276K and my transaxle finally went

OK, so I have been on this forum for a very long time. don't really post anything (car has been absolutely great to me!) 2006 gen 2 and I have only done what I considered bare bones maintenance. meaning: I change my oil at 5k with synthetic. brake pads once. plugs once at 225K 3 sets of tires. and recently did shocks struts and springs. New battery. all the filters are done as needed. I had no idea that it was necessary to change the transaxle fluid. I noticed my gas mileage dropped from 49+mpg to low 40's ok, but then I went down to <20mpg and slipping and that nasty VSC red triangle/ so my transaxle has almost failed . so I bought a 111K mile used one from the local bone yard for 159 out the door and tomorrow I begin my journey to replace it. LAM did a great write up on how to do it and tomorrow morning I begin my adventure. no chance of me giving up at this point as the car owes me nothing. which is a good thing because I am not wealthy at all and it took me a few weeks to buy the transaxle. I have noticed some posted about viscosity testing. if anyone wants my oil to send out for testing and they are willing to pay for it. I will gladly save it for you. so I am just throwing it out there. I don't wish to profit from this in anyway. Also the parts yard I bought from has drained the transaxle fluid and removed the filter? where is that located and what else would you advise replacing while I have the transmission out. I will be dropping the transmission in my driveway. thanks! Don

 

the transaxle isn't slipping there just is a tremendous loss of power and gas engine runs at high rpms. I clear the codes reset it it's normal. For a few minutes. What do you recommend I do? I have a hand scan tool. I did buy new transaxle fluid. Should I drain that first? I am mechanical and built my own mustang forged 650hp engine. Just reading everything I believed it's transaxle. What should I do? Like I said in first post. I'm pretty broke and can't afford to throw money at this blindly. Without my car I have no work. Thanks in advance guys.
Don

 

He code is P0A80 , I disconnected the aux battery last night. Cleared the codes and the car started (well I had to. Jump it) it has sat for 15 minutes no codes and I. Have watched the battery charge up on the screen. Although there are no codes right now the gas engine turns on for a couple seconds then shuts off repeatedly.

 

Oh. Shit.... It can't be anything else? My thoughts were the transaxle was shorting out and not charging the hybrid battery. Or am I just dreaming?

 

Ok, please do tell.

 

I do have an electrical engineering back ground so this seems feasible.i wonder if I can return that transaxle? I will look into this . Thanks for your help.

 

It was not the transaxle it definitely was the HV battery pack. After I replaced the pack I took apart my battery pack and found I had one bad module. Right In the middle.

 

The parts for the Prius are pretty cheap. I buy everything on EBay. I love my car and financially I can't afford a new car. Front pads are 8$ rear shoes 13$ plugs were 25$ for the four of them .shocks and struts are 110$ all of these parts are simple to install. To do the rear shocks you will need to take out the entire trunk interior and back seat. It seems like a lot of work, but it's really easy to do. Just time consuming. And after you have done it once, the next time you take it out say to replace your HV battery you will be very fast. The front struts you will need to take off the wipers, wiper motor, the tray that it sits on. Sounds scary but really easy to do once you give into the fact that you have to do it.

It takes me about 35 minutes to do the plugs. 2 hrs to do the battery. I bought my battery used from a member and he gave me a great deal.