Can check engine / red triangle be caused by low oil?

Hello,

I had a problem a few months ago where someone left the light on in my Prius overnight. When I found it, the car was completely dead, couldn't start it or anything. After a lot of runaround, I ended up replacing the original, now dead, battery with the Miata battery from elearnaid. Once I did, the car started up, but I had a red triangle, check engine light, and the MED had the car-with-exclamation-point highlighted. In addition, the gas engine wasn't coming on and the car would only drive very slowly. I was frustrated with this for awhile, but read somewhere (I believe here) that if you drive it around, it'll charge the main battery up and that can get the problem to go away.

Well, against my better instinct, I tried that method, and it seemed to work. I had problems for a week or so where sometimes I'd start the car and it'd give me those errors again, but I'd drive it for a few minutes, restart the car a few times, and it'd go away. After a while, I stopped getting the errors completely.

Well, a week or so ago I drove back home and now have my car parked outside instead of in a garage. Now I'm getting the red triangle + check engine every time I turn on the car - even if I drove it and charged it the day before. It's pretty consistent. Now, I haven't had the oil replaced in a long, long time - definitely too long. I checked it the other day after driving for a while and it was a bit low. The fact that the car is parked out in the cold all the time now makes me think that it might be reading the oil level as even lower when it first turns on. The fact that I've only been having these problems again since I got home, and that it is so consistent, makes me think there might be a corollary.

Anyways, the car is under warranty still, and so I could bring it in to the dealer to have them work it out, but I'm worried that they'll try to void my warranty because I replaced the battery with a non-standard one. Because of this, before taking it in to the dealer, I'd most likely have to get a new auxiliary battery that is kosher with Toyota. Since we all know that this is an expensive option, and since time is of the essence for me anyways, I was curious to know if these errors could be caused by low oil. I'd really rather not believe that the electronics just all of a sudden decided to start acting up, especially since this whole battery issue has been a huge headache and I don't want to open up that can of worms again. If I haven't mentioned, it is a 2002 Prius. Thanks in advance for any replies.

-mike

 

I'm with you on the warranty thing, I'd rather just take it in as it is and let them deal with it. As far as I'm concerned, a battery's a battery - I seriously doubt that it is the source of the issues and I wouldn't believe them if they tried to write it off as that. Still, it's up to my parents, though, and I wasn't able to prove to them that we wouldn't be liable.

As for the ECU, I never had any such warning lights or problems before that first battery died. It seems strange that these problems would develop on their own concurrently. Can battery problems develop latent issues in the engine or is this just a common problem or something?

Sorry, just trying to satisfy my curiosity

edit: pretty sure the aux just powers the computer components. main battery turns on the ICE iirc.

 

The warranty is a "Platinum" warranty - it lasts until next year I believe. The car was originally under warranty when there was a problem, I believe, with the transmission or drivetrain. I wasn't using the car at this point so I'm not sure. My parents took it to the dealership and they fixed it. This was maybe a year or two ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if the warranty was extended or at least altered after they did this work on it. The warranty is through the dealer, not the manufacturer.

It's not like the oil has never been changed in the car, but I use it very infrequently to make either short trips to the supermarket or long trips from socal (where I go to school) to norcal (home). I should've checked it in November, but forgot, not that I drove it much anyways, and when I looked at the dipstick the other day, it appeared to be low. I figured that the oil volume probably depends on temperature, so I thought there might be a corollary between how much colder it is up here and the sudden onset of problems - go figure, there isn't.

Changing the battery shouldn't void the warranty, I agree. I seriously doubt that the battery caused or is causing any problem. However, I do know that car dealers are about as slippery as eels, and I wouldn't be surprised if, if there is some sort of problem with the electric systems in the car, they try to pin it on the non-standard battery to get out of paying for the costs. I don't know why you think I sound like a troll, whatever that is, but I'm not yanking anyone's chain. I may be pretty out of the loop when it comes to cars, but these are real problems that I've been dealing with for months.

I even made a post here in October when I first installed the battery:
priuschat.com/forums/care-maintenance-troubleshooting/54534-another-12v-battery-problem-02-prius.html

 

Dealer fixed it - turned out to be a problem with the mass air flow sensor. Also turned out that my warranty had actually expired in May so it ended up costing me $700. Makes me wish I had been trolling....

edit: Can't forget - thanks for the accusations, thread derailment, and, of course, help.