Lots of warning lights on dash, engine stays running, mpg is like a normal car in the city.....

I have some check engine lights which I will try to post pics. And there is one light on my monitor screen in the top left. That one is a hybrid system warning light I think. I'm sure I need to connect it to something to read the codes. It is running fine, but the engine doesn't seem to shut off and mpg in city is kinda like a normal car, and I think the battery drains too fast. No matter how slow I take off it won't use the electric motor alone. I wonder if that is the battery causing engine to have to stay on. One pic shows as if engine is off and not running car but it really is still on, other pic shows engine running and charging battery while I'm parked. It keeps cycling off and on charging the battery, but engine never shuts off. Other pic is of dash with warning lights.

 

193k miles
I haven't done any maintenance. I've only had it a day.
Not sure what the inverter coolant pump is, but I'm pretty technical so I would understand if I read about it. I'll google it.
Not sure if it is the original 12v battery.
It starts up fine when I press the start button.
AC blows perfectly cold.

This just happened to me now on a busy freeway back to back. Car seemed non-responsive and was moving slow and couldn't really accelerate. The hb batter went all the way down to 1 bar and the engine was idling but not charging back the hb battery. I think I was just driving on the electric motor. I exited of the freeway and pulled over. I shut off everything, then turn it all back on and then it started charging the hb battery and it drove fine after that. The hb battery stayed green and even 100% charged. I've read that the 12v battery if it fails can cause different problems. I will check it. I read it is in the back somewhere. Thanks Edthefox

 

I followed some youtube instructions and used the diagnostic system to check the 12v battery and it was perfect. I used your picture to check the flow and I could see it was flowing nicely. Kinda like when you take the top of a radiator cap of when the water isn't so hot, you can tell it is pumping.

If it is the prius battery I can buy one on ebay, but I think we can take it out and change the cells right? I'll need to research how to check them. So a bad battery can cause the engine not to be used? I would think if the hybrid battery went bad that it would only use the engine to run the car, but I wouldn't know. Thanks Uart

 

The engine never stops running, that's one of the funky things. It was running and when I got off the freeway I couldn't rev it. It just idled. Oh ok, I get it know. Kinda like needing electricity to power a solenoid to engage something. Ok that makes sense. There is a guy that will come and take out the battery and charge $50 per cell and $180 for labor to get the battery pack working fine. I really would like to do it myself if I can. I've hacked modems, wii, brakes, alternators, stereo and amp install yada yada, so I think I can do something like that. I just need to know how to do it and diagnose the bad cells.

 

I'm doing google searches and youtube searches, but only see Gen1 instructions for repairing hybrid battery. I would think it would be a sticky here somewhere. I'll keep searching.

 

One more thing to add and the seller could have been lying. He said when he got it, that there was no error codes or warning lights. That after he had it detailed, inside, outside, and engine compartment, that when the codes came on. They sprayed the engine area with whatever detailers use. It is super clean looking, but has an oily shiny film over everything. Maybe that hit something?

 

I did a craigslist search and didn't see any ads for 04-09 batteries. How are you searching them, or did you just happen to know Fontana has one? I am definitely comfortable swaping the whole battery out. Is there step by step instructions for that here?

 

also, where do I get a prius scan tool, I'll do a search now, but I'm thinking it isn't just an obd II tool?

Ok, so it looks like it uses a standard OBD2 scan tool. I imagine I can go to autozone and pull all the codes. Do you recommend resetting them and rescanning again after new codes pop up. I should probably invest in a scan tool. Will the basic one for $79 work?

Do use the tool I should press start but not step on the brake so it can read the codes right?

 

If you're close to Pasadena I can plug my computer into it to see what it says. My drove fine too, but when I watched the battery it went too low too many times and didn't come on when it should have to charge back up the battery other than that I couldn't tell the main battery was going bad.