06 Prius: Dash black; wont power down; Rev/slug HELP

Hey guys,

the other day, pulling out of a parking lot, proceeding to accelarate, my car was so sluggish, it wouldn't go, then revved super high suddenly. It drove sluggish but managed to get home (no check engine lights). To go home there are several hills that help me collect battery. It didn't. I had no A/C on or lights either to suck extra.

Earlier that day my dash went dark, but 4 hours later, back running fine and that is when i was out/about and left the parking lot when the above happened. I took it home. (dash going dark has happened 4 times total, 2 times recently in 24 hours, other 2 within 1 mth ago).

I decided to take it to my Toyota dealership to get their diagnostic look at it. I left it over night. When I tried to turn my car off (at the dealership) it wouldn't. I had to do a hard shut down (think laptops) and hold the power off button. Today I just received a call and he said what they know is "bad" is the instrument cluster (saying that is responsible for dash issues). I asked well what about the surging and or the lack of powering down? He said nothing was wrong with the batteries (but I didn't fully believe him). He said the car is working fine now so its hard to know what was happening. Well duh, but you are the mechanic!?! So they asked to leave it with them so they can take it and drive it around to see if they can get it to replicate. That is where I am at. **I did ask if the instrument cluster would cause it to rev or not power down and he said, "I'm not sure, possibly". (rev/surg has never happened before) (power down has happened twice now)

Off the hip, what are your thoughts about these symptoms? Would you ask them to check both batteries again before you pick them up? I probably will NOT get them to do the work as I know dealerships overcharge heavily, but I took it to them for diagnosing due to their testing machines.
Thank you!

 

No, not yet, I didn't authorize and he agreed to keep it overnight and do some driving to see if it could replicate the rev/surg or inability to shut down.

 

Oh btw, 70K miles on it

 

Yes, this was a Govt owned car not used at all during pandemic and so it sat in a city garage used about 3k miles a year with about 10 other priuses. I bought it with just 49k. Its a replaced refub battery that was done about 1.5 years ago.

Supposedly Toyota hooked it up, so they should be able to see soft codes if there were any. Also, I know auxillary shouldn't show because only the hybrid is connected to the computer itself.

 

WEll they hooked it up and didnt mention any soft codes, not that there isnt any. Is the instrument cluster attached to the CM monitor?

 

Thanks! I also saw online that you can see how its functioning in the display and it should be at least I believe 12.4 volts. When I get my car tomorrow I will check that myself.

 

Got it! I did read about it and watched a video of how to replace it. I won't be able to do that for sure! lol I cannot do any kind of saudering and the dismanteling, not for me. haha. So, I do have a local guy who used to work for Toyota (shows me his paperwork) that may be able to do it for half the cost as others. We'll see. That would be tentative plan is buying a refurbished from Texas Hybrid or somewhere else (I'm in Colorado). I will also call around to a shop I've used for my previous car (they only work on foreign, Toyota Hyundai, and Honda are the top makes they work with) and see their cost.

 

AH wow, thank you for this Terry! I'm making calls today about the IC/CM and requesting estimates. I will look around for someone who could take a look at that first though.