Drive motor 'a' position sensor circuit

Last night I was driving my 2005 Prius in a light rain. I had only been driving for about 5 minutes or so on the freeway. The check engine light and the big red triangle came on. It was a couple of miles before I could get off the freeway, and by the time I could get to the exit ramp, the car at times was starting to race the ice. It was beginning to feel like it was slipping the "transmission" and I felt fortunate to get it off the road. I coasted into a convenience store and parked it. My scan gauge showed me a code of POA3F. I have discovered that this is the Drive Motor 'A' position sensor circuit. What does this all mean? Is this going to be an expensive fix? After letting the car set for a while and a few phone calls later, I attempted to start and put the car in gear. It would only let me put it in neutral. Is there any chance at all that my problem could be less than major? Any help on this would be much appreciated.

 

I forgot to mention that in those 2 minutes or so, the car went from 9 bar green soc to 2 bar red soc, and the ice was running.

 

Sorry for my ignorance, and thanks so much in advance for you assistance. We just bought the car about 3 months ago and it had 67000 miles on it. When we were test driving it, the check engine light and red triangle came on. We put a scan tool on it and it threw the P0A93 code. We gave the vin number to a toyota dealer and discovered that the inverter coolant pump recall had not been done. The car also had been in a low speed fender bender accident. I believe that it had damage to the rear bumper, maybe rear fender and possibly the back hatch door area. I saw pictures of the vehicle prior to being repaired, and the damage did not appear to look too serious. It didn't seem to have a lot of damage, but it does have a salvage title. The car was drivable after the accident.
It is my belief that the body work was done by a body shop and not a Toyota dealer. All this had been done before we found the car from the individual. Before we would buy the car, we thought we should take it to a Toyota dealer. They checked it out, and replaced the inverter pump. They couldn't find any other damage to the car. To make a long story a little shorter, we bought the car.
We have put about five or six thousand miles on it without any problems. By the way, we had only driven this car in rain one other time. That time we drove it for about 40 miles in the rain and did not have any problems.

We have never changed the transaxle fluid, and have no idea what has been done in the past.

Anyway, we let the car sit for 2 windy, dry, days and then went back to see about getting it home. (It was in the town where my wife's family lives.) I got in the car, started it up, the red triangle came on and the check engine light did as well, but now it would go in reverse and back up and go in drive and move forward without any problems. I went ahead and cleared the engine code and everything seemed fine. I drove it about 60 miles home without further incident.
I realize that I am not a very smart individual, and my shade tree mechanic knowledge will probably get me into a lot of trouble, but for the life of me, I am completely at a loss as to try and figure this one out. Any ideas? If it is just a wet connection, shouldn't there be a way to keep this from happening again?

Thanks so much for any thoughts on this problem.

 

Thanks,

That makes a lot of sense to me. I am out of town for this week but hope to get the problem fixed by this weekend. I really appreciate this help. I really like the car, I just wish I felt a little more comfortable with all the complexities. Oh well, knowledge is power, so if I could learn a little, I wouldn't be so weak. Also sounds like a great idea to go ahead and change the transaxle fluid, assuming that it wasn't done at 60,000 miles.


We didn't get a carfax, but the dealer looked up the vin number, and didn't find anything reported that we weren't aware of. It is my understanding that only things that are reported, like work done at a dealer will show up on a car fax. The body work done after the fender bender did not show up, only the accident.