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Engine revs, car dies, red triangle, codes?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by wanderingrace, May 23, 2015.

  1. wanderingrace

    wanderingrace New Member

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    good afternoon community members! My name is grace and I just bought my first car two months ago. A 2006 Prius with 158,082 miles on it. A few weeks ago I felt it driving funny and then all my lights came on including the red triangle, check engine, and caution light. I took it to the dealership and was given this list of codes:

    P3000-----battery control system
    P3102-----transmissions control ECU
    P3108-----lost com. With ALC
    C0146----lost com. With gateway A
    C2300----actuator system malfunction
    C2312-----power source control ECU
    C2318-----low voltage error
    P0A80----replace hybrid battery pack

    I decided to buy the hybrid automotive grid charger for my model and charged it up over night until balancing at 240v.
    This did not solve the problem. I took out my dead 12v and trickle charged it and put it back in hoping it would allow the computer to recalculate my charged HV battery, so that the computer would read it as charged and green on my control panel. But instead my display shows a red car sign and very low bar. I figured perhaps I have some cells that are just completely dead and need replacement which would interfere with the balancing.

    I decided to drive it around and see how it drove, and noticed the HV fan is constantly running in the back.

    It also revs while at a stop and while driving. I took it out on the freeway and as I was climbing a hill I lost power and and would not drive at all when stopped. I had to turn the car off and then back on in order for it to move but still with a fluctuation of revs and low speed.

    I have no idea what I should do, should I first check the module cells and replace those? Should I check the HV fan that is on all the time? Could the inverter pump be the problem of all of this? Should I curl up and cry for buying a Prius as a first car :(
     
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    What did the dealership suggest, if anything? I'd be inclined to go with the suggestion with the last error code.
     
    GrumpyCabbie likes this.
  3. wanderingrace

    wanderingrace New Member

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    They suggested I replaced the battery for around $3000. I just bought the car for 4800 from a private party. It's just not practically or cost efficient for me to do that.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    Maybe some calls to corporate Toyota will get them to pitch in for part of the cost. Worth a try.

    Sometimes the best, or even only, way out of a bad situation is to just keep going. You're position is always better with a car in good condition, whether you keep, or trade/sell.

    I wonder to: how long since you purchased: maybe seller was already having problems, had done stop-gap measures and quickly sold??
     
    #4 Mendel Leisk, May 23, 2015
    Last edited: May 24, 2015
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    why not pull the battery and replace the bad cells? have you talked to jeff at hybrid grid chargers?
     
  6. Bill the Engineer

    Bill the Engineer Senior Member

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    Wouldn't a new 12v battery take care of at least half of the problems listed above? The electronics gets squirrelly when the 12v is going bad. I don't know of any situation where the 12v should ever need a trickle charge at all if it is still good.

    Bill the Engineer
     
  7. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    The HV battery fan running all the time doesn't sound promising.

    If it was just weird dash lights then 12v is a good first port of call.
     
  8. Beachbummm

    Beachbummm Senior Member

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    when the battery pack in my first prius died I had the cooling fan running all the time as well along with all the warning lights..
    I found one bad cell that I replaced with one from e bay for $35, cleaned all the copper connectors and reset the codes, drove it for about 5000 miles before selling it. no problems..hope you get off that cheaply ..good luck
     
  9. Texas Hybrid Batteries

    Texas Hybrid Batteries Senior Member

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    Your hybrid battery has a failed module or 2. Get a mini VCI and you can find out which block is faulty. I've rebuilt close to 100 Prius batteries and I will tell you that replacing modules is a temporary fix because there will be others that are weak. There are guides here on how to actually recondition all of the modules but it is very time consuming if you want to do it right. Your 12 volt battery is low because the 4 Amp charge circuit from the hybrid battery has not been charging it up properly. I run into that a lot on repairs but with a good hybrid battery the 12 volt will probably bounce back depending on its age.

    Sorry you spent $500 on the grid charger and it didn't fix your car. Jeff needs to stop marketing the grid charger as a repair tool. It won't fix a failed battery. It can only keep a healthy battery in top shape.

    I can tell you also that if you've had the car for 2 weeks the previous owner knew that the battery was going and probably did a cell replacement and dumped it. I'm seeing a ton of 05's and 06's right now that are being picked up at auction with bad batteries and having quick repairs done and then selling for profit. Sorry it happened to you and hope you can get it fixed properly.

    Matt
     
    #9 Texas Hybrid Batteries, May 24, 2015
    Last edited: May 24, 2015
  10. Beachbummm

    Beachbummm Senior Member

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    what are the acceptable voltage ranges per block?
     
  11. wanderingrace

    wanderingrace New Member

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    Thank y'all so much I really appreciate everything! I'll look into the reconditioning after finding and replacing the bad modules. If that is the way to go. I wander if I could get Jeff to refund my purchase :/
     
  12. Texas Hybrid Batteries

    Texas Hybrid Batteries Senior Member

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    15 to 16 volts per block is acceptable. The block with a failed module will be 1.2 lower. You should let the car sit for an hour before reading the numbers and don't go to READY. Just hit the power button twice with your foot off the brake to get in ACC. That will power up the battery ECU without putting any load on the battery.
     
  13. Beachbummm

    Beachbummm Senior Member

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    all within your numbers but it drops to two purple bars from all blue in ACC within 15 min's...I thought it had a bad cell
     
  14. Texas Hybrid Batteries

    Texas Hybrid Batteries Senior Member

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    Maybe it doesn't, based on the age and the symptoms I figured it did. That could be good news for you. I think you need to charge your 12 Volt battery. Leaving it in ACC for extended periods of time is probably draining it very low. If your reading the live HV Battery data from techstream see what the Aux Battery Volts is reading. I'm guessing it's pretty low.
     
  15. Beachbummm

    Beachbummm Senior Member

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    11.8 at two purple bars (I thought the same) using techstream ..im going to pull the hv batt cover and check corrosion ..
     
  16. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Pressing the the power button twice with your foot off the brake will get you into IG-ON mode.
    Pressing the the power button once with your foot off the brake will get you into ACC mode.

    Can you clarify whether you do mean ACC mode, or do you really mean IG-ON?
     
  17. Texas Hybrid Batteries

    Texas Hybrid Batteries Senior Member

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    Your exactly right. My procedure was correct but the wording was wrong. Two times to go to IG-ON. That way you can read block voltages at steady state. Thanks for the correction. Sorry if I confused anybody.
     
  18. Anthony Williams

    Anthony Williams Antonation205

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    Would you say the grid charger does or does not work as well as using charger/rebalancers from the hobby store? Do they have the same effect, or is the individual charging/discharging/balancing more effective?
     
  19. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    First things first.....check to make sure the 12v battery is good!

    Since you've spent money on the grid charger already, you can look for someone to swap out the bad modules, then rebalance with the grid charger.

    That would be the cheapest solution to your problem.