My Prius 2001 stops working while driving

does it stop after the car gets warmed up? stalls out in city driving but keeps running if you are on the highway? what happened to my 2001, same exact mileage, is that the pump that pumps coolant for the HV battery stopped pumping coolant, and thus the HV battery begins to run hot. the car will shut off when the battery gets too hot, and after a few minutes it cools off and allows you to drive a few minutes until it gets too hot again. you need to replace the HV coolant pump. its a pricey part, about $150 or so, and only can be ordered from a toyota dealership too. this is not the water pump. you have two separate cooling systems in the car and two separate pumps. get on youtube on how to do the job yourself. i did mine myself. the pump is behind the front headlight and you have to dig deep into the engine compartment to get to it. i used a sawzall to get the pump free from the clamp. once it was free, i could access the clamp. good luck. it wasn't a horrible job. just watch the video a few times. the pump is rated for 100k miles and mine died about 120k miles. it took me about 3 hours and i didn't really have a clue. there is a coolant chamber on the top of the engine. you need to use that toyota orange coolant for this job. its very specific. open the cap and if you do not see the orange coolant moving through the reservoir, your pump is dead. you should see that orange coolant moving through that reservoir.

 

The red triangle is the HV battery for the electric motor not charging properly. This can be because the battery modules are weak, or have corrosion on the contact plates. Those codes are not diagnosis codes, they are scanner's own communication protocol capabilities. The scanner had not yet communicated with the ECU computer, or can't communicate with your Prius

 

You are taking about the cooling circuit that cools the inverter, and yes when that gets hot it shuts down. The HV (hybrid vehicle) battery is not cooled by this system The HV battery in the back is air cooled by it own fan.

You need to get that scanner working to read the battery ECUs as the icon on the MFD is indicating a HV Battery problem. Without the codes all anyone can do is guess, and that could end up costing money on unnecessary repairs.

 

Does the triangle of death go away when the engine is completely cooled over night? If you look in the little reservoir over the inverter, there should be movement in the coolant no great flowing evident. If the coolant is perfectly still, probably the inverter coolant pump (located behind) the left headlite) is bad. Order one new, the pump is wear item and shouldn't be replaced with another used one.

Now that you are a Prius owner, you should invest in a mini-VCI cable and Techstream software. Cost is $20 from Amazon or on Ebay. You need an old laptop so you can take it out to the car. The software installs easily on an XP computer. Mine is static, never goes online, so the lack of support from Microsoft isn't of any concern

 

yes, the inverter is in the engine compartment. that is cooled by coolant, and its a separate cooling system from the engine coolant. and the manual suggests replacing this at 100,000 miles. being that the car is at 124,000, its likely needing to be replaced. No, you do not need a scanner to diagnose the problem. All you need to do is open the cap to the reservoir and look at the coolant. if its moving, the pump is working. if the coolant is dead still, the pump is broken. you do not need to be a weatherman to know which was the wind blows.

 

You seem to be fixated on the inverter. My focus was the Hybrid Control Icon on the screen. You do need to a scanner to find out the issues there.

 

well since my prius did the exact same thing as this persons prius, AND it takes exactly 10 seconds to remove the reservoir cap and look in it, AND since the pump has a lifespan that toyota suggests 100,000 miles to replace it, AND its free to do this. you seem to be fixated and proving me wrong. i actually find my suggestion to be helpful and spot on. will it fix his problem? i dont know. but something about the words "FREE" and "takes 10 seconds" are kind of appealing aren't they?

 

Well, and actually it's very likely the problem. It certainly was on mine. . .