Battery Died in Diagnostic mode bleeding brakes: now P3000, P0AFA, C1259 and C1310

TLDR: My battery died in diagnostic mode with the front wheels off while I was trying to bleed the brakes without techstream. I jumped the car. (Which FWIW I had done numerous times before without issue) Now I’ve got electronic problems: P3000 (Hybrid Control), P0AFA (HV Battery), C1259, C1310 (ABS/VSC/TRAC), B1421 Air Conditioner.

Full saga and cautionary tale below:

I bought my car used a few years ago. It’s a 2007 Prius with just over 200k miles.

When I brought it in for its first inspection I was told I would need to replace the front rotors - not because of wear, but because of age - they were starting to delaminate. To avoid opening the hydraulics I used a clamp to depress the calipers. I replaced the rotors and put in new pads as well.

Last year when I got my tires swapped the tech told me I had uneven wear on my front pads. Neither was worn down too far, but I should be aware of the problem.

I thought perhaps I damaged a caliper using the clamp. So later when I had time I replaced the calipers and the pads again. The calipers came with brackets which did not fit, so I left on the old brackets. This time I used a hose clamp on the brake hose to avoid loosing too much fluid, then used the first half of zak.kapoor’s method for bleeding the brakes. (I bled only the front)

I did notice that one of the brake pads had trouble seating in the bracket, so I wondered if that might have been the problem.

After a 20 mile or so drive I found that the FL rotor was noticeable hot, so I ordered new caliper brackets.

I replaced the brackets then went to bleed the brakes again, and this is where I really ran into trouble. When I went to bleed the brakes I think I really ran into trouble.

The last time I had driven the car was over a week ago, on a hot and sunny day, and I had been using the AC. The AC came on in diagnostic mode. At this point I was focused on getting the job done before our infant woke up. It didn’t seem like I could turn the AC off in diagnostic mode, and I wasn’t anxious to go off-script. So I just tried to hustle.

Everything was going fine until the battery died.

At this point I was definitely off-script. I jumped the car with my wive’s vehicle, turned off the AC, and let the engine run for a while, then carried out the rest of zak.kapoor’s break bleeding procedure, this time bleeding all wheels.

However, this time I was unable to reset the warning lights. (See top of post for specifics).

Sometimes the car will start and seem normal (except the warning lights), other times it will only go into neutral, and other times it will go into forward and reverse, but will only creep, as if the electric motor isn’t kicking in.

I took the car for a drive to test the brakes and attempt to recharge the hybrid battery. After 15 or so minutes of driving I was able to get the battery back up to green, but the FL rotor was still getting hot.

Now I suspected the brake hose I had clamped.

I ordered a hose, a cheap VCI cable, and a used windows computer to run Techstream on.

It took a while to get Techstream running, but I finally got it talking to the car. The first night I tried resetting the codes and it seemed to work. (But they came back when I started the car the next day.)

Yesterday I replaced the FL hose and then began the Techstream bleeding procedure. I got the FR done and then Techstream gave me the “Failed to Air Bleed brakes” warning once I started on the FL. After numerous resets I managed to get the FL bled individually using Techstream, but I was unable to get it going for the rear brakes, so I returned to zak’s method to bleed the rear. (It sounds like some of the cheap cables aren’t up to the brake bleeding procedure? ) Failed To Air Bleed brakes with Techstream | PriusChat

This morning I tried to take the car on a test drive on some back roads. Unfortunately it went into gear but without umph (I’m presuming the electric motor wasn’t contributing), so I only took a short test drive. I could detect a little warmth coming off of both rotors with the back of my hand, but they didn’t seem significantly different, so I’m cautiously optimistic that the mechanical issue has been solved.

The electronics are still out though. I’m afraid I screwed something up when it died in diagnostic mode, or fried something when I jumped the car. I can reset the codes with the techstream, but they come right back. (FWIW I have jumped the car at least 8 or 10 times in the past without issue, but not die in diagnostic mode then…)

I noticed on the test drive that the RR air duct was blowing air even though the climate control had it set to “off”. Could this be battery cooling? Or just the weird AC code?

Also, by the end of this most recent drive, there was no indication arrow going to or from the battery on the “Energy Consumption” window. On the previous test drive, where I was trying to recharge the hybrid battery, the arrow did appear (I tried to keep it as much going -to- the battery as possible), and I was able to get the battery from one or two bars all the way up to green.

So…

Obviously this is a lesson in why not to cut corners…

Does anyone have any idea of what I may have fried, and what needs to be reset or replaced?

It’s likely I will be handing off the work to a pro at this point, but I would love to have a better idea of the contours of the problem.

Thanks in advance!

 

I dug a little further into the freeze frame data in Techstream, but I'm not sure what is relevant.

The P3000 freeze data includes:
Detail code 1: 0
Detail code 2: 123
Detail code 3: 388
Detail code 4: 0
Detail code 5: 0
Not sure what these mean?

The P0AFA Freeze data shows:
V1: 15.85
V2: 11.87
V3: 19.49
V4: 16.07
V5: 15.92
V6: 15.82
V7: 15.94
V8: 15.94
V9: 15.93
V10: 15.95
V11: 15.96
V12: 15.96
V13: 15.94
V14: 15.95
So I would guess that there is a problem in V2 and V3?

The freeze for P3013 shows most blocks around 18.5, but V2 at 12.84 and V3 at 23.63. Seems to confirm something wrong around V2 and V3?

Checking my auxiliary battery voltage in Vehicle Signal Check mode just now shows 12.3v. In the freeze for P3013 it shows 14.4, and in the freeze for P0AFA it shows 11.8v. Not sure if these are indicative of a healthy auxiliary battery or not?

 

These all seem to point to an HV battery issue:

P3000-123
Abnormal signal response from the battery ECU, often associated with a high-voltage battery system malfunction.

Possible causes include: HV battery system, Battery ECU

P3000-388
Discharge Inhibition Control Malfunction. This code is triggered when the battery’s state of charge decreases due to the vehicle being left in N position, running low on fuel or a malfunction occurring in the HV control system.

Possible causes include: HV control system, HV battery assembly or a fuel shortage

 

I'm no expert in diagnostic mode, but it seemed like the AC running hard without engine support drained the auxiliary battery.

I would not rebuild the battery myself unless the consenus is that it is straight forward and low risk. There's not a lot of urgency because we have another vehicle and are almost always home anyways these days, but my wife doesn't have a lot of patience left for repairs that beget more repairs...

Thanks, that's a great lead. I will look into that.

Thats good for reference, thanks.

 

Well that definitely explains the sudden appearance of the red triangle of death then. Sounds like I should deal with both batteries, one perhaps a bit more urgently than the other.

 

To follow up on this story, my wife and I caravanned the car to a hybrid battery specialist, about an hour and a half drive. Thankfully it did not misbehave, because it did intermittently on earlier test drives. He replaced the battery ECU and harness and rebuilt the battery for $750. When he was finished it turned out there was one code still remaining - P1121, the 3-way coolant control valve. I had replaced it a couple years earlier myself, but not with an original Toyota part, and he said he had seen a few third party valves fail early. I considered doing that repair myself, but in the end I took it to a local shop we trust because we did not have time or bandwidth for it this fall. We have not had any problems since.