URGENT: Stranded with ! PS Battery Engine All on 2001 Prius

I will most definitely check that out this weekend. i work tomorrow and friday but can probably pull them this saturday morning before work. its just pecking cold out.

 

An add some oil lol..

 

im 200 miles from a change. ill change and fill it then.

 

im going to swap out the pcv valve. ill check the ignitors saturday morning if its not freezing out.

 

Pictures of the PVC valve change?

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

 

Im hoping my local autozone has one. at least im guessing these cars have one of these.

EDIT: I just checked autozones site, they have one 4.99, judging by what looks like threads, I would say it screws into the valve cover.

 

Have fun with the PCV valve, it's a PITA to access.

You'll need to remove the wiper cowl assembly and move aside the wiring harness on top of engine. When the engine is out of car it looks easy and accessible...in the car it's a whole different story...

 

oh lovely.

 

Oh yeah the pcv sucks...but removing the cowl will also make ignitor check easier. While your in there replace the spark plugs too. Your due. Might as well if the ignitors are coming off. Lot of work getting to pcv might as well capitalize on it.

Do you have an air compressor? I recommend you give the spark wells a good blow out before removing the plugs. And if you see any corrosion in there before removing the plugs spray the wells good with carb cleaner than with a towel over the hole blow that cleaner out with compressed air. Towel so cc does not get on paint. Then wipe off valve cover real good too especially around mating area of ignitors with cc. All before plug comes out so none of the crap gets in the piston chamber.

Make sure you have dielectric grease for ignitor boot when replacing ignitor.

Btw, have you checked the water dam seal? Is is it unglued and or falling apart?

 

Spark Plugs are not too hard to change with wiper cowl installed, but a little easier with wiper cowl removed. Suggest buying new plugs if existing ones have more than 90k miles on them. Denso plugs $9 each at Advance Auto (identical to dealer plugs) OEM is Denso SK16R11 Iridium part number 3324.

 

There was a great pictorial write-up by galaxee four years ago, and several commenters reported being able to do the job without fussing with the cowl and wipers, though I think they were all working on NHW20s. We have the same engine, but I think the one thing more challenging on our NHW11s is that the wire harness that runs over the PCV location also has two connections to the steering rack going straight down from that corner, so there's not much freedom to move it around. One of those connectors I was able to separate by reaching down from above, and for the other one I became convinced that if I had to unplug it to save my life, I'd be dead. Maybe it's reachable from below?

-Chap

 

Kristy reports the car is repaired thanks to a visiting technician from CO. There may be 12V battery issues but rather than put words in her mouth, I've asked her to post status here.

I just refunded her the scanner deposit and parts since we didn't have to ship anything.

Bob Wilson

 

I agree with your observation. It wasn't at all obvious how to remove that connector without permanently damaging it.

 

That is awesome Kristy. let us know how you make out on your trip back to california. Im praying for ya for a safe trip and for this issue to be fixed and no more problems.

 

Kristy has a lot of things on her plate and hopefully she won't mind sharing this:

Source: edited e-mail, January 2.

If the "technician from CO" has more details, I'm sure the community would be interested.

I am surprised by a weak 12V battery causing a problem . . . unless it is a weak battery and the 12V inverter shutdown due to heat from a weak coolant flow. The 12V, DC-to-DC inverter is located on the bottom of the power inverter just over the transaxle. This could potentially be a hot-spot and many inverters have on-board temperature sensors to protect it from overheating.

A failing 12V battery should be testable at any Autozone or parts store. IF there is a shorting cell, the 12V battery could draw enough current from the 12V, DC-to-DC inverter to lead to serious overheating. However, I would doubt that a battery that weak would support ordinary starting or failing with 30-45 seconds if just the head lights are turned on. This remains a difficult to test hypothesis.

Bob Wilson

 

Well, I guess we can only hypothesize about the 12V but, here's what we do know.

All the symptoms pointed directly to the inverter pump. The car was driving fine then suddenly shut down and threw codes (possible inverter overheat protection circuit in action). Car was turned off for a period of time(inverter cooled down) and restarted with no drivability issues. Cool temps kept inverter cool and allowed her to complete the trip. Inspection revealed no inverter coolant flow (I know the "technician" said it was weak but the OP (trained by Prius Chat) said there was no flow). Pump was replaced and all is well.

I'm calling it a bad pump. A weak 12V wouldn't cause those symptoms b/c the inverter would have delivered a strong 14V source once the car was in "Ready".

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

I would agree to usnavy. unless and im hoping to God its not true, that the inverter 12v circuit is weak and cant keep the 12v battery system amperage and voltage up due to the bad 12v battery. hence a going bad inverter. But i dont think that is the case. i believe the weak pump caused a hot spot or whatnot and caused the lights, overheating, and vehicle shutdown.

 

I think we're going to have to wonder about this one. The OP lacks a Prius aware scanner so we won't be getting any technical details from her. The "technician from CO" hasn't volunteered, yet, and even so, may not have codes and his observations to share.

I suspect we'll find more and more cases like this over time: (1) first time posters, (2) low auto-skills, and (3) broken NHW11 Prius. Interesting puzzles but the hardest part is dealing with Prius technology while chatting with a non-technical, person with a troubled car. <sigh>

The ones that are most disappointing are "I just bought this are at an auction . . ." I'll still help but gosh darn, they bought a (likely) broken car and come here. . . . You know "Read the sticky" doesn't quite do it.

Bob Wilson

 

I agree. However, I would love to pick one of these up at an auction to fix up. There was one on ebay that needed a battery, it had 173000, but it was in Massachusetts, too far for me. but it went for $1500.

 

Bob if you hear from our OP after she gets home, let us know how she made out. Hopefully our OP will post here about how she made out.