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Help! Prius died

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Harmony Easley, Apr 5, 2021.

  1. Harmony Easley

    Harmony Easley New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2021
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    Location:
    Rancho Cucamonga
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    Three Touring
    We bought a used 2009 Prius. The person we bought it from gave us all maintenance paper work that was done regularly and a receipt that they'd just had a new battery put in.

    It drove great, low mileage, and everything was fine. Last night my family and I were on our way home from an Easter Celebration, and we came to a red light and the screen flashed PROBLEM with a yellow triangle, and then died. We could not get it started again. We couldn't even get it to go in neutral, cause we were literally right by a gas station. So we couldn't even get it in neutral to push it to the gas station. And we called AAA and they sent a flat bed tow truck out but the tow truck driver said there was nothing he could do if it wouldn't go in neutral, anyways, we called AAA back and said we needed another tow truck driver or tow truck. And we sat there for 2 hours till a Police Officer came and called a city tow for us and that guy had it up on the flat bed truck in 3 minutes.

    Anyways car won't start, we tried the battery, the first tow truck driver that couldn't get it up on the bed, tried to charge the battery but he said it didn't work.

    Any advice on what this is? OR how to fix it?
     
    #1 Harmony Easley, Apr 5, 2021
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2012
    10,932
    4,427
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    Location:
    Pacific Northwest, USA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Tow truck drivers are supposed to carry a set of dollies for the front wheels. Not sure why they didn't have them? Anyways, get one of these and install Dr. Prius app on your phone and go into "special features" and read the error codes and subcodes and let us know: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus Once we know the error codes we can tell you easiest/cheapest way to fix.
     
    #2 PriusCamper, Apr 5, 2021
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,785
    48,987
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    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    welcome!
    sorry to hear of your troubles.

    which battery was replaced?

    how many miles on her?

    where is the car now?

    you will need to have the troublecodes read

    you can start with a load test of the 12v battery.
     
    #3 bisco, Apr 5, 2021
  4. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2013
    16,470
    8,383
    0
    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    I would check if the car is even charging the 12v battery. I would think the first step is to make sure the 12v battery is fully charged and can hold a charge (have it checked by autozone or similar place). Without a good 12v battery in the car, you can't really diagnose anything.

    How long ago did you buy this car? Did you put more than 500 miles on it?
     
    #4 JC91006, Apr 5, 2021
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