Reviving my 2001 PRIUS

let me start by saying that I truly enjoy looking at this forum and seeing how much info there is..
I am at a breaking point at this point and I hope you can all help...
so here is a little history..

I was in true need of a car back in 2007 because I could not afford driving my FX4 crew cab... that beast gets me a whooping 11 mpg.. and driving 160 miles a day ... just for work and for pleasure... as a single dad... i needed to save money where ever ...
I found this dealer maintained car owned by this sweet old lady... she had 2 cars and didn't want it anymore.. soo i grabbed it.. lucky for me it had one of those cool carpool stickers back then ... i fell in love with my grandma car.. and so i named it .. "grandma" car... its was at like 70k and drove it for 2 years.. with absolutely no problems.. then it happened... in DEC 09.. the master light came on... at approximately at 133k .. yep.. the dealership in Temecula, California quoted me some 4k to get the battery replaced... then the sad days... came ... they said that the battery needed replaced and that my ECU stated my vehicle was a 2003...I parked the car and did a NONOP for 2 years and slowly started to save up... well i was looking around recently and I found a battery for 1k installed.... so of course i jumped on it.. oh to hear that Prius turn on.. it was awesome.. like a champ...
...so i thought...
the master light came on after a little while..
add fuel... it was completely empty.. so i added 2-3 gallons.. while he checked the engine coolant...
he removed the coolant cap and stated that the pump for the inverter is in good shape ...
I let him know that I would change the transaxle fluid, engine oil and coolant fluid....
he diagnosed it and stated that it had an HV leak... AWESOME!!
I changed the engine oil and filter and then noticed that the rear tire had a leak.. but somehow my spare was missing.?? okay.. after a nice soap bottle test on the tire.. it has a tiny leak on the rim... bad seal.. awesome.. okay. i can get some tires later.. they are a few years old anyways..
so I keep airing it up to test drive the car to keep the charge in the battery... well now I hear this amazing chattering noise.. and it goes away... abs /brake comes on.. and then goes away... i drive it everyday at least 5-10 minutes away.. the abs/ brakes only comes on the days I have to air up the tire...so I'm thinking I am just going to replace all 4 tires... now i have seen those great Facebook pictures on the brake module.. but I think I am in denial... should I follow through...
tires...
module...
and HV leak...
its either going to be sold for parts? or im gonna push through and fix this.. i dont need this car.. i want this car... i have a few others... but i am starting to feel overwhelmed.. is it worth it?

im willing to fix it myself with a little help.. I just got the toyota scan tool.. and starting to pull codes... so im stuck here..

 

I just pulled some codes...1st off its a 2001 prius.. but some reason when hooked up to tech stream it read as a 2003... well then i ran a health check and pulled codes
i just had the battery replaced as told earlier...i would like to think its not the battery... maybe a leak somewhere in the wire.. how can i check this?
P3000 - HV Battery Malfunction
P3009 - High voltage electrical leakage.
btw...i just replaced the tires and no more ABS warning... the car runs like a champ... i have all the data.. i just dont really understand it as well...

I STILL CANT GET THE KEY OUT WITHOUT D/C the battery... augh... one problem at a time..

 

turned the key to "ON"... no codes at all while in this mode ..
checked:
Engine and ECT: no codes
Hybrid Control: no codes
HV Battery: no codes
Cruise control: skipped
ABS/VSC/TRAC: needs to be running?? skipped
and the rest skipped.. EMPS/IMMOBILISER/SRS AIRBAG
i left it on for about 5-10 minutes.. just to make sure

 

crap... this is where it gets technical i guess... insulator tester...let me go figure that out...

 

2001 Prius REVIVE!!! | Facebook

I am all for that 100 miles isnt that far away for me... . but i would like to learn the how to as well... i will start off by grabbing one of those handy dandy tools.. or borrowing one...

Diagnosing HV Leaks | Search Autoparts

i also found that i need to change my transaxle fluid ..might help as well with that code...

Luscious Garage | Blog | Toyota Hybrids P3009: High Voltage Leak Detected, internal to battery

 

today .. i fixed my a/c... went from no a/c... in murrieta... avg 100's.... to this afternoon a freezing 65 on the drive home!!!... an awesome feeling... some how on the 2 years on sitting there.. it must of escaped... hopefully there is no leak... but for now.... im enjoying the cold air... ill run an a/c leak detector tomorrow and sometime manana ill go buy an inexpensive insulator tester..
there was also a noise on my suspension p/s... could not figure it out... and found out that the top bolt had somehow been coming off... torque that puppy down with some loctite... and BAM!! no more noise...
the only wierd thing is that its taking longer and longer for the pretty triangle to pop on.. i seem to be clearing the codes when i d/c the batteries... but its taking longer and longer for it to come out and pop.. i think the longest is about 2 minutes out... i will start hopefully this weekend i need a few more tutorials on how to use an insulator tester.. any ideas???

 

wow great AWESOME info!!
i will be changing the trans fluid this weekend... *fingers crossed* hopefully the fluid became conductive or find out that it was just a little corrossion easily cleaned while doing the fluid...

i ordered those service manuals off ebay since I am gonna go foward and keep this puppy alive like frankenstein...

.. like i said before my key was getting stuck and i went in and starting poking.. but i have friends who like me LOVE to jump in and find stuck out.. well my bud Allan took apart the streering covers off the bottom off.. mind you i have read the many "TAB BREAKING " stories on here.. so we were careful.. no tabs were harmed in this process.. well we checked out the shifter mechanism and found the plug to it.. he disconnected it and BAM... key came out.. so i got a little closer to that i need to wait till the diagram to that plug and wiring diagram and find out if its the solenoid or the enitre shifter is mechanism is broken.. but we are "GUESSING" the solenoid or something is not getting the signal from the shifter that its in PARk so it releases.. i know i have to re read some other post on the KEY ingnition STUCK.. ill prob link just to easily find it.. when i find it..

Key won't come out of ignition on 2003 | PriusChat

 

well transaxle fluid changed.. and the MASTER LIGHT.. still on...the gasket leaked on mine.. but i tighted over the specified torque and the leak went away... not too tight..just enough to seal ...

on my drive home... i noticed that my a/c was once again ... not working... so i looked around and found a nice dirty spot on the radiator near the middle on the edge of the passanger side.. very visible.. so i have a leak on my radiator & condender... *sigh* the part is $240 through $300.00 price range ...so the good news is i have the service manuals now and i can easily replace this... i will probably do this this weekend and while i am at it.. change my coolant as well.. since i havent done that yet... it is also very difficult to find anyone with a megaohmmeter to do insulation tests on stuff... most of them run 300 bucks... for a simple test...