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I destroyed my 2008 Prius, need help

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by bigidiot, Aug 24, 2021.

  1. bigidiot

    bigidiot New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2021
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    Location:
    Ca
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Hello, so I am going to be up front and try to mention every detail... So I bought a 2008 Prius off of craigslist 2 years ago, all seemed well on the test drive. The one thing the guy mentioned was the AC doesn’t work, no big deal. A couple days after I purchased the car, the dash lights went out, so I went on YouTube to look for fixes, so I would regularly unplug the battery to reset it, and that worked, a lot of the time I would just drive around without it once it stopped working.

    Fast forward two years, this week. I removed dash and soldered a new capacitor and the dash worked, Drove it around the block and all was well. I thought I was a big shot, so I decided to try to tackle the AC, not knowing what I was doing I let the air out of the high vent. I had the fan blowing at the lowest temperature on high. I wasn’t paying attention and the hybrid battery drained, but my 12v was still reading 12+. The car will kick on for 20 seconds and say it is charging the hybrid battery then the triangle and the little car with the! Will pop up along with pretty much every other warning light on the dash.

    I also re-programmed my smart key after the dash was working again and that functions 100%.

    everything was fine before tinkering with the ac, now I get a p3193 code and car won’t move. There is fuel. The only thing that I can find where I’m at now is that I need to get a factory reset of that code with a nice meter, Because the at home ones don’t have that function.

    I know that is hard to read, and thanks for looking. Let me know if you have any ideas.
     
  2. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2017
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    Location:
    Northern California
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Welcome to PriusChat!!

    Your "Location" mentions Ca, how close are you to a major metroplex, as there may be a member who could assist.

    Here is the diagnostic workup for DTCs P3190, P3191, P3193 :

    https://share.qclt.com/%E4%B8%B0%E7%94%B0%E6%99%AE%E7%91%9E%E6%96%AF%E5%8E%9F%E5%8E%82%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8CPDF%E6%A0%BC%E5%BC%8F/Prius%20Service%20Manuals%202004/%E4%BF%AE%E7%90%86%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8C/04pruisr/05/2054m/cip3190a.pdf

    If you've had a low 12v situation, or have disconnected the 12v recently, then you should also clean the MAF sensor and disconnect it before attemptiong to restart the engine, if the engine starts and after it has charged up the HV battery then you can reconnect. If the above doesn't get the engine going, then go through the posted workup (above) for DTC P3193 step-by-step and report back in this thread.

    Realize the disconnecting the 12v will reset the HV battery to a false state of charge (SOC), making it appear to be half full again.

    You may need to borrow, buy, or build a 'grid charger' to recharge the depleted HV battery if the engine won't start.

    You may want to buy a 'mini-vci' cable and use 'techstream' (dealer technician diagnostic software) to retrieve those obd2 codes.
     
  3. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2016
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    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    Have you actually tried adding fuel? At least 3-4 gallons?
     
  4. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    Location:
    NJ-USA
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    Also might want to clean the throttle body. If the 12V battery went low enough or was disconnected then the ECM would lose its "learned adaptation" for correct throttle opening.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  5. burrito

    burrito Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2021
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    Location:
    California
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Keep in mind that when there are error codes and the warning lights come up on the dashboard, it's because the car's computer thinks something is wrong. Clearing the codes doesn't fix anything; it really just makes you lose information. The proper thing to do is find out what error codes are saved in the computer, find out what they mean, fix the problem, and only then reset the relevant codes.

    You said that everything was fine before, but it wasn't because there were errors. If you're able to retrieve the error codes now, that would help figure out what needs to be done at this point.