Dealer Diagnosis 01 Prius

If you had a new HV battery installed nine months ago, the warranty (12 months, 12,000 miles) may still be in effect. Have you asked about this?

Ignore P3000 for now. P3001 and P3030 together suggest loose or damaged voltage sensing wires. P3009 may or may not be related to the battery.

Will the diagnostic fee be applied to labor for the repair?

 

Since you were unsuccessful in identifying broken sense wires, then it would make sense that you might fix DTC P3030 by replacing the module busbars that are encased in orange plastic. That would give you new sense wires that plug into the battery ECU.

I'm sure that you could do that job yourself, if you could order the busbars from the parts dept.

 

Yes, it's plausible; that's why it was mentioned a week ago in this thread, along with the observation that the new battery - and its installation - may still be under warranty. If you're looking to save money, you may want to pursue that issue.

 

No problem, you were provoked! I had pointed some others towards you if it were real.

I've seen two postings where the connector where the sense wires plugged-in had corrosion damaged pins. Pull the plug and/or test continuity through the connector as this might be a low-cost, alternative. (Take photos if you do, please.) I believe in one case, they didn't repair the plug as much as jumpered around the plug (cheap!)

Bob Wilson

 

Since your last posting the traction battery was replaced?

Did they measure the 19 module voltages?

Did they offer any codes?

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

 

My local dealer (Lexington, KY) scanned my 2001 Prius about a month ago for $67+. Dealer at Knoxville, TN charges $80.00. Your dealer is too high and making money off you. Your problems have more to do with age of the car than the miles. My 2001 Prius original battery died in January 2009 at 192,000 miles. My sister-in-law's 2001 Prius original battery died in September 2009 at 127,000 miles. The Toyota replacement battery died after 18 months and 26,000 miles. I think that the replacement batteries from Toyota have been setting in a warehouse for a number of years and therefore won't last long. It took 22 days to get my battery after the order was placed. I suspect it came from a warehouse in Japan where it had been stored since being manufactured in 2001 or so. I am trying to find out if there is a way to tell when a battery was manufactured.

All of your codes are battery related. Call David Taylor at 919-774-4037 to get information about his business that refurbishes 2001-2003 Prius batteries with 2008 and 2009 cells at a much lower price than the unreliable Toyota batteries.

Earlier I stated the the replacement battery had died. The local dealer's diagnosis was that the car needed a new hybrid battery. At the time I was very busy at work and the car did not exhibit the behavior that I observed with a failing battery. I let the car set for a number of months in the back yard because I didn't have time to bother with it. I did start it up occasionally to keep the 12v battery from discharging. The second time that I tried to start the car, the 12v battery was completely dead. I put a battery charger on it and left it there until I was able to give the car some attention, about six weeks. My work schedule returned to normal so I decided to investigate the status of the Prius. I unhooked the battery charger and started the car. The screen of death (Red triangle, Main, and Car with an X) was still on. You can get back to normal displays by pushing the display button. The Red Triangle remains on the Instrument panel and the "Check Engine" light is on. The Energy display showed the hybrid battery charge at two bars. I let the engine run and in about 5 minutes the battery indicator went up to 3 bars. Another few minutes it went to full 4 bars. I have rarely seen that. I decided to drive the car around the block and it performed perfectly. The I drove about 10 miles on I-75. The car ran beautifully. The next day my wife wanted to go to another city about 30 miles away. I drove her there. The Comsumption display went up to 46.5 mpg. The next day we made about a 200 mile trip and the mpg went to 47.9. The car ran the best that it ever had. It was time for gas so I filled up and the calculated mpg was very close to the displayed. The next day we repeated the 200 mile trip. When I started the car, the screen of death did not show but the "Check Engine" light remained on. When we returned home the mpg showed 49.7. The next week I drove the car to work and around town. I went to my mechanic and he turned off the "Check Engine" light and cleared all of the code\s. It has been almost a month since I started driving the car. The performance is better than it was when I bought the car and the mpg stays in the high 40s. My theory is that the 12v battery had a glictch and was not delivering the current required by the computer which caused the behavior problems and the error codes. By discharging the 12v and recharging it the glitch went away and the computer is operating normanlly. No error lights have appeared. Needless to say, I am very happy and pleased to know that my replacement battery is doing its job. The Prius is a "wonder" car. I don't know why everyone doesn't want one.