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Triangle of Death... could it be a code that reads as history?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by PriusofA, Sep 23, 2021.

  1. PriusofA

    PriusofA New Member

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    Hi all, if anyone can help me out with this I will not be able to thank you enough.

    A few months back, my Prius decided it didn't want to drive anymore. It was producing the P0AA6 code, which is infuriatingly vague. I was deciding whether to fork over the money and get an Autel so I could get the detail codes, and during the interim period, my 12v battery died.

    After replacing the 12v battery, the car started driving again, which is excellent.

    However, the red triangle of death popped up again, and the fan goes off like nobody's business.

    During the period when I had the P0AA6 code, I was confident there was a leak in one of the modules, but that it was just not at the point that it was pinpointable to a specific block in the battery.

    I scanned the vehicle again now that it's running (but with the triangle of death and the fan going off like a jet engine) and got the following codes. I'll list them all, even though only a few seem like likely culprits:

    C0200 current
    Front speed sensor RH circuit

    C0205 current
    Front speed sensor LH circuit

    C1259 current
    HV system regenerative malfunction

    C1310 current
    1. Active booster solenoid
    2. HV system malfunction

    B1400 current
    Normal

    B1400 history
    Normal

    P0A80 history
    Replace hybrid battery pack

    P3022 history
    Battery block 12 becomes weak

    P3000 current
    Battery control system

    P3000 history
    Battery control system

    Does it make sense to infer that the issue is block 12? I know it reads as history, but I imagine that that might have been the issue triggering the P0AA6 code, but the leak was just not enough to be specified?

    I don't know. Last time I had an issue, I immediately got the code for block 8 and simply replaced the modules and all of the codes (there were several at the time too) immediately disappeared.

    Any help is appreciated more than you know.
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it might. try dr. prius, it might help pinpoint the bad module
     
  3. Another

    Another Senior Member

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    Ishtar be more than weak, might be shorting out.
     
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Two things are being conflated here. P0AA6 and P0A80 refer to two completely different sorts of problem. Of course, there is no reason your car can't have both.

    You had the P0AA6 code earlier, but it is not among the codes you have now. I don't know what is so vague about P0AA6; it means that the isolation between the high voltage system and the rest of the car is breaking down. It has a few 3-digit INF codes you can read with a more advanced scanner, to help you pin down whether the fault is closer to the front or the back of the car. But even without those codes you can use careful observation and a megger to find where the problem is. The code means exactly what it means. You fix this sort of problem by finding whatever is conducting electricity that shouldn't be (whether it's under the hood, under the car, or in the battery) and correcting that.

    P0A80 means that one or more traction battery modules have deteriorated outside of specs. Usually it's accompanied by one or more codes like the P3022 that you have, to tell you which block of two modules it is talking about. You fix that sort of problem either by replacing the faulty module(s), or avoiding whack-a-mole by replacing the battery.

    The brake ECU's C1259 and C1310 are only set because the HV ECU is reporting a code (the P3000). I wish folks would stop doing generic web searches and writing "ac..ve bo..ter sol..oid" for C1310; that's something that code would mean in some completely different car, nothing to do with a Prius. Continually reposting it that way on PriusChat just messes up people's searches.

    Because you haven't shown anything but history codes from the battery ECU in this latest batch, there's a slight mystery why the HV ECU P3000 is current, unless the scan tool missed something. It might be good to get access to a scan tool that can read INF codes, and see what INF codes are going with that P3000.

    In any case, it looks like you know about two recently detected problems: one involving a marginal battery module or two, in block 12, and one involving a high-voltage isolation fault, somewhere in the car, not pinned down yet.

    They probably both will need attention.
     
  5. PriusofA

    PriusofA New Member

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    Hi ChapmanF, I cannot thank you enough for your in-depth response.

    My lament about the vagueness of the P0AA6 code was a reference to the fact that it appears to be one of several things that you need the detail codes for.

    My guess was and still is that there’s a leak in the battery, but if it was the transaxle, for example, I’d be far more screwed, and I don’t have the kind of diagnostic equipment to know.

    (I should probably at this point include the disclaimer that I’m a total amateur when it comes to this stuff. I can turn a ratchet as well as anyone, but I really know very little about these codes. I apologize for any faux pas or stupidity.)

    I don’t mind playing whack-a-mole, but I’m a little thrown off by the fact that P3022 is showing up as history and not current.

    The description of "ac..ve bo..ter sol..oid” showed up on my scanner associated with the C1310 code; I just included it because it was included in the information from the scanner. I apologize; I was sort of mindlessly relaying the codes and their accompanying descriptions. I didn’t mean to create any search hinderances; I hadn’t even known about such a thing.

    I might end up getting an Autel. It’s just pricey, and I already have a scanner, so it irks me to pay for it when I have a sneaking suspicion (an uneducated, intuited, and plausibly naive suspicion) that if I swap out block 12 and replace it with two new modules, I can slap my car on the rear so to speak and all the codes go away. I only believe this because that’s basically what happened last time with block 8.

    The scanner I have is a middle-range innova that actually allows you to scan the battery and get what I'll call "charge reads" for a lack of terminology, and the modules all have green bars that are above 16, which detracts from the theory that there's something wrong with block 12, although perhaps there's just enough sharing of charge that nothing is noticeable? Heck if I know. Again, I'm sorry for the loose use of terminology.

    Thanks so much for taking the time to get back to me. It’s tremendously helpful to get a well-intentioned response. Thanks also to Another and Bisco for the feedback. Any and all insight is helpful; I have very little of my own here from an overall lack of experience.
     
  6. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Yeah, it doesn't do to guess. It's in the battery if it's in the battery, it's in the transaxle if it's in the transaxle, or in one of the other places, and in no event does reality care what your guess is. If the P0AA6 comes back, you just have to find out what the reality is, which will require either having some gear you don't currently have, or getting some help from someone who has it. The INF codes are handy but not super-essential: they just save you the first step of the troubleshooting that's needed anyway to pin it down precisely. Without them, you just have to begin with that step.

    :) and the people who put the database in the scanner just built it by glomming together whatever fortune cookies they could search up for the various codes, for any car on the planet.

    Really, my usual advice with the trouble codes is to pretty much ignore the fortune cookies, just take the five-character code straight to the repair manual (more info) and flip to the corresponding section there. That will also start with a fortune cookie, which at least will be the right one for the car, but even those usually aren't worth trying to decipher. What you want is in a box a little further down the page, called the "detection condition". That's where it tells you exactly what reality has to do to the computer, to make the computer report that code. From that, you can really start figuring stuff out.

    It's not uncommon on PriusChat to hear of people repurposing an old beater Windows laptop to hook up a cheap J2534 dongle and run some version of Toyota's Techstream software, which is what the dealer uses so it shows you everything the dealer would see. If you go with an officially distributed version, it works for two days every time you feed it $65, a bit annoying, but often less than a dealer appointment to go have them run it, and maybe still less than some "pricey" tools that might not be as useful on a Prius.
     
  7. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Following from ChapmanF's info, that Innova scanner might just be able to retrieve INF codes if it has a button (associated with the code) with a 'snowflake' icon or the letters FFD on it. Clicking on this button will open the freeze frame data, which is where you will find the INF or Detail codes.
     
  8. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    The fault codes for the HV battery indicate that at some point the battery ecu measured a sizeable (something around 0.5V or greater) voltage difference from block 12 compared to all the others. If your scanner can display block voltages then you might want to monitor them while driving the car (safely of course). See what they look like during heavy accel (discharge) and braking (charge). Some faults might only be apparent when the battery is loaded.

    Some here use the Dr Prius app with a compatible OBD2 bluetooth adapter (see the website). It's good to view live HV battery data and you can keep it in the car. Hybrid Assistant app (android only) also works and has good data logging and makes a great report afterwards.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.