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Red Triangle, circle with !, ABS and check engine

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Tobalt, Sep 13, 2007.

  1. Tobalt

    Tobalt New Member

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    Recently, driving from work, I got the Red Triangle, yellow circle with !, yellow check engine, and yellow ABS light come on. Car seemed to behave alright. Drove it home and turned the car off. When I start the car again, only the red triangle and check engine lights are on. Taking the car to the dealer tomorrow. 73k miles on it so far. Any ideas on what could have happened?

    On a related note, I had earlier in the day filled up the tank only to 4 gallons because it was El Cheapo gasoline, and only needed enough to drive home since I was running low. Could this possibly be the culprit?

    Also, any help on how to check for the error codes I keep hearing about? What screen, etc?
     
    #1 Tobalt, Sep 13, 2007
  2. Tobalt

    Tobalt New Member

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    Recently, driving from work, I got the Red Triangle, yellow circle with !, yellow check engine, and yellow ABS light come on. Car seemed to behave alright. Drove it home and turned the car off. When I start the car again, only the red triangle and check engine lights are on. Taking the car to the dealer tomorrow. 73k miles on it so far. Any ideas on what could have happened?

    On a related note, I had earlier in the day filled up the tank only to 4 gallons because it was El Cheapo gasoline, and only needed enough to drive home since I was running low. Could this possibly be the culprit?

    Also, any help on how to check for the error codes I keep hearing about? What screen, etc?
     
    #2 Tobalt, Sep 13, 2007
  3. Danny Hamilton

    Danny Hamilton Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tobalt @ Sep 13 2007, 05:04 PM) [snapback]512166[/snapback]</div>
    You can get them from whoever services your car, or you can purchase a device for reading them (like a ScanGuage). As far as I know the codes are not available from any where on the MFD screen in the Prius.
     
    #3 Danny Hamilton, Sep 13, 2007
  4. Danny Hamilton

    Danny Hamilton Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tobalt @ Sep 13 2007, 05:04 PM) [snapback]512166[/snapback]</div>
    You can get them from whoever services your car, or you can purchase a device for reading them (like a ScanGuage). As far as I know the codes are not available from any where on the MFD screen in the Prius.
     
    #4 Danny Hamilton, Sep 13, 2007
  5. morpheusx

    morpheusx Professor Chaos

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    what you describe is exactly what mine did when I ran out of gas, it still seemed to drive alright and about 3 or 4 miles down the road it died. After putting gas in it, all the warnings slowly started disappearing, but after about 5 miles they finally all completely went away on their own.
     
    #5 morpheusx, Sep 17, 2007
  6. GeekEV

    GeekEV Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tobalt @ Sep 13 2007, 03:04 PM) [snapback]512166[/snapback]</div>
    Sounds like you didn't put the gas cap back on securely, and it's causing an emissions systems check failure... It usually shuts off the hybrid system at that point and puts up all the lights you mentioned. I used to have this happen all the time on my Civic Hybrid. Try re-securing the gas cap and most of the lights should go off, except for the check engine light, and the hybrid system should start working again. The check engine light should also go off after a few more drives. If not, definitely take it in.
     
    #6 GeekEV, Sep 18, 2007
  7. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    To summarize: before taking it to a dealer, go fill it up with gas (don't top off!) and then make real sure that the gas cap is on correctly and tight (turn it until it clicks a few times). Drive it around a couple days and see whether all the warnings go away.
     
    #7 richard schumacher, Sep 19, 2007
  8. Tobalt

    Tobalt New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(richard schumacher @ Sep 19 2007, 06:34 PM) [snapback]515023[/snapback]</div>

    Well an update. When the lights came on, the car was still on and didn't have a problem driving it home. When I pulled into the garage, I turned off the car, and turned it back on. Only the Red Triangle and check engine lights were on. Double checked the gas cap, and it was clicking after the first turn. Filled the car up, and eventually the lights went away after a few more on/off sequences.
     
    #8 Tobalt, Sep 20, 2007
  9. GeekEV

    GeekEV Member

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    Yay! Glad that's all it was.
     
    #9 GeekEV, Sep 20, 2007
  10. Tobalt

    Tobalt New Member

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    Update:

    The same lights came on yesterday. And correction on the error lights, they were the triangle, yellow brake warning, check engine, and the VSC, not the ABS. Took the car to the Toyota service shop today, and they just called to inform me the car needed a new water pump for the inverter. They said the car had a slew of errors, but apparently the culprit seems to be the water pump. Estimated cost with labor is about $375. They're keeping the car, since they don't have one currently. Estimated time is Wed afternoon the car will be fixed and good to go.
     
    #10 Tobalt, Sep 24, 2007
  11. turtleguybri

    turtleguybri Junior Member

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    I realize this thread is a few years old, but I am having the exact same problem as Tobalt. I took it into the dealer but they said there were no error codes and that everything was fine. The light goes on and off, it seems to come on when I am on the freeway, it goes off randomly after a day or so.
    I don't trust the dealer as this problem suspicouly occured just after a routine maintenance service done by them.
    Any suggestions on where to get a device to check the error codes myself? I live in Hawaii.

    I have about 65K miles.
     
    #11 turtleguybri, Dec 24, 2009
  12. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Re: Red Triangle, circle with !, ABS and check engine

    Please be specific regarding which light (or lights) is coming on.

    If you have the same lights: master warning light and brake/ABS lights, then it is possible that your inverter coolant pump has failed. When the inverter overheats, this will cause voltage on the 12V bus to sag. The skid control ECU is particularly sensitive to this, and will turn on the various brake warning lights.

    If you wish to purchase an OBD-II code reader, buy one that is compliant with Toyota CAN. However there's no guarantee that it will retrieve all DTC logged by the many Prius ECUs.
     
    #12 Patrick Wong, Dec 24, 2009
    mclchu and dave77 like this.
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