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Replaced12v battery, still have red triangle of death

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Tonya27, Jan 5, 2019.

  1. Tonya27

    Tonya27 New Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    This is going to be long but I want all the info out there.
    2007 Prius 222,000 miles

    Just before Christmas last week the check engine light came on. My husband (the daily driver of the Prius) is notorious for not tightening the gas cap enough. So I told him to tighten that and see what happens the next day. I forgot to ask about it and he never mentioned anything. Car ran fine to my knowledge but apparently the of death was on too. He was certain that meant he needed to add oil. (The car has been in the family for years and has always burned oil quickly and instead of messing with the engine we just add oil and get oil changes at 5000 miles) so fast forward to New Year’s Eve and the car won’t start. He said the dash and lights turned on but he couldn’t drive it. He also said he heard a dinging noise as if something was left on. He went to work in another car. A few hours later I went out and it started right up and I was able to drive it. We started it 3 more times that day and once on New Year’s Day. 5 or 6 hours after starting on NYD it wouldn’t start again. Had a friend come with a battery charger tried to see if we could get it to start. It was all over the place. When the needle on the charger was showing activity the car was trying to turn on, without anyone trying to turn it on. But when the needle was not showing activity nothing was happening. We still couldn’t get it to start. After lots of reading in here we decided to have the battery checked. Took it to O’reillys and the battery came back good. (This is when I found out the battery is the ORIGINAL!!! Not even sure how that’s possible but not the point) put the battery in the car and did the diagnostic screen test. It showed 11.4v then with lights on it went down to 10.9. So we decided this definitely meant a battery issue. Replaced the 12v today. It shows 12.6v and when in “ready” it shows 14+. The only lights on are the of death and the maintenance light (time for an oil change). The oil was a bit low so we added oil. The is still on after more than 3 starts and 2 short drives. Took the car to O’reillys to have codes read and these are the codes that came up.
    C1256
    C1300
    C1311

    I’m not sure those have anything to do with the .

    So the question is:
    Do we need to drive it more for that light to go off or is there still an issue we aren’t seeing that is causing it to be on?
     
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Vehicle:
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    II
    I'm suspecting your inverter pump has failed. Look at the fluid with the cap off, see if there's movement in the fluid when the car is READY. No movement in the fluid would mean pump has failed
     
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  3. Tonya27

    Tonya27 New Member

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    Jan 5, 2019
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    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I will looking into those work ups! Thank you! But with that...we just went to check the car and battery again because now I am worried the battery is going to drain for no reason, and the whole dash won’t light up.

    Something I forgot to mention in the original post is that the “p” error comes on the screen all the time now too.
     

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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Vehicle:
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    Plug-in Base
    get a volt meter and check the battery at the jump point under the hood. also, check the battery connections for cleanliness and tightness, especially negative to ground
     
  5. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    Sounds like you have been starting the car but not driving anywhere. The traction battery seems to charge better if you actually drive the car rather than sitting and idling. That’s fine for a regular gas engine car but not a hybrid.