2009 Prius Cat Converter Replaced, P0A80 Code

Well you're in California so having catalytic converters and all that stuff in place is mandatory unlike where I am your battery block voltage if that's the reading and that's what's going on the voltage being low could be because the bus bars on that blocker dirty black the nuts are frosted with like the white stuff that grows on old car 12 volt battery terminals It's a living organism keep your car from starting lots of times that can happen in your HV battery pack and that can wreak havoc on how that assembly works Toyota will not look inside of that battery pack they just replaced the $3,000 battery pack when someone's at their house and their driveway you will see pictures here of what people see when they look in their HV battery pack It can be quite ugly Just cleaning up the copper bus bars the nuts and a rock tumbler with the proper abrasive and making sure everything is clean and no modules are leaking on the lower tray and so on can go a long way If money's that tight you may not want to be looking at a 3,000 or $4,000 new Toyota battery get a rebuilt It sounds like you're inching your way out of this car very slowly because of age looks whatever the problem may be I can't see from here The car is a good car generally a generation 2 will carry you to $500,000 pretty easily of course you'll be replacing tires 12 volt batteries and consumable things like any other car If you go 600,000 mi with it you'll replace a few of those things more than you will on a car that only makes $150,000 mi obviously so you have to weigh out what you have going on I have four of these cars three of them have rebuilt batteries in them and have been doing very well One of them has a brand new battery from about 2 years ago that I put in so there are lots of variables I don't pay but $700 to a thousand bucks for one of these cars generally and usually they're in pretty nice shape leather interior so on I don't buy any cloth so there's always that but you know driving a car like this to 600,000 means you're sitting in a 16-year-old car until it's like 24 years old to make that kind of mileage and well people look at you funny and all kinds of things so peer pressure can have a lot to do with changing cars and refrigerators and appliances and things like that just depends where you are in the game

 

FIRST, what kind of carwash did you take your car through? If it was one where you have to leave the car on and put the car in neutral, you probably drained the HV battery to the point it triggered the code, since the HV battery does not get charged when in neutral. If you leave the AC on it will rapidly drain the HV battery since the AC compressor is electric. If so, the battery could likely be restored to service merely by force charging it.

 

I would pull the negative cable of the 12v battery for a couple of minutes to attempt to clear the codes and then drive it. The hv battery may partially recover.

The coolant valve is less likely to respond as well but the next thing you do is find an independent hybrid shop in the area, even if you have to drive an hour. Taking a 15 year old Prius to a dealer will result in first class service and parts at two to three times what an independent may charge. Like anything you have to shop around. Realize many shops are not knowledgeable on Prius, one of the most complicated cars ever made.

It is not unusual for both of the defined issues to be real at that age. Again, a good independent hybrid shop is a good second opinion and a better price.