Prius shut's down while driving and wont power up again.

I own a 2005 Toyota Prius, while driving some few days back i just noticed that the triangular warning light came on,the air bag light,the check engine and the ABS lights also came on, tramission shifted to neutral position,followed by a loss of power to the car,had to pull over and car shut down,tried powering the car, hit the brake, and push on the power button I only get a beep and the display board light flashes on and off for just a few secs and then shut down The power light never turns green, only amber.Not been able to power up the car since then.
Any one knows that the problem is with the prius?

 

Thanks Patrick for the feedback ,will give this a trial and let you know the outcome

 

Thanks for valuable feedback, this is the second recommendation that is actually pointing that the problem am experiencing could be from a bad/low battery, just to add some background, I bought the Prius after 80K miles, and have been using it for over two years without any hitch, all I do is undertake the regular maintenance, the first time I had an issue was about a months ago when the same sets of lights came up and the Prius was practically dead no lights coming up but after a while it came back up, I was searching the net and found this forum, after joining I found some valuable treads that had same experiences with the problem I was experiencing, it pointed to the battery, I had to replace the battery, but because hybrid cars are just being used in my country, as such the spares and even technicians are scarce, i had to order the battery from USA, however while waiting I got a close match that has almost the same size and terminals from a Toyota dealer in country, it is a sealed wet cell battery used by other hybrid cars i was told, the car was back to life again, until the latest problem showed up

Family and friends considered me over ambitious for using the Prius in view of the fact that its new to my area, I believe I can handle this challenge and not be a laughing stock, you guys in this forum are all got, and I really appreciate all your help.

I will carry out all the checks and let you know the outcome.

 

I carried out the three checks on the battery as requested ,the first check was after the car had been idle over the night,the second was after I tried powering up and the third was after about ten minute with some of the the car interior light on ,the readings are 12.40v,12.30v,12.37v respectively.

After the battery checks, I checked the fuse box under the dash board and all the fuses were Ok,I then checked the fuse box next to the inverter,one of the 15amps fuse on the top right hand corner in the fuse compartment was blown,I had a spare and I replaced it,hit the brakes and powered the Prius and the car came back on with the normal display on the dashboard and I moved it a couple of meters to repacked properly,after about 15 minutes the warning light came back on again and I could smell burnt wire ,when I checked the fuse compartment beside the inverter, the other 15 amps fuse directly below the one I just replaced was burn, and the car is back to the failure mode I earlier reported.

What could be the cause of this excessive currents to the fuse? ,could this be the Battery? The battery is a sealed calcium MF battery 42B19L 12V.40AH RC52MIN CCA332 made in Korea

 

The three values of the battery voltage in my earlier response was taken using a voltmeter,however as a follow up to your last tread,I also carried out the "DO-IT-YOURSELF TEST PROCEDURE (thanks to jdenenberg)" battery test as indicted on a link in your earlier tread,following the procedure the unloaded battery reading was 12.1V in the ACC mode,attempt to put a current load on the battery in line with the procedure,the car shuts down,goes to the off mode.

Could not continue to check the values of the battery in the IG -ON mode,as well as in the Ready mode.Tried to repeat the process,the car will not begin from the ACC mode goes straight to the IG-ON mode,I followed the same procedure as outline in jdenenberg procure but starting with the IG-ON mode and the value I got on the battery was 12 .0V.

As regards the history of the car whether it is a salvage,am not sure,picked it from a dealer and there was no indication pointing to the fact that has been involved in an accident,never thought it necessary to carry out a vin check.

As a follow up the last treads from Patrick and Northwichita(inverter coolant agitation and possible inverter coolant pump failure),the fuse that is currently blown is the AM2 fuse, I thought its was the EF1 fuse that I found blown before my first fuse replacement,but my wife thinks it's the AM2 fuse all along from her observation,cos she was assisting me during my checks,I have also carried out a complete check of all the fuse both under the dashboard,the fuse at the rear on the auxiliary battery and the one beside the inverter,all fuses are Ok except the AM2 15amps fuse.I had the car in the IG-ON mode and checked if there is agitation in the inverter coolant,did not observe any agitation,the coolant reservoir was very still.

I did notice the inverter coolant pump just beside the headlights of the driver headlight as pointed out in the link on earlier treads ,if all indications point to this item as the cause,i will initiate plans to get a replacement and install it with a new AM2 fuse

 

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I will try that,thanks to all you guys for your assistance.

 

I disconnected the invert pump and fixed the AM2 fuse,powered the car and it came back on,but the master warning triangle light also came on too,I guess this is due to the inverter pump disconnected,was able to repark the car.

I have initiated plans to order the inverter pump ,hope to receive delivery in about a couple of weeks.

Thank you all for your support.

 

Prius and Hybrid cars are still really few on the streets in my county,but i would expect to see more soon,due to the increasing price of gas.
I have a contact in the states,bought some accessories through him in the past,i have contacted him to place order for the inverter pump and some other items,once the items are delivered to him,he will make arrangement to air freight them to me.

I hope to get the car back on the road soon,I will keep you all posted.Thanks

 

Hi all,I would like to give updates on my prius repair as promised.
I finally installed the the new inverter coolant pump and the 15 amps fuse today,DIY,thanks to valuable tips and materials from you all.
My prius is back to life,thanks for all your help......It's sure nice to be back on the road again...