Prius 2006 dead after catalic converter replacement - the red triangle on, breaks light on

Welcome to PriusChat!!

How many days/weeks did the vehicle sit unused?

Were you able to drive the vehicle into the repair facility?

How many miles on the vehicle and is the HV battery still the original?

FYI : you're posts are moderated until you've posted five times.

 

If the triangle and other warning lights are on, the car has trouble codes to be read.

There's nothing wrong with asking us what might be wrong, but asking the car might reveal information it has that we don't.

 

Charge the 12volt overnight, then force charge the hybrid battery after engine starts by putting car in drive and putting left foot hard on the brake and right foot floors the gas pedal. This will solve any issues with the batteries having a low charge.

 

Also, the fuel indicator was flashing on and off but there was gas in the car when I drove it there.

When you know for fact there is plenty of fuel in the car, a flashing 'one dot' on the fuel gauge is a very reliable indicator of having lost 12v power. Typically, you'll also lose radio presets and the driver window "auto" up and down will no longer function.

I keep hearing "it's the battery" and "the battery is dead" but that's not the case because the battery was just fine before their service,

The Gen 2 Prius has a very small 12v battery compared to most cars. If you have a flashlight with brand new batteries in it, and then lend it to a friend who accidently leaves it turned on all night, guess what? It worked just fine before you gave it to them, but it doesn't do squat now, right? What might happen if the shop left the car door open or the interior lights on, or the radio playing while they worked on it? What if they disconnected the 12v battery while working on the car, but didn't fully tighten a connection when hooking it back up?

Do not rule out a simple answer just because the battery was just fine before their service,

 

Hey Prius Camper. Very random note, but I joined Prius Chat just to ask you a question about a thread where you installed a oem hybrid battery and switched out the old ECU, etc into the new OEM pack. I'm looking to do the same thing and for the life of me couldn't figure out how the hell to DM on here lol. Hoping you can drop me a message to discuss.

Contrary to my inability to message on here I am fairly confident I can get the swap done but want to be sure there aren't additional parts o need to buy, soldering that needs done or something else that isn't generally plug and play/removing bolts. Hope to her from ya and thanks in advance!

 

Pretty easy. Remove safety plug on both packs. Unplug the 3 plugs on the old ecu. Unscrew the screws holding it too the chassis.

Then inspect that old ecu for corrosion. Look carefully in the sockets for any corrosion. then take its pcb out of the metal case and check it carefully at the backside of the connectors for corrosion. Corrosion on that board is very common. Look at the entire board very closely.
See pictures should look very clean.

If its good put the pcb back in the metal case and install it in the new pack. Plug its 3 plugs back in. There all different size cant mess that up.

After its all tight and ready to go before you attach the car side leads I put the safety plug back in and checked the total B+ at the battery side of the relay. Check it for correct polarity and total pack voltage. Easy and quick. Just to confirm I have at least 215 volts to start the car. So you know the pack is correct and ready for install.

Then REMOVE the safety plug again!

Throw the pack in reattach the power leads in correct polarity and attach the tin grounding plate strap across the grounding edge of the cables.
Bolt that back in. Plug in the safety switch push it in and as you push it in the lever will swing up. When plug is seated slide that lever straight down till it clicks.

Also a good idea before starting the car to check the 12 volts at the front jump point. many times people will leave the doors open for hours when working on the car go to start it and the battery is dead then they think the hybrid battery has failed.

Should be at least 12.4 volts at the front jump point.

 

Also you don't need to floor the gas pedal to force charge it. In D while power braking just gently push the gas pedal down till you see charging current arrows begin flowing from the engine to the battery on the energy monitor.

The second you see charging arrows flowing stop pushing the gas pedal just hold it there at that level. Its not much higher than idle. Just hold it there till you see the battery accumulate some blue bars. Older the battery is the longer that takes.

Been doing that for years till I put a new NPB battery in last year.

 

Just messaged you...

 

Best if you can write down the old coding, and these new codes, and post them in this thread for additional guidance.

Don't try starting the engine again until you know what the problem is, you could deplete the HV battery charge by doing so.

How old is the 12v battery, or do you know when it was changed last?

Texas is a fairly large state, which part are you near?

 

I have seen this before. It's not common but a stolen Cat can brick a Prius. And they can work for a bit without the Cat and O2 sensor and then die. The hybrid battery also gets run down in the process and gets called the villain when it is actually the victim.

Sometimes the cut and mangled O2 sensor wires can short out. This can happen after the car has been driven a bit. The shorted wires will blow the 15 amp EFI fuse. That fuse is next to the AM2 fuse in the engine compartment fuse box. The blown EFI fuse disables the gas engine but the car can still move on battery alone. Thus the battery gets run down.

Replace the EFI fuse (there is a spare fuse stored in the fuse box) and your Prius will come back to life.

 

Assuming, as I hope, the cut/mangled sensor wires that blew it have been repaired.

 

From the OP first post.

The O2 sensor comes with a new pigtail wire so the short has been repaired.

 

I have seen the blown EFI fuse on three Prius with stolen Cats. The first one did take a bit to figure out. I can understand why the small shop gave up and why the dealer is on a snipe hunt for a computer.

Do not let the dealer waste your money on computer without trying the fuse first.

Here is a picture showing the location of the EFI fuse. That's the drivers side headlight in the bottom of the picture. The EFI fuse is in the top right side of the fuse box.

 

Just had the same thing happen to me. Found the EFI fuse in the muffler shop parking lot and everything is good, except the red triangle is still on. When does that go out?

 

The Red triangle of death is a major fatal fault in the car. Usually because either the inverter coolant pump has failed or the hybrid battery has failed.

Do you have the original hybrid battery in the car?

Do you see a red car icon in the top left corner of the mfd screen the screen above the radio?

if the answer is yes to both these questions pretty sure you need a new battery as its the #1 failure in G2 Prius just because of there age.
Hundreds of posts about it on this site.Including myself.

You must get a Prius capable OBD code reader to harvest these codes that will tell you exactly what the car is unhappy about anything less is a waste of time imho.

Dr Prius works good its a phone app and you need to buy the bluetooth obd cable to hook it to the car its called a Clarista on amazon.com.