Whats Wrong with my prius

Talking about ECU failures, there was a case here not that long ago where a guy was on a road trip and had the inverter coolant pump fail (covered under recall so should have been a freebie). Instead the dealer sent him off with a new braking system ECU and about $1000 dollar lighter wallet. Needless to say his inverter soon overheated again and the original problem returned, but the dealer didn't want to admit any error.

 

I'm not a big fan of the high mileage Prius cars, especially for people that think that can buy it because it's cheap. When they break, they are at the mercy of the dealers (most of the time) and although the Prius is very reliable, the parts that do end up breaking are usually the big ticket items costing thousands!

 

this is a big job my friend, don't take it lightly. i admire your tenacity, study the threads here from people who have tackled it successfully. it is very complicated and time consuming, but if you can pull it off, you'll save a ton of money. all the best!

 

hello jensen from denmark, -I have looked around to find somebody fighting with my problem, and this could be the right place .(what is wrong with the prius)
Mine has a long run done allready, and I have some errors coming up when driving more than 3/4 hours. But the other day it passed away, no power on the (big) battery, and all lights blinking on the dashboard, and I couldn't turn it out.
I left the car and came bach later, where it has cooled down, (the power was back on the big batt) and the out temprature was lowered, and now I could turn it off. But by trying to start it I only got in "N" and error popped up again. I have recently changed oilfilter, and I checked the oillevel to be wery low. So I filled oil on the car and my odbc showed 1 error that I erased (but did not registre what), and no errors came up. But still the same Circus.
I got the car bach home and checked for other errors finding 2 about cabling mismatch, got rid off the too.
now I have the flash codes left: (!) 58 vsc 51
I did look aruond to find a list of flash codes, but it seemes to be "the secret"

greetings

 

Those two codes mean that the skid control ECU has decided there is something wrong with the hybrid drivetrain. There probably are other DTC logged by the hybrid vehicle ECU.

Do you see a warning icon in the upper left corner of the MFD? If so, what image is present?

Exactly what warning lights are on, in the dashboard?

If you want to DIY retrieve the DTC, you will need Mini VCI which runs on a Windows XP or Windows 7, 32 bit OS laptop.

 

Hi jensen. Have you checked the inverter coolant level and the pump for circulation. If that pump has failed then it will cause the inverter to overheat. See my description in the following link to test it. See: maintenance and repair in Anchorage AK | PriusChat

 

Thanks for your replies, and sorry that it took some time to come back.
uart:
the coolant pump is humming, and pressing the tube it feels like cirkulation. level of coolant is not top, but not under minimum. (if worst case should be inverter-replace, I have it ready .)
patrick:
Right now I have a odbcII instrument (a cheap chineese), with an extra switch mounted ( for the prius codes retrieve)
I am aware that this is not enough, and could it creep, I would take it to the toyota's letting them take the code out to tell me what is wrong. I am afraid more of the toyota's than my dentist, because they can tell my anything whithout giving me any chance to jump in with commond sense.

some month ago, I did try it, they told me about a battery fan might be wrong. I bouild the fan out just to realice it was ok, I put extra wire on to power it countinius, but the reel error persist.​

and it cost me about 400$ to get one new gasket on my exhaust-manifold (between)​

I have treated my prius badly:

It ran out of oil (under min) telling me to creep home. I recently realised that the oilfilter was leaking, but after changing it I did not controll if it still did use oil, and it really was under min level this other day.

AND

for some time it flashes error with the tree lamps "vsc brake abs" ("problem") when runnig more than ½ hour.
at the next morning the tree lamp are off but the triangel, which disapears by resetting (odbc-scanner)

(I have managed another skid controller, expecting that this could carry the reasons to my problems, and I was about to find the lokation starting in the wrong side, but messing around i the wires, and the vehicle is a former taxi, with some rough cut wires left)

greetings

 

Some time ago a toyota-place tried to get the codes at that time:
hybrid control3000 battery control system
hv battery: P0A85: hybrid battery back - cooling fan 1 control circuit high
abs : C1310 HV system malfunction
They had at that time no prius-expert so I just got the code out.

greetings

 

3000 actually means : P3000

 

Perhaps this is due to the modification you made with that "extra wire".

 

no error first modification after
(I just put power on the fan, to ensure the battery pack not to over heat)

 

I think you should work on P0A85 first. The following are the suspect items:

Wire harness or connector
BATT FAN fuse
Battery blower relay No. 1
Battery blower assembly
Quarter vent duct (battery blower motor controller)

Battery ECU

Once you figure out what is wrong with the traction battery cooling fan, the other DTC codes will probably go away.

Since it appears that English is not your first language, you may benefit from subscribing to the Toyota Europe techinfo site so that you can retrieve and study the relevant repair manual pages:


Toyota Service Information

 

thanks Patrick for your polite answer,
-if it is more convinient in german, say so, that might put us on a more even base, writing in danish would probably never become an option.

It might be the battery and/or the ecu, thus I hoped that somebody could point out a more easy way through, because right now it will not drive at all.
I have been in another issue, reading that the 12v. battery has to be top fit.
I started some time ago, using a new but not "toyota" battery, and as I became troubbles I did replace it again, whithout solving the problems.
It might be an interesting question" isn't a 12v battery, not just a 12v battery?".

Since I allready have bought a used skid controller, I had hoped that everybody would say that it could help me out of troubbles replacing it.

I'll try your recomandation on the
Toyota Service Information
and then return if this doesn't help.

greetings

 

Our communications will definitely not improve if you try German or Danish.

Assuming that P0A85 is a valid code, it will not help to replace the skid control ECU.

Measure the 12V battery voltage when the car is IG-OFF. If it is 12.5V or better, then no worries about the battery.

If you have any concerns about whether the retrieved DTC are still valid, buy Mini VCI which runs on a Windows XP or Windows 7 32 bit OS laptop. This is available via amazon.com and serves as a substitute for Toyota Techstream.

 

Jensen got connected with a new mini VCI.
I am landed with the "P3140 HV interlock switch operation" and have no idea.
I have put in a new 12v battery, the old one was not healthy.

I could see it as an interesting test, to let one of you "mini-VCI-pro"s go teamviewing on my lap in my prius.

greetings

 

Please try those screen shots again. The desired portion is small and low resolution, so not readable.

 

now I got the possibillity to upgrade the pic

 

With that code start with this first......cool idea with the Teamviewer option too, might be onto something there (ie remote Hybrid tech support).

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/snapontech/2011-08-03_151235_toyota.pdf

 

Look VERY carefully at the service plug.
Make sure you inserted it correctly AND SLID IT DOWNWARD TO LOCK IT INTO PLACE.
You're not the first person to forget to do this, and you won't be the last.