Prius completely dead.

Hello,

I've had my 2007 Prius for a about a month and a half. The car has 290,000 miles on it.

When I bought it, I was told the hybrid battery was weak and would need replacing soon. Over the month and a half that I've driven it, the battery rarely held a full charge, would drain quickly if the accelerator was pressed for more than a few seconds, and the display would flicker occasionally.

The other day while driving, I started braking and the engine made an unholy screeching/shuddering noise. The VSC light came on, along with the master warning light and "maintenance required" symbol. The car stopped accelerating and came to a stop on the side of the road where the battery was shown to be fully discharged. My emergency flashers were working, but after a while the display started flickering and then went dead, the vehicle door locks stopped working, the interior light wouldn't come on, and I was unable to even turn the car off. The gear knob refused to go past "neutral" the whole time. It then died completely.

My question is, is this definitely a hybrid system issue? I have no money to take the car to have it diagnosed or tested (taking a bus away from my car's location drained my bank account) but I do have the guy I purchased the car from who is willing to help. Our current thought process is to replace some dead battery cells instead of the whole battery as it sits in order to avoid the extra cost. Is this feasible? Will the car function after the cells are replaced, or is it totally dead as it sits without a new battery? We have a multimeter available for use to test the individual cells, if that makes a difference.

I appreciate all help. Again, I hate to deter the "take the car in to have it serviced" responses, but right now financially, that is not an option at all. A dealer already told me it would be a $3000 fix for a new battery.

Thanks!

 

It's about 1,000 miles overdue for an oil change, and the oil light was flashing occasionally before it stopped. I wasn't neglecting it, I was actually gonna take it in over the weekend. It's low, but not empty.

 

I was wondering this too, but before it stopped, the hybrid system warning light with the car and the exclamation point came on. It stopped on me one other time before, but I restarted it after a 5-10 minute wait. Each time it's happened, the battery shows as being completely drained and empty.

 

Pardon my ignorance, I'm not all that familiar with the mechanical aspects of cars. If it is an oil problem, will changing the oil out as it sits do anything, or is the car pretty much a paperweight?

 

I believe I'll do that.