No cabin heat. Overheat icon flashing.

Discussion in 'Prime Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by mke039, Nov 27, 2025 at 9:16 AM.

  1. mke039

    mke039 Junior Member

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    Just bought a used 2017 Prius Prime Advanced with 120k miles.
    Beautiful car but some serious issues not observed in the brief test drive before purchase.
    Wife took it on a long drive to visit her sister. About 30min into the drive the overheat icon started flashing, then solid. She pulled over, let the car cool and returned home.
    I installed an OEM thermostat and ordered an OEM water pump which has not yet arrived. Those 2 components are NOT OEM on the vehicle now. Someone has been in there before.
    Drove the car with the new thermostat, but same result.
    Also, there is no heat in the cabin from the ICE.
    Heat pump works fine on initial start up.
    Also the car came with no charging cord, so we bought one (not OEM) it worked fine twice. Now no light at all when plugged in. While driving and pressing EV/HV button Charging mode comes on but stops after a minute or two.
    It is very difficult to find good information on any of this. Does anyone know where I can get a service manual on this car?
     
    #1 mke039, Nov 27, 2025 at 9:16 AM
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2025 at 9:45 AM
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  2. amos

    amos Active Member

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    Is the coolant level low?
    There are endless threads about a leak from the exhaust area or the catalyst co verter and a bypass of the leak. Or other ways to deal with that
     
  3. mke039

    mke039 Junior Member

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    Yes I should’ve put that in. Coolant level remains unchanged no white smoke, etc.
     
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  4. amos

    amos Active Member

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    So its pointing to a water pump or something . But you mentioned that its might have been replaced.
    Lets see what other senior members suggest.
     
  5. amos

    amos Active Member

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  6. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    I hate to say this, but if someone has already replaced the electronic water pump and thermostat - there's a high likelihood they also used stop-leak and other stuff to correct the problem; so they could "dump" the car onto someone else. :(:mad:o_O
    These cars DON'T blow white smoke or turn the oil into milkshake - if it did, you'd notice the engine issues right away. Those are pre-ECU old iron block engine diagnostics. The modern ECUs would catch these issues much sooner. In other words the CEL would be lit; before it ever got to that point.
    My best advice is, buy one of those AP200 scanners and OBD2 HUD on sale and use OEM parts for repair. The OBD2 HUD will monitor engine conditions in real-time and alarm when parameters are set and exceeded. I don't believe the Prius alarms or stores overheat events - just a lonely flashing red lamp.

    Good Luck...



    You'll need to describe the traction battery charging issue in more detail; since we can't see, hear, touch, or smell what's going on - but one problem at a time.
     
    #6 BiomedO1, Nov 27, 2025 at 10:29 AM
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2025 at 10:52 AM
  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk MMX GEN III

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    Earlier year Gen 4’s had problems with coolant leaks in the exhaust heat recovery system, might be a factor.
     
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  8. mke039

    mke039 Junior Member

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    I just took the car to a EV charging station. It is charging fine on level two so that’s an issue resolved.
    I have an OEM water pump coming. I will throw that at the problem. Weird how the heater core is not getting any hot coolant. I wish I had a schematic of the whole system. Maybe there’s a solenoid involved?
     
  9. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    There's either air in the system or it's clogged by stop-leak.
    Change the water pump and follow proper procedures to 'burp' the cooling system. Make sure you crank the heater all the way up while your doing this.
    Tech tip: place the car in ready mode; hit the front defogger button to fire the engine. It beats doing the chicken-dance - trying to get it into service mode. PS. service mode disables safeties - doing it my way, safeties are still engaged - so if you screw-up you won't blow anything up.

    Good Luck....

    FWIW; I'd probably run a Carfax on it to see what your getting into..... I've been noticing a disturbing trend where most dealerships don't even put down mileage or what they did to the car. Simply date and 'car serviced' - pretty much makes those reports useless. It probably helps resale values because you can't figure out patterns of failures on certain make and models.
     
    #9 BiomedO1, Nov 27, 2025 at 11:31 AM
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2025 at 4:11 PM
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  10. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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  11. mke039

    mke039 Junior Member

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    We did a Carfax before we bought the car. Just routine maintenance shown. But when I put it up on my lift I saw the engine splash guard missing. I noticed regular hose clamps on the thermostat hoses and non OEM parts installed.
    Not a warm fuzzy feeling about the seller at this point. I wonder if there is a way to flush the heater core to alleviate the question of whether or not it is clogged
     
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