Any help apreciated,warning lights & more

Hello fellow Gen 2ers and anyone else reading,


I am worried about my Wife's Prius and would appreciate any help/ advice any of you can offer.

Her car is a 2008, about 120K miles, had a timing belt changed, and the only issue we know of is that her fuel gauge tends to jump down after a half a tank has been used rather than go down as fuel is used, bar by bar.

Long story short, here is what has/is happening: I noticed that two or three times (I think) over the past four weeks that after starting, her Prius would not accelerate normaly. It was slow and sluggish like I wasn't pressing the gas pedal at all, but after a minute of driving it ran like normal.

Yesterday and today, when we started it, we noticed the battery indicator had one bar (purple I think) when we turned it on.

Tonight when we started it, besides having one purple battery bar, all kinds of warning lights came on! On the dash, from left to right, A big red triangle with an ! in it (Master Warning Light?), and orange ! in a circle that is in parenthesis (Brake System Warning Light?), VSC in orange (Vehicle Stability Control?), and an orange engine picture with the word check underneath it (Malfunction Indicator Lamp?). On the navigation screen, on the top left, a red car with an ! in it appeared. It drove fine though.

Also tonight, we noticed that the battery level seemed to jump from one purple bar, to half way, to full rather quickly. While parked it seemed to discharge quickly as well. While parked, I noticed that the 12V fan (I think- I mean the one that is heard from the rear passenger side interior) sounded like a jet engine!

I did check under the hood to see the fluid moving to check the water pump (hopefully correctly) and it looked fine (I checked it after just starting the car that had been off for about an hour). ---I think the 12v battery, while old, is still ok as well.---Edit : the 12V may be bad, please see post 3 with my test specifics

After pouring through the forums for hours, I am at a loss. I am not sure what this combo of lights means and what to check/do. I am hoping she does not need a new traction battery. I am also unsure if the car is safe to drive. Right now, we are stuck at my in-laws with our new baby and not sure if we can drive back across the state ( I do not want to get stranded with a newborn!).

Any advice, help, recommendations, things to check, etc is greatly appreciated! If a mechanic/ dealer is a must and anyone has someone they trust in South Florida (either coast), a recommendation would be appreciated.

Thanks again!

(Edited because 12V may in fact be bad after rechecking values!)

 

Thank you JSC1006, if it comes to replacing the traction battery I will contact him. On his site he says he can do it for $2600 with a new Toyota battery which looks cheaper than other forum quotes I have seen on PriusChat posts.

UPDATE - I just check out this post Weird stuff happening? MPGs dropping? Test The Battery | PriusChat
and it looks like maybe her 12V battery is bad (I would love confirmation)

Specifically, when I press “Vehicle Signal Check,” the battery voltage is 11.8 Volts (not the expected 12.4 to 12.8 Volts). When without the brake pedal, I pressed the Power button to put a current load on the battery the voltage was 11.4 (not above 12.0V as expected). And finally, when I pressed the brake pedal and pressed the Power button once to enter "Ready" mode the battery was charging at 14.3V as expected. This leads me to think that her Optima battery has gone bad.

Would a bad (or going bad) battery explain everything I detailed in the initial post or is her 12V not that bad/ the cause (or is it just icing or the repair bill cake!)?

Additionally, I believe replacing the 12V (if I should try that first) would erase any stored codes. Should I try it anyway or try to get it scanned first?


Thank you!

 

Thanks again JC91006! Will do (at a decent hour)! I am hoping it is the 12V yet doubtful. We both have 2008s and we both got Optima replacements at the same time. Mine died a few months ago, but when it did, the car did not throw any errors, it just stopped working. As the hospital bills come in, I hope we do not need a new traction battery!

Thank you again though. I will post here with any news/ updates.

 

Sorry- We both got new Optima 12 volts about 4 years ago. Mine 4 year old 12V died a few months ago and I replaced it (my car would not start and it would not take a charge). Her 4 year old 12V battery was fine, or so I thought, so I did not replace hers at that time (the one in her car is now closer to 5 years old).

Since mine died a few months ago I figured hers would go soon. In post three I have the numbers from the service menu posted. I hope the 12V is the culprit, but I am unsure if it would cause those problems/ lights. Likewise, I do not know if I should just try a replace with a new one or if I should try to have the car scanned first for error codes ( I think replacing the battery wipes the codes and I have no idea how/where to have them scanned).

Thank you

 

I just had advance auto scan the car. Codes P0A80 and P3022 came up twice (once suspected, once confirmed). Is that a nail in the coffin or not necessarily?

Thank you

 

Hello Everyone,

So I replaced the 12V and said several prayers...the codes were gone and the car drove great! ...for five minutes. The warning lights all came back, and the car became sluggish. I scanned the car again and got the same two error codes.

At this point I think I may just try to replace the bad cell. As I have been stranded at my mother in laws with our newborn, I do not think I am going to bother with balancing the pack (charging and discharging) as I would like to go home!

Before I do this, I do have one question that I have not been able to fin a clear answer on. Can I replace my bad gen 2 cell with a gen 3 cell? I do not know if differences will throw all kinds of codes and/or damage the other cells. I ask this because I have found sellers of gen 3 cells that are close and could ship/ get the cells to me quicker. So far I have only found gen 2 cells for sale coming from the other side of the country.

If a gen 3 cell in a gen 2 pack is a no-no, I will wait and do things right. If a gen 3 cell in a two pack is just as good as a gen 2 (or better) I will go that route.

As always, thank you!

 

Thanks for the advice and help everyone. I would love to go see Todd and have this done the right way, however, the car is now in limp mode and I am a good 250 miles from him now. I don't kno if it would make it there.

I think I might just try to band aid it with a cell replacement and then keep him in mind for a full replacement with either a reconditioned or new pack.

Thank you everyone!

 

Thanks Eric, I will try to make sure I source a Gen2 then so I can hopefully eek out a year or so vs a month or so!

Thanks everyone!

 

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to update everyone about our Prius! The short version - she is running great again! Thank you all!

In case anyone else is reading this in the situation I was in, or just wants to know the details:

I ended up tracking down "battery boy" who was mentioned in this post by the owner of Lucious Garage as an amazing source for reconditioned Prius batteries. He sells on Ebay here and was a lot of help with all of my install questions (as you all were as well), he also shipped the battery the same business day I ordered (and does so as long as you order by 10ish AM CA time).

Our replacement cell came in from CA (and measured perfectly), and though it took a while, and was a bit scary, the replacement process was a bit easier than I though it would be and went smooth. I found this YouTube video very helpful for dismantling the car (I also realized from that video that I am out of shape as it took two of us to lift the battery out of the car and three of us to get it back in. The guy in the video is a beast! He carries it off by himself!)

To dismantle the battery I watched several YouTube videos as well. While dismantling the battery I did bend the metal by one "stuck" bolt - the metal was weak and the bolt was strong where the two orange wires connect to the battery. I was able to bend it back without issue and the piece now has more "character." Also, if you lose a nut, home depot has them in stock, and they are cheaper than the dealer... ...not that I lost one...

And now, after all of that we are back on the road! Thank you all and good luck to anyone who finds themselves in this situation!