EMERGENCY - son stranded - all lights, RTOD, flaky

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, trouble codes.

If no good Prius-aware scan tool is handy to get all the codes, at least get the ones that can be got this way; no tool required:

Blink (a/k/a Flash) Codes – How to. | PriusChat

There are probably more, but that'll be a start.

 

Two things jump out:

• A rebuilt hybrid battery is a very common source of trouble in a Prius. Be suspicious and start scrutinizing the warranty paperwork.
  
• I understand that a certain fairly common failure in the combination meter can prevent normal shutdown via the power button.

Worn out 12v batteries can contribute to problems too, but I'd call that a wait-and-see. Certainly not worth buying another until you've had a chance to inspect & test the current one.

ChapmanF beat me to the last bit: get a Prius-savvy diagnostic scanner on there for good results. I recommend the Autel AP2500E.

 

Does he have a speedometer transmission display and fuel gauge showing consistently or is this a known issue on this vehicle that comes and goes and has been doing this for some time? That comes to mind and the battery isolation fault which he will never diagnose and do anything with 200 mi away You don't say where you are in your profile so I'm guessing you're not from around here so I could not be of any assistance I wish you well they autel AP200 May help I'm not sure. Tell him to use one of his buddies regular code scanner like the one they use for their Corolla or even Volkswagen if it's OBD2 tell them to clear the codes twice in a row and see if that makes the car drivable If it does then highly likely he has the battery isolation fault which means the battery case for the HV battery is going to be cracked open and dealt with by somebody.

 

That's better than nothing, but that combination is still not capable of reading every system in the car.

@mr_guy_mann produced this useful chart of scan tools and their capabilities:


(I later added the highlights to illustrate that the Autel tool is capable of scanning every system on a Prius and can also capture the "INF" detail codes used in Prius diagnostics.)

It would probably still be worth scanning with Dr. Prius just to see if that gets you a head start.

Chart lists the AP200 which several priuschat members have used. I bought the similar AP2500E recently and can recommend it.

 

Pottstown is pretty close to my mailing address.

Too bad I'm working in Iowa this week.

 

Sounds like he will have to tow it to the nearest Hybrid repair shop.

 

I own AP200 also as well as Toyota TIS software from the dealer Don't ask but it doesn't matter they both work extremely well so did the racing the codes twice help or he can't get access to any kind of a even cheap scanner I do this with my Inova 3100 advance Auto sales them they make a cheap one that's $49 I don't know the model number but it's real tiny it can fit in my pocket I have one of those too and when I plug it up when this condition exists and erase the codes twice back to back even though there's not a code to eraser I don't know I erased them twice with the crappy scanner and then restart the car and it readies and I can drive all day until I turn the car off the red triangle may come back on indicating the isolation fault but you don't know that but the car will keep driving fine I wish you luck that's my old stomping grounds up there in that part of Pennsylvania not that I know where he is but anyway it was down here in North Carolina somewhere I could probably assist or even Virginia possibly Maryland anyway.

 

It is probably a real problem (my money is on the rebuilt battery), but just in case it was a one time glitch, the son could unplug the two positive leads on the 12V battery, which requires no tools, wait a minute, and then plug it back in. If the car is having real problems the RTD will reappear in short order. However, if it was a one time glitch, that might get the car moving again, maybe enough to get home. Downside - it will erase some error information that might have been helpful in figuring out the problem.

 

I'm banking it's the battery and it has an isolation fault many rebuilt batteries that I've dealt with have these in short order That's why my guy will get me the modules I need or replace them very quickly because he knows this can rear it's ugly head quite fast I guess I've seen it twice in two rebuilt batteries and I noticed it like 2 days after the battery was put in the car and each time my guy's brought me three new modules one on each side of the one that's bad.

 

I don't know but the hybrid battery isolation fault down and dirty test is really easy to perform if you've worked on the battery a lot and your son has seen you do any of this All you need is a multimeter and the DC volt scale You pull the orange plug take the cover off the back of the orange plug exposing the fuse put the plug back in the car but don't slam the plug all the way down on the last step leave it sticking up now take your multimeter and put one lead doesn't matter which on one of the two silver screws that hold in the fuse and the orange plug I use a little clamp on my fluke test leads clamp one to one of those silver screws on the orange plug and then clamp the other one to one of the 12 mm bolts holding the battery to the chassis of the car The battery stays in place now you should see your DC voltmeter should start counting down and go to zero You wait You sit there and you watch it If it stops 60 volts or 40 volts or 28 volts or whatever it is not zero then the battery is leaking some voltage to the frame of the car which is what your 12 volt grounds to so that could make things start to get crazy If you do the same maneuver to one of your other cars that's running fine with no lights on it will count down to zero and hold it the hybrid battery is isolated and has no fault in this condition. So working on this battery makes it that you probably have a multimeter and can probably run this test within like 8 minutes generally speaking or you could connect to your pigtail that you use your grid charger with when you're doing this test you're only testing like one side of the battery so it's your initial connection it'll read a funny number not like 211 or 240 it'll be half of that or something like that but still it needs to count down to zero or the battery is an isolated and this is what sets that code usually and one of the codes that were the cheap scanner if you just push the clear button twice and it tells you engine off blah blah blah codes have been cleared you turn around and hit that button right after that and do it again You see the light go off and now you can ready the car and drive The isolation fault won't stop you or any of that till you turn the car off again then it won't restart or re-ready

 

I wish I could offer a local recommendation. I was in the process of cultivating a local independent but caught him installing a crummy counterfeit part on our car, so I've recently had to start from scratch.

 

But why do you have a rapport with this guy where he understands you only want factory Toyota parts from the dealership delivered to his place whatever and that sort of thing know anything else that was understood is all I'm trying to figure out but that's pretty cool if you can get that work that with somebody because I've never had anybody mention any of that stuff they usually want everything to be as cheap as possible and if they don't have to pay a bunch of extra labor and so be it

 

I'm guessing again with a good scanner maybe there's a subcode for this 3102 business you have but I don't know that I'm just guessing would seem for the transmission something another there might be some freeze frame data or further information we need to know