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6 warning lights, gas engine cuts out, and it won't go into drive...

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by NeuroticVirgo, Jul 13, 2010.

  1. NeuroticVirgo

    NeuroticVirgo New Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Hellizona
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
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    N/A
    This afternoon my 2007 made a long beep, popped up the red brake, traction control, ! triangle, ABS, VSC and check engine lights. It followed up by the gas engine cutting out and we had to coast to a shady spot (over 112 degrees at the time). After we pushed it into a parking spot we tried to turn the car on and off and it wouldn't allow us to change it to drive or reverse.
    I looked around the forum but didn't find anyone with the same issues...so any thoughts on what is wrong? I'm going to have it towed to the dealership tomorrow but wanted to prepare for the worst.

    Thanks in advance...
    J
     
  2. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    Assuming you didn't merely run out of gas, I'd suspect the inverter cooling pump. If so and if the inverter wasn't damaged it won't be too expensive (maybe even a warranty repair). But have the dealer give you the trouble codes he finds, and tell us. Good luck.
     
  3. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    You may find that after the powertrain has cooled off, that the car can be started. If so this would be further evidence that a failed inverter coolant pump is the root cause.

    If you do a search for that topic you will find numerous posts regarding the problem, including how to determine whether the pump is working or not.

    If the car will start and you have only a short distance (like 10 miles) to travel to reach the dealer, you could try driving the car there. Good luck.
     
  4. rickasmith98

    rickasmith98 New Member

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    Location:
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    This very thing happened to me this week. I have a 2005 Prius and was in a drivethru when this occured. Let me back up a bit...I had noticed the car doing some odd things the week before. For instance, when I pull out of my subdivision onto a busy road in the mornings going to work, I would press down on the gas and I could tell it was moving or trying to but there wasn't any acceleration and it felt as though the transmission was slipping. I'd have to stop and back up if cars were approaching. What was really happening as I know now is that the car was only getting power from one source instead of the two motors (electric and gas) and therefore had no power to accelerate as I needed. Another oddity, when I got new tires three months ago, the gas mileage dropped from 44 mph down to 31. Thought it was the tires causing the problem but what I realize now is that drop in mileage had been a gradual thing and since I am no longer fanatical about checking the mileage at each fill-up, it could have easily been months, maybe even a year since really noticing the mileage. And since I was hoping for an improvement in mileage with the new tires, I started noticing the mileage at each fillup again.

    I had all those lights illuminated you described and was freaking. Didn't want to damage the car by driving it because I had read on here how sometimes you could cause major damage when those engine lights are on. I was about a mile from work so I drove it back there and called the dealership. They told me I should be able to drive it to them (4 miles away) and that the VSC & ABS lights were on because when the computer detects certain problems, it shuts those systems off to save power. The big triangle, check engine, along with the maintenance required lights were the ones to be worried about.

    As I drove it to the dealership, I set the screen to info so I could see what the battery was doing. The battery was down to two bars and even when I was driving 45 and 50 mph which always requires the gas engine to run (unless you coast or start to decelerate), the battery never charged above the two bars. After seeing that, I thought "it's the battery".

    The dealership did the diagnostics and it indeed was the main battery. It was under warranty but would have cost $3,000 for the battery and $500 for labor, if not under warranty. These batteries used to be more expensive but have come down some in price. They kept the car two days, mainly because they had to order the battery and the service manager said it would take 3 or more hours to do the labor. Got it back yesterday and it's been doing fine. Was afriad I would have lost the blue tooth settings, home link settings, appointments on the calendar, etc. but the only two things that were different was the navigation screen no longer pointed north the entire time so I had to reset that. Also I had reprogrammed the beep you hear in REVERSE for silent, but that had been reset to beep. Need to find my notes and see if I can get it back silent. I am going to wait until I fill up again and then check the mileage and see if that improves. My gut feel is that the gas engine was running way more than it should have since the main battery wasn't holding the charge.

    Having my battery fail concerns me though because very few people have had to replace that main battery. Many owners 10 years out still haven't had to replace it. Had planned on keeping this car for 10 or more years, but the warranty on that battery is 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever occurs first. Fortunately for me, I don't put a lot of miles on a car so I'll hit the 8 years before the 100,000 miles. HOpefully, my Prius doesn't have an electrical problem that causes the battery to have a shorter life than normal.

    I need to read down further and see if you found out what was wrong with yours.