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What dealer says re: batt and what I see do not jive

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by ieatsawdust, Aug 10, 2017.

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  1. ieatsawdust

    ieatsawdust New Member

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    My 2004 has 245k miles and has had few serious problems. Relied on dealer for good advice until now. Ck engine light in past always came back as gas cap issue. Bought a 2016 and the '04 was not driven as much. Then one day ck eng light became red triangle. Code reader showed P0A93 inverter coolant pump. Not wanting to do more damage, finally towed it in after 4 weeks. Live up 6 miles of Forest Service road 60 miles from the dealer. They call and say inverter pump bad, catalytic converter bad, HV battery bad. I say only one code was triggered and tell them to fix the pump. Pick it up and red triangle still there. Sheet says it was reset but then it came back and could not be reset. Warned me not to trust the car, like checking out of the hospital against medical advice. Drove home fine. Code reader still said P0A93. Disconnected 12v battery ground, red triangle gone, no codes. Dealer had said 8 of 14 modules were dead or dying and complete failure was imminent. Cannot resolve what he said and what I see. If it were that damaged wouldn't it throw a code? How bad does an HV battery have to be to show a code? Will a bad catalytic converter throw a code? Still can't reconcile three serious issues discovered by dealer and only one code showing and now no code showing. Any advice appreciated.
     
    #1 ieatsawdust, Aug 10, 2017
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    welcome!

    if any modules were actually 'dead', you wouldn't be driving it. however, if you want to test them yourself, to see how far out of parameters they are when under load, you need tech stream software.
     
    #2 bisco, Aug 10, 2017
  3. ILuvMyPriusToo

    ILuvMyPriusToo Senior Member

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    You should get codes for the HV battery and cat, if they had gone bad.

    To give the dealer the benefit of doubt, they would have hooked the car up to Techstream software and might have evaluated the entire car to put the inverter issues on context. Techstream will display voltages for each cell in the battery and the dealer might be basing their judgment on that rather than a code triggered. Can you press them for a better explanation of that and the cat issue, and maybe even get a printout of what they found?
     
    #3 ILuvMyPriusToo, Aug 10, 2017
  4. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Wow all those problems, it's a death sentence
     
    #4 JC91006, Aug 10, 2017
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  5. ieatsawdust

    ieatsawdust New Member

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    I'll check for more info from the dealer. You would think both the HV batt and converter would code. In this part of the world cars have broken down in desolate places and people died. No code could be deadly.
     
    #5 ieatsawdust, Aug 10, 2017
  6. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    The battery and catalytic converter will be $6000. And the little inverter pump another $500.

    Maybe they just want to sell you another new car?
     
    #6 JC91006, Aug 10, 2017
  7. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Letting an old HV battery sit is a death sentence. Codes/lights will be back.
     
    #7 fotomoto, Aug 10, 2017
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  8. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    When you say not driven as much, on a Gen2 if it sits around the 12v battery discharges unless you turn off the smart key system under the steering wheel. It also does not charge up 12v very fast when you drive it, so you could be having trouble keeping the 12v adequately charged.
     
    #8 wjtracy, Aug 10, 2017
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  9. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it will code with a prius aware reader.
     
    #9 bisco, Aug 10, 2017
  10. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Buy a mini vci on amazon and do your own investigation. But odds are real good your hybrid battery is going south.
    You have a 13 year old car with quarter million miles on it.
     
    #10 edthefox5, Aug 10, 2017
  11. ieatsawdust

    ieatsawdust New Member

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    We had just installed a new 12v batt just prior to this dance. Fotomoto, what time frame for not running the car would you consider a day too far?
     
    #11 ieatsawdust, Aug 10, 2017
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  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    new is good, but always worth checking.
     
    #12 bisco, Aug 10, 2017
  13. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    If you can do much of the work yourself, then it wouldn't cost that much to fix

    1. inverter pump and coolant $120
    2. catalytic converter $100 + labor to weld on
    3. hv battery module swap and balance - $500 and that includes a charger from Hybrid Automotive
     
    #13 JC91006, Aug 10, 2017
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  14. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    There's no hard rules but for my two failures it was a couple of weeks and just a few days of no driving. Lots of posts from folks saying they left their car for a while only to find trouble lights upon their return to drive it.
     
    #14 fotomoto, Aug 10, 2017
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  15. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    +1

    Can be as few as 4-5 days. Usually within a week the stock style battery will be dead. A larger capacity battery sometimes gets to 2 weeks or so.
     
    #15 2k1Toaster, Aug 10, 2017
  16. ieatsawdust

    ieatsawdust New Member

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    Time to pull the plug. She's been a treat over the years but we all reach the end of both the literal and proverbial road.
     
    #16 ieatsawdust, Aug 13, 2017
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  17. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    smart move, all the best!(y)
     
    #17 bisco, Aug 13, 2017
  18. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Here here: and this one's a bumpy/dusty forestry road. :)
     
    #18 Mendel Leisk, Aug 13, 2017
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