prius owner need help

From the little that I know of the classic Prius (sedan w/ trunk, 2000-2003), the turtle means cold weather has arrived, the car may be a bit sluggish, not using the battery as much to protect it. Thus the turtle symbol of slowness.

sorry can't help ya with the Japanese. There are several people from the Prius home country who post here that may chime in...

 

Costas, Sorry to get off topic, but your countryman made a fine showing at the Australian Open Tennis, You should be very proud.

 

the turtle on my wifes 2001 Prius indicated that it need a new 12 volt battery. Changed that an it was fine. The owners manual will be available from Toyota US book and publication division. Part number will be OM47432U unless it's been superceded.

 

I like to share a joke in the book "The Prius that shook the world":

Seriously, the Output Control Warning Light, aka turtle icon, that appears on the instrument cluster only turns on in one of 3 conditions:

1. Battery temperature too high
2. Battery temperature too low
3. Battery capacity too low while the selector lever is in [R]

Power output is automatically restricted. Not a malfunction but drive without abrupt acceleration.

It is more common on NHW10 ('98~'00), quite rare in NHW11 ('01~'03) and completely remove on NHW20 ('04 onwards).

 

Seriously, the Output Control Warning Light, aka turtle icon, that appears on the instrument cluster only turns on in one of 3 conditions:

1. Battery temperature too high
2. Battery temperature too low
3. Battery capacity too low while the selector lever is in [R]

I really think there is more conditions that will set it, the battery in here 2k1 was 3/4 green the temp was in the 50's F and the dealer checked and the only problem was the 12 volt battery had no capacity. All HV checks were fine, replaced the 12 volt battery and the car was fine for 2 years. It would set the turtle in the morning after sitting all night and she took it to the dealer and they kept it overnight so as to replicate the problem and when we talked to the tech he said it came on for him in the morning. THHT showed no HV (hybrid vehicle ) problems only the 12 volt issue.

 

I think your case is an exception, the manual says the turtle only turns on in one of the 3 conditions and nothing malfunction. It may be just a coincidence that your faulty Aux battery cause it to light up, it is not designed to function that way.

I don't know if anyone else has reported the same.

 

When I participated in the Gen 1 Prius groups, the only mentions of the turtle I remember were when people had made long, usually mountainous climbs, had drawn down the big battery as far as the controls would allow, and had their top speed reduced as they were then dependent on the ICE only. I never read of one in connection with the battery being over- or under-heated, or the car being in reverse. Nor did I hear of any turtle in relation to the 12V battery.

I drove an '02 for 55K mi. and never saw the turtle.

Cvorias, is there a Toyota dealer anywhere within driving distance of you on Cyprus? Did your turtle appear after you had driven uphill a long distance? If it's a temporary thing, and there's no turtle most of the time, you're probably OK. But if not, and there's a dealer you can drive to, I'd get it checked.

galaxee, if you're reading this, does DH work on Gen 1s? (I assume so.) Could he offer an opinion?

 

gen1's are rare around here, he doesn't really get to dig his hands into them very often and doesn't recall anything about a turtle icon, other than that it exists... :lol:

he'll run it by his officially-trained prius tech coworker tomorrow and see if he knows anything.

-g

 

Not that it really helps the OP, but I'm not that surprised at his post about all the displays being in Japanese. Apparently in Cypress they drive on the left side of the road, just like Japan and apparently, there's almost no used car market in Japan. So, many of them end up being shipped out of Japan to other right hand drive countries.

I originally heard about it on Nightly Business Report on TV. Here's the transcript: http://www.nightlybusiness.org/transcript/...904.html#story4