Urgently needing options or suggestions

Not that it matters beyond another possible oil change, but you've put on 6000 miles in the last 3 weeks?

There should be a warranty manual in the glove box that spells out what and when, the warranty will start one the first day the vehicle was put into service. This first sold date should be on the registration or title, if not then the dealer would have that information.

Find the VIN (look on the registration / title), log in at http://toyota.com/owners - it should tell you all about the vehicle and warranty.

If you have troubles navigating the above website, call (or visit) *any* Toyota dealer with the same VIN as above and ask about the warranty status. Your 10 year clock (and mileage) is ticking rather quickly, what does the build date say in the drivers door jamb?

After reading this I am still unsure if the 12v battery was actually replaced. If you're still jumping the car, you'll need a new 12v.

If the key fob battery hasn't been replaced recently, go to a dollar tree and pick up a "2032 battery".

You never mentioned if there were dash lights indicating a problem with the vehicle. Refer to the owners manual for explanations. If the vehicle didn't come with a set of owners manuals, download them at Toyota Online Owners Manuals and Warranty

Did NTB tell you which OBD2 code(s) they were able to pull from your vehicle, or at least the ones indicating a failed HV battery?

The next time you have the OBD2 codes scanned, write down the results and post them here for additional help.

Please post any codes or updates in this thread, as we're here to try and help you. Log in often if you're looking for specific answers..

 

Best advice sell the car and get into a minivan or something. Too many issues and your not gonna be able to afford to fix any of them. Go CarMax it and get van with working AC you can sleep in, and deal with your other problems first.

 

Sounds like it might be a flood car with all those electrical issues. You can gamble with buying a new 12v battery but for $200 and whatever you could get from selling the Prius it's smarter to get a different car.

 

tl;dr

check in with hometown hybrids in houston

 

did your friend buy it new?

 

Where did you add water?

 

How many thousands you need to take it to the nearest auction and mail me the title?

Just curious --- might be very interested if price is ok

 

He said he is homeless and doesn't have the money to fix it

 

The best thing is to find someone to fix it. Maybe if someone sympathizes with your story you can get it fixed on credit. Probably all simple/cheap stuff.

As far as your job situation you can make $150-$200 every single day driving for Uber/Lyft. That is before gas/insurance/oil and whatever other maintenance. It's a slow process. For example, you might be at $60 in 3 hours.....$90-$100 after 5 straight hours.

But if you put in a full day's work (8-9 hours) you'll pass $150 pretty much every time.

These gig economy jobs have their ups/downs but have been a life saver for a lot of people.

 

He is a she. Would be easy to figure out if you did due diligence.

 

double post

 

I like your solution but how clean do you think a Prius with 3 humans living inside it is going to be? I don’t want you to think I’m cutting on you, I’m not into believing a sob story myself.

 

Whoops. What do you think of the "I don't know anything about cars but I think it needed water so I added water"....I'm curious where she added water?

 

OP, it's kind of difficult to help you because it sounds like you have multiple problems going on with the car and there's probably no single magic bullet to clear them all. If a 12V battery isn't going to fix most of them, you're probably up for a large bill.

Do note my disclaimer: I am not a mechanic any these are just my thoughts about your car from what you've described. You are best served by a professional who knows what they're doing and not some guy off the internet who worked on his car a few times.

I'll start with the bad:

First, you noted that you ran the car down to no gas and the car needed a jump. Draining the hybrid battery to that level has likely degraded it some (not to be confused with parked, running AC). While many people have replaced individual cells in the battery somewhat economically, I'm of the opinion that it's really something you'd want to do if you were a hobbyist and not fully reliant on the car. This is because it's very possible to spend a few hundred dollars on a band-aid that will only work for a few weeks or months, if at all - there's no certainty. That's why I'm almost sure Toyota would recommend you replace the entire battery pack. Even that would be a toss-up because it sounds like you're having other electrical issues.

Second, you noted that the car runs rough - our car (a bit older than yours, at 270k miles) started running loud before I noticed that we were burning engine oil and were low on oil. Running the engine on little oil is going to damage it as well as the exhaust/emissions system (if I replace it, the part alone is like $1200).

Your tires are worn: these are going to be a big risk. If your engine fails, you'll lose power and it's clearly not a safe situation. but compare that to not being able to stop or steer in an emergency. I think the latter is quite a bit worse.

With all that said, our Prius lurches a little too when the engine kicks on. I don't know what yours looks like so it's impossible to say if what you're seeing is normal.

A list of things you can practically do for free to maybe figure out where some of your issues lie:

1. Your car runs rough: check the oil level and make sure it's OK. Our car ran loud when it was low on oil.

2. I'd be pretty concerned about the clunk from the suspension when going over potholes. I could at least make a visual inspection of the suspension to see if anything looks out of place - you can do it just by taking videos with your cell phone camera of both sides of the car and comparing them. Do the parts look like they're in the same places? Do the springs on the shocks look OK? You can video them without having to lift the car. This wouldn't be a guarantee that nothing is wrong, but you will be able to catch problems that are really obvious.

I also wouldn't count on the car having been to NTB recently as being any guarantee that someone knowledgeable has made an inspection. It is my opinion that I would maybe trust NTB to put tires on my car, but nothing else. I wouldn't take the vehicle to chains like Jiffy Lube either.

3. OBD2 codes can be read for free by many auto parts stores. I've had it done at AutoZone a few times when I misplaced my reader. Call around and ask if they read codes for free. They will often look the codes up for you and tell you what they mean and maybe what to replace (since they're an auto parts store and want to sell you parts).

4. Maybe try the Maintenance Mode 12V battery check procedure (listed here, quoted below). If you want a Toyota battery, the two part numbers are 28800-21181 (without proximity key) and 00544-21171-325 (with proximity key). I see them online for $194 and $175, respectively. Your local parts desk is probably going to quote you more - always ask for a discount and see if they'll try to come close to the price you can find online. We replaced our stock 12V with an Optima Yellow Top.

Procedure:

Engaging in a little vulture capitalism?

Compensation for rideshare drivers has been decreasing. OP may also lack the capital necessary to get the car into the state where it will pass the required mechanical inspection/certification. With that in mind, this is not a good suggestion.


OP: we have been helping a family friend who has been on food stamps for some time. I have some understanding of the position you're in when every last dollar is precious and I sympathize. Good luck, you'll need it.

 

I think the money you're saving on gas you will pay in repairs. The electrical problems could be a bad 12v battery but could be something worse. A mini van would use more gas but would be way better to live in. Or look for a roomy hatchback with a small engine like a Toyota matrix/Pontiac vibe, or a mazda5. Just giving you the facts chasing down issues on a hybrid is expensive. I mean just look at the situation. your car is almost undriveable, you have to count on it to run in order to use the AC, by the sounds of it you have trouble affording gas to keep it filled. The problem with that is after a few times of running these cars completely dead you ruin the hybrid battery which costs ~$2500 to fix. Otherwise..

12V battery $200
new tires $200
clanking noise probably broken spring or engine mount or exhaust $200-500
electrical problems with key - who knows?