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Won't go into Drive till error cleared?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by ddebes, Jul 12, 2013.

  1. ddebes

    ddebes Junior Member

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    Please help me understand what happened here. My son and couple of friends take my 04 Prius out of town for a weekend trip. About an hour away, they are stuck in stop and go traffic on the highway in 102 degree heat. He calls me and say the Triangle of death has come on and the indicator shows the car symbol with !, i.e. hybrid system error. Not knowing what else, I tell him to pull off to a safe and cool place, let the car sit for 15 minutes and then restart to see it goes away. Twenty minutes later he calls and says it has the same condition, but now will not go into Drive, only Neutral and the ICE never seems to start. He tries many times. I going the same direction, so I go to pick them up. When I get there it behaves exactly like he discribed. We leave it over night and on the return trip try it again. Same behavior. Call a tow and get it towed to home. Tow driver, very nice, but not familar with Prius and leaves system on (I think) and completely drains the 12 battery. When I get to it, completely dead. I trickle charge the 12 battery back to life and then attempt to start again. Same behaviour. Connect up a DTC reader and see a ton of error codes. In my haste and because I think most error codes are bogus, I erase them all. Triangle and CEL clear and all of a sudden engine starts. Let it run awhile and now it seems to work fine. Checked codes and only a few minor ones. SORRY for being so long... But, does it really behave this way? i.e.- Not going into Drive until error condition is cleared?
     
    #1 ddebes, Jul 12, 2013
  2. nh7o

    nh7o Off grid since 1980

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    It sounds like there was an overheating situation. Too bad you didn't write down the codes. Report them here if you can next time. Although, if it is a generic scanner and not Prius specific, there can be errors in the readings. One fault condition can generate multiple codes, so all of them need to be noted. Definitely the car will not let you go into drive if certain codes are pending. You don't want to cook the inverter or transaxle by just pushing onwards.

    Your inverter coolant pump may have gone out. Check for turbulence in the inverter coolant reservoir while the car is on. You should see plenty of motion on the surface of the liquid as the pump runs. If not, then you need to go to Toyota for the inverter pump recall.

    Otherwise, check that the battery cooling fan is clean and not blocked. Instructions can be searched here, and videos on youtube. Run the AC in hot weather as that keeps the battery cool as well.
     
    #2 nh7o, Jul 13, 2013
  3. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Inverter overheating is one possibility as previously suggested. In that case, the car will work after the inverter has cooled down.

    Another possibility is a high voltage ground fault. For example the traction battery may have a module leaking electrolyte, which provides a path for battery voltage to ground. In that case the traction battery ECU will log a DTC which will result in the car not starting. However a workaround for that is to disconnect the 12V battery which will clear most DTC (other than those logged by the skid control and SRS ECUs.)
     
    #3 Patrick Wong, Jul 13, 2013
  4. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    When your friends were stopped for 15minutes, did they listen to the radio? Or did they drive with lights on and then never open the driver side door? Very possible they depleted the 12v battery.

    Agree with both above, it sounds like an overheating scenario. Most likely cause is inverter coolant pump. Did you get the recall done (free from Toyota)?

    Hard to guess without the codes.
     
    #4 2k1Toaster, Jul 13, 2013
  5. ddebes

    ddebes Junior Member

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    Great info, thanks. I did check the inverter pump and it seems to be working fine. I will investigate the battery fan. However, on a overheating condition like the batter temp, wouldn't the condition clear overnight and allow starting the next day?
     
    #5 ddebes, Jul 13, 2013
  6. nh7o

    nh7o Off grid since 1980

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    If it is just the fan, then yes it would be OK after cool down. But as Patrick mentioned the overheating may be causing another problem. The conjecture of leakage current from the HV battery system would be a show stopper for sure, until the electrolyte dried up a bit.
     
    #6 nh7o, Jul 13, 2013
  7. Eclipse1701d

    Eclipse1701d Prius Enthusiast

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    Has the car been in an accident recently?
     
    #7 Eclipse1701d, Jul 13, 2013
  8. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    I may have been an overheated inverter that caused the initial problem, but this then causes the 12V battery to drain rapidly, which may have caused the problems on the second day. Can you definitely see coolant circulating (like a gurgling or turbulence) in the inverter reservoir when it's in ready?
     
    #8 uart, Jul 13, 2013
  9. ddebes

    ddebes Junior Member

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    Has the car been in an accident recently?

    No not recently... I checked the coolant reservoir and clearly see a flow across the surface and hear a faint hum of the pump. I checked the battery fan area, but stopped short of pulling it out. I checked the intake and exhaust ports to see if there was any type of buildup and it was completely clean. Really did not expect to find anything there as I keep it fairly clean and no animals ever in back :). I have driven it twice since then, once to work and back which is about 25 minutes each way, so it got a pretty good heat workout (102 that day). What I'm struggling with is if it was a momentary event, like heat, then I would think it should clear when the condition clears. And, if it was a permanent failure, like a battery fault, it should have been re-detected already. But who knows how Toyota sees it.
    ​
     
    #9 ddebes, Jul 13, 2013
  10. Eclipse1701d

    Eclipse1701d Prius Enthusiast

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    The only other thing I can think of is the car was under heavy load and may have been pushed hard by the driver, causing the inverter to overheat. The pump may be working, but not to it's fullest potential... The 12volt may have been drained as well if the car was used for listening to music, for example, while in aux mode, setting off the chain of events you described. I would recommend you perform the 12volt test via the maintenance screen after the car sits over-night.

    Also, have you performed the inverter pump recall and changed your transaxle oil? Have you ever had your inverter coolent and engine coolent drained and replaced? I've never had it happen, but the engine coolant pump could be failing/leaking fluid and the car just simply over-heated?

    Bottom line, kids are kids and the car is ten years old... 102 degrees is hot and the car may have just wanted a break!

    And, yes. The car can behave that way until the codes are cleared.
     
    #10 Eclipse1701d, Jul 13, 2013
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