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2004 Prius wont shift out of neutral and wont start

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Kevin Cecchini, Jan 7, 2017.

  1. Kevin Cecchini

    Kevin Cecchini Junior Member

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    II
    Hello all,

    I am a new prius owner and learning a little day by day.

    I have concluded that two of the 28 battery packs are bad. I also have ordered and placed onto the vehicle, a "prolong" battery charger and charged the battery pack. After charging for 16 hours, the voltage was 246. Next I let the car sit for half hour to an hour and then the first thing I did was enter inspection mode with holding the auxiliary button while the power is on and turning the lights on and off three times. After I did that, I shut off the power and then nothing occurred. that is, the transmission will go into neutral and back into park, but not in reverse or drive and the engine will not start. any ideas?

    I also chose to leave the ignition on and drain the battery, the traction battery, I then recharged the battery pack, which it is currently doing.

    I do have three battery cells coming in the mail and plan to change the two bad ones. I was hoping this charger would remove that need.

    Oh, also, I had the axillary battery disconnected for about four days and only connected it upon trying to start the car.
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    kevin, it is advisable to only post one thread in the best forum you perceive, rather than multiple threads about the same problem. all the best.
     
  3. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Your post made no sense at all
    Inspection mode is the engine runs all the time.
    Sounds like you were trying to go into diag mode and check the 12 volt voltages why I don't know if your dealing with the hybrid battery
    Charging and balancing a pack with bad modules does nothing but waste electricity.
    On the very odd chance they may become charged they sure won't last long and you'll be back in there again.
    You were able to identify the bad modules because they won't hold a charge. Charging them back up does nothing
    They must be replaced then your prolong charger will come in handy.
     
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  4. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Hi Kevin,

    Ditto about posting the same thread in multiple forums.

    Just a couple of comments about terminology. In order to cut down on misunderstanding, using the correct (or at least the same) terminology (across PC (PriusChat)) is helpful.

    A "battery pack" is the the complete battery. Inside the battery pack are 28 modules, these together form the battery or battery pack. The modules, in turn, contain 6 cells.
    This is not inspection mode. Inspection mode is where you set the car so the ICE (internal combustion engine) runs continually. I don't know if the state to which you are referring has a name, but a lot in PC call it "diagnostic mode", but more correctly is MDF diagnostic mode.
    Again it is not clear what you mean here, given the terms you have used.

    So to clarify, the states of the car are:

    ACC ............ Foot off the brake, press start button once.
    IG-ON ......... Foot off the brake, press start button twice. (Once again, if in ACC)
    OFF ........... Foot off the brake, press start button a third time. (Once again, if in IG-ON).

    READY ....... Foot on the brake, press start button once.

    NB: Pressing the Start button once, with your foot ON the brake, from any of the above states (ACC, IG-ON, OFF), will start the car and make it READY to drive.

    So did you really mean you "leave the ignition on" or did you mean you had the car in READY? Because if you did really mean the former, it would not drain the HV battery, only the aux 12 V battery.


    Hope that helps.

    [Edit] I see Ed was thinking the same thing, but got his post in while I was still writing mine.
     
    #4 dolj, Jan 7, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2017
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  5. Kevin Cecchini

    Kevin Cecchini Junior Member

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    Note taken, thank you bisco.
     
    bisco likes this.
  6. Kevin Cecchini

    Kevin Cecchini Junior Member

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    Thank you for the information edthefox5. I have had the prolong charger charging. Took the car for a test drive and the battery pack is fully charged. I was debating on taking the car to work. However, my concern was that the triangle of death was still on and the engine and battery fan continued to run.

    Upon reading your advice, I will park the car in the garage and replace the two bad modules.

    Question edthefox:
    Upon replacing the two bad modules, how do I go about removing the triangle of death?

    Also, I performed the inspection mode. How long does that need to run for?

    Thank you for your time Ed, have a great day.

    Kevin.
     
    edthefox5 likes this.
  7. Kevin Cecchini

    Kevin Cecchini Junior Member

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    Dolj, my error was not sliding down the clip after pushing it up. The orange clip on the traction battery pack.
     
  8. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Kevin before u get to deep buy
    a hybrid analyzer. Many different types most popular is the mini Vic you can
    Buy on amazon.com for 25. Works best on older XP laptop. Your looking for an analyzer that has proprietary Toyota Techstream software
    Which can interrogate all hybrid codes and battery voltages.

    It can read and clear all codes thrown.

    There's also an android torque app and also a VXDIAG dongle. Lots of choices but trying to repair a hybrid battery without is silly and time wasting.

    Best friend is the search function. Search hybrid battery's. a lot of guys on here know much more than I do about rebuilding the battery.

    Lastly you can go to toyota.techinfo.com and u can buy a one day subscription for access to the Toyota service library. Print away.
     
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  9. Kevin Cecchini

    Kevin Cecchini Junior Member

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    Good information, thank you much edthefox5.
     
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