Hit rock (underside), heard hissing noise from back passenger area, !, (!), VSC and check engine

I was on a dirt access road (yay Boy Scouts) and its was raining. I hit a dip and hear a terrible noise, then saw that I'd hit a rock. There was a hissing sound coming from the back passenger area, and the master light !, brake !, VSC and check engine lights came on. I was out of cell reception area, so I had to drive so I could call out. The car did not want to accelerate properly (it would accelerate, just very slowly). I finally got to where I could call out, had a tow and called my insurance company.

The car repair place said their diagnostics show that it's a hybrid battery problem, but I'm not sure that makes sense. Has anyone else run into this? The car has about 150k miles on it and was running perfectly before the rock.

 

The bizarre thing is, the battery wasn't charging when I was driving out, but when I stopped/restarted and let it sit the display showed it charging and it got to full charge green bars. I'm waiting to hear back from the shop. They didn't try to drive it, and have just hooked it up to diagnostics. They haven't given me codes, but say there is a new code (I guess it keeps track) and they think that means the batteries are bad.

Does a car typically go from running perfectly (I have a full inspection at each oil change) to dash lights when you run over something that hits under your car? They shop thinks it was just a coincidence.

 

I will have to ask the shop if they checked for that. Thanks!

 

Apparently they are closed now, so I will have to wait until tomorrow to find out the codes. They have now had the car for 3 days.

 

I'm not sure about the smell. I'm a smoker and usually have the window down as well.

 

I'm hoping they checked the fuel line, but I will have to check with the shop to be sure tomorrow.

 

At this point I'm still waiting on the shop to call back. I had to call my insurance company and see if they could find out anything for me. They said the shop is still trying to pinpoint the problem and that the shop manager will be calling me today. I'm going to ask him what exactly is going on, what they've tried, how they've examined the vehicle. The problem is that I have no vehicle while my husband is at work, and when he comes home it is close to the shop closing time. I'm going to see if he can take tomorrow off so we can pay them a visit. This is so frustrating.

 

I got a call back from teh shop manager. The codes that came back are:

P3000
P0A80

He said one was a code that was in recall, but because my car has 100k+ on it that the recall is not applicable. That seems odd.

 

Thank you so much for your help! I ended up picking up the car from the shop (that still had no idea what was wrong). I'm taking it to another shop Saturday morning.

I did notice the strange smell as I was driving home, the hissing noise from the back seat area, and oddly the cruise control doesn't work.

The car is accelerating, but still doesn't feel as powerful as the acceleration did before. The display with the engines/battery showed the battery charging a lot differently than it did before. It would go into the green (almost full charge), then drop to the blue, then back to the green. It used to stay in the blue area 95% of the time while operating. It dipped into the purple (two bars) at one point early on in the drive, but remained blue and green for the rest of the drive.

The new shop is closer to home, so even if I have to grab my bike I can make it in and talk to a human while actually allowing them to point out what the do or don't see. That will be a relief. Being stuck carless with a shop 20 miles away didn't allow for in person contact.

 

The shop was a dealership body shop (insurance wanted it to go there). The one I have the appointment at tomorrow is not a dealership.

Insurance still says that the problem was not caused by hitting the dip/rock. I'm going to ask the new shop what they think. The old shop didn't see physical damage to the bottom of the car so they state that means the problem was not caused when I was on the dirt road, but would have happened right then no matter what.

On a 2006 with just under 150k, is replacing the battery a good move, or would it be better to look for something a bit newer? I don't want the car to start nickle and diming me to death. However, this car has been fantastic, and I would like to keep it (I like to drive cars until the cost/benefit ratio turns against me - the last car I had I drove 250k miles before getting a new one).

 

I'm in the Columbia, SC area. Does anyone know of a good shop or DIY expert close to me? I used to work on my VW Bug (71, sweet car) and my 2000 Civic, but the hybrid is a spaceship in comparison.