the sulfates lose thier ability for ion exchange and you effectively lose battery capacity.

I do remember reading a couple months back that you can get another battery made for something else and modify the box just a bit for it to fit and its alot cheaper and a bit bigger to boot!

 

Thanks for you attention to my problem---yesterday with temperature above 32 Prius had no warnings or problems...believe the batter-12V - ia the problem as all other functions seem perfect...plan to replace battery very soon Happy Valentines day hope you all had

 

If you can borrow a voltmeter, its rather easy to tell if the battery is bad. If you test for 12 volts at the jump-starting terminal under the hood (I suppose the 1G's also had that?) with the car running, and you have a good +12 volts DC, let the car sit for a few hours, or overnight, in the cold, and check it again. If the battery is sulfated/bad, you will find that the voltage has dropped very low, usually to below 10 volts, which is why you get the warning lights.

 

It sounds like your battery is toast... Cold temperatures chemically make the battery smaller with less capacity. You just dont' have enough poop to cut the mustard with the colder temps.

May I suggest when you get another battery, you may want to take some 2 foot or so wires and hook + to + and - to - to the connections on the car that go to the old battery, so that when you take out the old and put in the new, there is never a moment when you have "no" battery. That way you will not loose all your settings in you nav, clock etc. "if you already haven't"

 

You'll have to be more explicit.

 

Windstrings: You stole that idea from me. Andy

 

What Windstrings was trying to explain was a method of keeping 12V on the system while changing batteries which precludes loss of memories, clock setting, trip guage , radio stations I think also. If you have a local mechanic do it(change battery) it just may or may not confuse him. It's called parralleling batteries. You will probably lose your settings anyway.

 

don't make it harder than it is... just basically figure out a way to maintain 12 volt energy to the existing system while you change the battery.

If you can do this.. there is not reason why you should lose any of your settings.....

A possible way.... pull your car up beside the prius and act as if your gonna jump it by connecting to the appropiate areas under the hood.... your other car does not need to be on... your only borrowing the juice..no real amps is passing to speak of..... then go change your battery with the new one... just keep in mind those terminals are hot so don't let the + touch anything.

someone can correct me if I'm wrong.. I didn't mention this way the first time because I wasn't sure how everything is hooked up as far as where all the nav and accessories tie in.....
Is it before the battery juction or after?.. if its after, then the car jump method won't work...

*The most sure and absolute way it will work is to simply take a portable battery and some small wires.... "even 14 gu will be ok for this" and hook the extra battery to your existing battery "terminals". now when you disconnect your old battery, the "terminals" will still be hot from the extra battery. Put your new battery in the hole and hook the terminals up to it.. once they are connected to the new battery, you can now disconnect the portable battery as it is not needed any more...

Walla!.. you just changed your battery without the system knowing what happened!

 

Raven: Keydivers advice is right on the button. There is also a charging method the car has which is superb. When putting car to bed, or leaving car for an extended period of time (at work) before shutting car down put in drive, foot on brake pedal, emergency brake on...THEN step on the accelerator. The engine will run and the HV will go into the green, generally in less than a minute. This in turn causes the 12VDC Bat to charge. There is also a procedure for looking at the charge on the Multi-Display. As follows: Powere up(if not),Push display and hold, turn headlights on and off completely, three times. A display screen will then come up, hit display(on screen), hit menu, hit Vehicle Signal and Voila, your 12 Volt reading should come up. Normal reading should be something over 12VDC, generally this reading will be 12.5 to 14.1. You can also drive with the screen in this mode, you will not have access to the other info. In order to get rid of this display you have to power down. This is what is called normal operation. If your charging system shows anything severly less than the above it can be concurred thata replacement battery is needed. Stepping on the accelerator in drive mode is a bit unsetteling at first but believe me it works.

 

I wonder if this works on the 06?.. Ill have to try it?

I also wondered if you could power the car on to ready mode and change the battery while in ready mode... .will the 12v inverter maintain power to the system during the exchange or would that piss the computer off?