Caution: The transmission lock mechanism is abnormal

The service rep said that they did a continuity check on the cable and it checked out fine. Is there any other test that can be performed to further isolate the problem?

 

The concept of using two voltmeters is fine. The basic idea is to find the first point in the wiring harness (closest to the battery) where the voltage fluctuates. That will be where the problem is.

 

Try a different dealer before trashing the car. This dealer may be in over his head.

 

I had the same error message. The dealer was of little help. But, I found in this forum many suggestions to change the 12 volt battery. I did just that and have not seen the frustrating error message again.

 

Similar experience here. New 12V battery was the solution so far.

For the last couple months or so, about every startup, the red triangle ! light would flash momentarily, then start fine. Twice, my wife was stranded for a few minutes with the same warning message that begins this thread about the park lock abnormal, etc., but was eventually able to get the car going. I had DTCs checked, but nothing was logged. The suggestions here pointed me to the 12V battery. I knew it was getting weak, but was surprised to find it at only 10+ volts after driving. Changed it and all seems to now be well.

I'm surprised that this battery is depended on to shift out of park. If the car waited for a moment more for the hybrid system to fire up, wouldn't there be lots more juice to draw from for the task?

Since such weird and seemingly unrelated problems can stem from a weak battery, it also seems like an oversight not to have warnings implemented for when it gets to be in bad shape. 10 volts is pretty bad shape.

 

I was looking at a '05 in a used car lot yesterday and this problem prevented me from taking a test drive. The salesman was surprised and could not figure it out. Even the key was locked in and could not be removed from the dash. I asked them to take it to the local Toyota dealership for a full $105 inspection, which they did once the problem eventually stopped, but the dealer did not report any noticeable problem!

 

The used car lot would have been better off had they applied the $105 towards buying a replacement 12V battery.

 

Hi! New to this forum (used to be in Matrix forum). So I came upon this same issue today under different conditions. Exhibit A: (j/k, I'll just do a long story)
Went to get my backpack out of the car (opened passenger door with the sensor-way- only hands! magic act style!). Boyfriend handed me a CD from his car to listen to briefly, so thrilled about my awesome audio I decided to press my power button from the passenger seat twice to activate the electric system only. Put in the CD and listened to it for 2 minutes (at most!) and all of the sudden the red exclamation triangle came on and the navigation screen and audio went off. We turned off the power and re-started the car with engine this time. We then turned if off and only urned on the electric (double click w/out break pedal) and tried listening to the CD again, same thing happened except this time we did not re-start the car and let it go to see what happened. About 5 seconds later (or more) the navigation screen turned back on and displayed the following "CAUTION - Transmission "P" lock mechanism is abnormal. Park in a flat place and apply brake". The red exclamation mark and triangle continued on. My BF then decided to press the audio button (Why? IDK!) and the message went away, but the triangle remained on. About 30 seconds later the triangle disappeared and the car continued on. The whole time my dashboard display was on (displaying the icons, speedometer, etc).
Aftermath: I called the service department at my dealer and they just told me to bring it in because they had no idea what it could be. I called Toyota's customer service freaked out that something may happen on the way home/dealer (30 miles). Guy did some research and said that it was probably my batteries (hybrid or 12 volt) that went down. I explained to him that the time frame that it took for the malfunction to occur could not be done to battery life (serious only 1-2min and the thing dies!? NO WAY). Also explained that my hybrid battery was full. He then said it could be that my connection to the 12v could be bad. He recommended monitoring it and seeing if it repeats myself. I refuse to do so (and told him so), as my experiences with computers usually do not have things re-occur consistently until things are really about to crash and since I am still in my warranty period.... I am going to take my car in tomorrow to the dealer and want to make sure I don't get a BS excuse or runaround, so any help or input would be awesome.
Background:
>>>Last summer I ran out of battery (left my lights on) and was jumpstarted by AAA w/out incident and the car has been fine since.
>>>Last fall I ran out of gas (and out of hybrid battery quickly <--you'd be surprise how fast you run through the hybrid battery when on a FWY w/out gas takes seconds). AAA came and gave me gas, then I filled up the tank w/out incident and no problems since.
>>>I have an iphone 3GS jailbroken & unlocked, sync it to the car via BT. Lately (started the night I ran out of gas -. when I ran out of gas someone was trying to call me, I answered via BT <was already pulled on the side of the road dead> and the phone froze) the phone freezes after hanging up or when trying to answer using BT/steering wheel. Coincidence? I think yes (I hope).
K, well, thanks for your help & input!
BTW! I was glad to meet 2 of you at the 10 year Prius Anniversary party in Malibu! Hello whomever you may be (one of you used to have a Matrix and live in the Cerritos area, btw... the new Prius model looks so MUCH like the Matrix! The best of both worlds!)

 

PS: right front light went off about a year ago and then it turned back on (never noticed the issue again, but have been turning off my headlamps since during the day)

 

I ran my battery down the other day by running the interior vent fan without the car running, and it triggered this warning. So the most likely cause of this warning seems to be a low 12V battery.

 

PS to my previous post. The time I ran out of gas I did not run out of electric battery. I pulled off to the side of the road and turned off the car (rather than continuing on what was left of the battery) b/c I was safe in a construction area rather than on a tiny slither of shoulder. Could have kept going...but I kept my safety in mind...

 

Thanks! However, like I said the car was only on (electric accessories only) for like 1-2 min tops before the malfunction.... That has never happened before.....

 

When you want to listen to the Prius stereo, you need to put the car in ACC-ON mode, where the MFD is on, but all instrument panel warning lights are off. This can be done by pressing the POWER button once, from IG-OFF. It sounds like you put the car in IG-ON mode by pressing the POWER button twice, which causes the various warning lights to be on. The drain on the 12V battery is very high, when in this mode. Do not allow the Prius to remain IG-ON for any length of time.

Whether or not this happened before, you need a new 12V battery now. As stated above, you also need to ensure that the car is in ACC-ON mode when listening to the stereo (not IG-ON mode.)

 

Yes, your 12V battery is near death.

I'd go farther than Patrick and advise leaving the car ON ("Ready") and in Park whenever you use any accessories. It avoids the battery discharge problem altogether, at least until the car runs out of gas.

 

Thanks! You would think Toyota would be the 1st one to tell me that (once instead of pressing twice) because I mentioned it to them! So far it has not happened again, and Toyota wants to charge me $98 for diagnostic. I would like to only test the battery. At the service center they also told me that some of the 2006-2008 models have had computer issues and have needed the computer replaced. Can you think of anywhere where I can have my battery tested w/out it costing me an arm and a leg? (You would think they would check the battery for free.... (do they check it when they do the servicing?)

 

Your 12V battery is near the end of its life. If it will inconvenience you unduly to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, then I recommend that you replace it now.

I would not bother to have the battery tested, because battery testing as performed by the dealer is unreliable. Use the $98 towards the purchase of a new battery, which has an MSRP of $139 (although some dealers are not afraid to charge more.)

 

i missed ths topic
but i have the same messageon my screen as normal because when i open the driverdoor and still not in park i get this message!

but i see you get it when driving?

 

Did you leave a door open? If you open a door when the system is on that message will come on the screen. You can also select neutral when in accessory mode which will prevent you going into ready mode.

 

You can check the 12V battery yourself with a voltmeter, or with no tools at all by using the built-in test procedure:
http://priuschat.com/forums/newbie-forum/73400-weird-stuff-happening-mpgs-dropping-test-battery.html