Hello, I am currently repairing a gen 1 1999 prius hv battery, allthough i have specialist battery knowledge I do not know the car that well. Anyway i have managed to rejuvinate the HV Battery & the 288v warning light has gone but the one next to it the exclamation mark what does this mean - is it tyre pressures & will the car not run if it is up - also i am wondering if you dont have your seatbelt plugged in will it not run either. Any help will be appreciated & if i can help anyone else i will do my best!! Thanks Hybridbatt
When you refitted the battery, and then fitted the safety plug did you slide the plug down after closing the handle? ( It may be on the gen1 you have to slide it up as it may be orientated differently to the gen2 that I have) This is step often missed, but must be carried out as it closes two low voltage contacts for the HV ecu. John (Britprius) Link to show how the safety plug is re fitted. Service Plug Removal and Install.pdf John (Britprius)
On this one the service plug is vertically mounted & has two magnets in it which when you latch it back home fully seem to line up with 2 what i would call proximity switches John - do you think they do the same thing?? I will take a pic tomorrow & load it up Cheers for that - yes i have come across these before a few times but this one is a completely different beast it has 40 sticks of 6 d cells which are identical to the honda civic gen 1 cells. the whole unit is mounted vertically behind the rear seat in a big brown plastic enclosure.
One of the most informative guys here on the gen1 is Usnavystgc. No doubt he will join this conversation later as he is in a different time zone. I will send him a PM (private massage) if you wish for him to help. Ihave a gen2, and it sounds like you have the early Prius imported from Japan. This is before the gen1 correct me if I am wrong. This model does have the charger for which I have details of it's operation if you require them. John (Britprius)
There is also a Yahoo group for the NHW10 model. I don't follow it any more and the activity was a little sparse. Still, worth a peek. Bob Wilson
The car will start without the seatbelt latched and it can start with an exclamation point symbol (depending on what's causing that symbol). An OBD II code reader would help here to determine what the problem is. The Gen 0 is a unique vehicle but the basics of operation are the same. The service plug would def be my first suspect and must be completely eliminated as the cause before moving forward.
There are many very help full people here. Your appreciation can be best shown to those that help by clicking on the "like" to the bottom right of the posts that help. John (Britprius)
Thank you very much - my code reader proscan 570 wont link to it so i am going to try to borrow my friends snap on ethos one i will let you know how i get on. Top Man
If you have not got a code reader I would strongly suggest you buy a "Mini VCI" off Ebay £10 up to £25. This with an old XP laptop will give you dealer level of diagnostics. John (Britprius)
Thanks John I am in the process of getting an xp lap top I also had one of those mini vci devices a while back but even my computer wiz friend could not get it to work - mind you i suspect it was because of the operating system - there are so many on ebay its hard to tell which are fakes
The VCI's are all Chinese clones of other equipment and usually work well. They are easiest to set up on XP 32 bit, but often takes several tries to load the drivers ect in the correct order. It can be made to run on Windows 7 or 8 64bit with some work. A step often missed when setting the VCI up is you must go into "setup" in the Techstream screen then "vim select" then choose "VCI". I think it would be worth digging it out and having another go. It does not need to be connected to a car to get to the stage where the VCI is recognized. Once you get that far you can then connect to the car. Most code readers will read the engine emissions related codes but will not read the hybrid specific codes. John (Britprius)
So just to let you know thanks to your input Bingo i got it going from a running jump as you might say, the hybrid warning light is still there so i guess there is more wrong but i will find out soon as i put the other reader on it!!!
It "may" be that the codes just need clearing. Some "not all" codes can be cleared by disconnecting the 12 volt battery for a short while. John (Britprius)
