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Red Triangle of Death

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by KJ Fitz, Nov 3, 2020.

  1. KJ Fitz

    KJ Fitz Junior Member

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    2015 Prius
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    Three
    Welp. 2008 Gen 2, 130,000 miles. Engine died, all lights on, Red Triangle of Death. Suspect dead traction battery. No aftermarket battery installers here on Guam. If I can buy one in California I may ship it in and install it myself. Should be an adventure. Has anyone swapped one out? Having it towed to dealer to confirm battery failure, but not about to pay them $3000 to replace it.
     
  2. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    go with the NewPriusbatteries.com I just installed a set and they work great. new design $1600. Good for years. Business owned by very long time member.

    2K1toaster
     
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  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Any particular reason you suspect the traction battery and not any of the other couple hundred reasons for those lights to be on? Do you have any way of reading the codes that will tell you that, before making an expensive purchase?
     
  4. KJ Fitz

    KJ Fitz Junior Member

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    I do not. Towed it to the dealer for diagnosis.

    One more data point though, which seems odd and makes me suspicious -- the charge indicator is showing green bars all the way to the top. I've only ever seen that coming down a mountain, and this was in town.
     
  5. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    One of the signs of a weak/failed HV battery. Ask for all the codes including sub-codes, you paid for them (I assume). Battery in a shipping container will be well over 100 lbs. New OEM and newpriusbattery are both not plug-n-play as there is some-to-alot work needed to swap them out. Are you a DIY sort?

    You can read how I dealt with a failed pack three years ago in my signature link. This was before newpriusbattery was an option; otherwise I would have gone that route from the start.

    GOOD LUCK!
     
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  6. KJ Fitz

    KJ Fitz Junior Member

    Joined:
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    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Still waiting on Dealer. They did tell me primary code is P0AFA. Doing further diagnostics.

    IF the battery is the issue, and since I live on an island in the middle of nowhere, I'm looking at the rebuild kit from
    electronhybridsolution.com

    It's a set of new cells and the bus bar/harness kit. I'm retired so I have time, and my background is in aircraft maintenance,
    so I'm confident I can do the work. It does entail a complete stripdown of the battery, replacement of old cells with a new,
    balanced set, and re-assembly.

    They have a very good, detailed step-by-step youtube guide.

    Has anyone here used their kit? Outside of that possibility, I suspect I'll scrap the car.
     
  7. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    What gives you the idea its a set of new cells? Even their 'Platinum kit' @ $1900 is remanufactured modules. Pretty sad considering many places have brand new OEM Toyo batteries for ~1700.
    Tell them to provide you with the serial numbers from the top of the modules. That provides the date of manufacture.

    regardless of which version of their battery you're looking at, The 2k1Toaster battery would a better deal and it's 100% brand new and currently being used in thousands of vehicles worldwide.

    Also, a P0AFA code will still allow the car to be driven normally. Diagnostics code reading isn't rocket science. It should take 10 minutes to have the codes and subs.

    P0AFA is likely to be related to corrosion on the voltage sensing harness wires/plug or ecu socket. Possibly even just a broken wire in sensor harness, usually at a crimp where the small gauge wire is connected to the tab.

    MONITOR DESCRIPTION The battery ECU monitors a voltage of the battery blocks to detect an open malfunction in internal battery voltage sensor circuits of the battery ECU and the wire harness between each battery block and battery ECU. If a voltage at one of the battery blocks is below a standard level or of all the battery blocks is within a specified range, the battery ECU judges that there is an open in the internal sensor circuit(s) or wire harness. The battery ECU then illuminates the MIL and sets a DTC.

    P0AFA.jpg
     
    #7 TMR-JWAP, Nov 14, 2020
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2020
  8. DLMcKenzie2004

    DLMcKenzie2004 Junior Member

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    2008 Prius
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    N/A
    Check out my post to see just how simple dealing with the P0AFA was for myself this past week, only took $130 in parts. Dill's Prius Saga | PriusChat If you are comfortable you could tear down the battery to the point where you can see the ECU. Unplugging the orange cable from the ECU will pretty quickly tell you if you have a problem there. It may not fix everything, and a new battery would be easy to put in past this point already, but if your ECU/Plug was like mine, then it would have to be replaced anyway so why not try there first.

    Also! If you take apart your ECU and it looks fine, the pins on the opposite side of the burnt pins are not used for any connection. I am actually working on soldering and removing one of the pins that is unused and replacing my burnt off pin to see if I can make a good working ECU from my broken one. If all goes well, could be a good "guy stuck on an island" type repair to make if you are comfortable with soldering.