AC compressor stopped working after cross country tow

Does everything else work? Any warning lights on?

Does the fan blow? Just not cold correct?

SM-N900P ?

 

Not trying to question your resilience to global warming, but when was the last time it did work?

 

How was the car towed? Flatbed truck or otherwise?

On the mfd display where you turn the ac on does the green light come on indicating the ac is on and it just has no blower fan or is the ac indicator not coming on? No green. if indicator is green its just the blower motor is bad. Thats easy see my old posts I did a write up replacing the blower motor. Common G2 issue. If no AC ON indicator then something has failed in the ac system its is detecting low pressure and it will refuse the compressor to not start to protect it. Given where its been I would inspect the front condenser for FOD damage.

The G2 Prius will throw specific ac trouble codes on the mfd. It also may be a bad compressor that has a ac volt ground fault form leaking high voltage. If is so you will see a red triangle on the dash that's master alarm. It may disable the car but if you unbolt the 12 volt battery negative cable and then bolt it back up it resets the computer and you will be able to drive. BUT...doing that wipes all the stored codes out.

We can do very little without the codes it will throw. Wherever you go to get it serviced make sure they harvest all the codes.

 

These folks have a great reputation from what I've read here on PC.
Luscious Garage | Hybrid Specialists

 

Without knowing how many miles on your vehicle.. guessing the best it will be a recharge, and the worst will be a new compressor.

The light in question is on the MFD video screen, should be in the lower left corner, says AC and a tiny box will turn green when ON.

 

There could be servo problem, where it's stuck and can't reduce temperature

SM-N900P ?

 

You should be able to hear the compressor if it's running and the ICE is off. Not very loud but it sounds weird.

 

Inactivity is a sure way to kill an ac system. Let it sit unused a long time drys everything up. System will last a very long time if used daily.
So that's why its not coming on its probably developed a leak as the seals dried up. Take the car to a car ac service center. Not the dealer.
Just needs a charge probably. And they should inject dye and check all connections for leak.

And its not smart to drive around all the time with no ac and the windows open its hard on the Hybrid battery all that cabin heat and moisture. The Hybrid battery Fan in the backseat is always on low to circulate air. Best air to circulate is conditioned air.

 

Using the AC once a month or so is sufficent to circulate the oil. And I think the contention that you need to run AC to keep the battery cool is mostly urban myth: I've monitored it's temps for a while with scangauge, saw little or no effect running in AC. And even on cool evenings, the battery settles in on a temp around 35C.

 

Maybe a myth in Canada but c'mon down here to Florida its brutally hot here and not even summer yet. Most people don't even use a windshield shade and let there cabin become ridiculously hot.

You circulate wet super hot air in the battery case you will see alot of corrosion and shortened battery life. I'm going on 10+ years of using the my ac every minute of driving even in the winter which is a joke here. No problems so far.

 

Got it. We might have different MFDs.

Thought it might look like this.

 

first thing to check is the cabin filter behind the glove box
if the car was towed odds are you had a rock or something go through the condenser and all the Freon leaked out.
you will need to get the system pressure checked
if theres low or no Freon in the system the compressor will not work.
hybrids take a special Freon and oil

 

im in florida too and never thought about it but you are right.. will be running the ac more often