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Bizarre start/off issue

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by THF, Apr 8, 2013.

  1. THF

    THF Junior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2013
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    Location:
    MO Ozarks
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    This just happened, and it rather freaked me out. I realized I was about to be late for a business, and really needed some products (goat food). So I revved it to 75 MPH from about 60 real quick and really tear the last couple miles to the store. Obviously, not a good option with any vehicle. But my Prius responded very oddly.
    I pulled into the store, and shut it off. But when I got back in, it wasn't really... Off. It was mostly off. The MFD was on, none of the display was on (the MPH reading, Ready, etc) but the check engine was on. (Not unusual, it's always on.) But the Maint Req'd light wasn't on, which it normally is b/c it wants a fuel change. (will do, no lectures please) And I could drive it. It mostly wanted to use the battery for some reason. Don't know why! Drive a mile or so with it like this. After that, I was able to fix it by entering Maintenance mode and shutting it off from there. SO:
    1. Car acted like it was in that first mode, but driveable.
    2. Car would not enter normal IGN mode.
    3. Car used mostly battery; engine did kick on when battery went to red.
    4. Car only returned to normal when Maint mode was entered; car is now normal.
    5. Power button was inoperative unless held down. Then it made the normal "this car is really high-tech and does whole bunch of stuff without asking you while turning off" noises. But Check engine and MFD were still on.

    Any ideas? Did I mess something up, should the dealer look at this, was this just a glitch? TIA!
     
    #1 THF, Apr 8, 2013
  2. nh7o

    nh7o Off grid since 1980

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2011
    1,686
    338
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    Location:
    Hawaii
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Weird electrical events always set the "check the 12V battery" flag here at PC. See the many posts on that. If it is more than 5 years old, it is suspect.

    Also, check that the inverter coolant pump is running, by looking for turbulence on the surface of the fluid in the small tank next to the inverter. There could have been over heating going on due to high speed goat food paranoia. Otherwise, without any codes read, it is not possible to say much with certainty.

    You could have experienced the situation where a failing Combination Meter (the speedometer part of the dash) will cause the car to not shut down with a single press. This is because the Combination Meter sends wheel speed info to the rest of the ECU's. If there is no info going through due to the well known CM problem, then the car can't tell if it is moving or not, and goes into a safety mode that requires a looong single press on the power button to shut down. But if you were seeing MPH numbers, then it would appear to still be OK. Your year is in the range where that problem manifests.

    (Former dairy goat owner....but surrounded by edibles so not prone to high speed goat food paranoia.)
     
    #2 nh7o, Apr 9, 2013
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