2005 Prius with triangle of death with some power loss & rear fan on.

Hello everyone, thanks in advance for your insight & help. I'm sorry if this has been discussed previously.

I have a 2005 Prius that has been very reliable! With the exception of oil changes, brakes & tires I've only needed to replace the Inverter Cooler Pump, which was under recall (about 40K miles ago).

Without any prior problems, the triangle of death came on along with the other dash alarm lights. I noticed an immediate great power loss & the fan behind the rear seat came on.

I stopped the car & let it sit about 30 minutes. It started right up & I drove it home. It felt sluggish & the max was 50 or so , I didn't want to push it, so I stayed below 45 mph. It had very little power, the engine ran constantly, with no battery assist. The drive home was approx 40 minutes. When I tried to start it a few hours later, it started immediately. The warning lights are still on, it runs rough upon start and the rear fan comes on immediately.

I've taken it to my local garage, but they were not able to pull the codes. My local dealer wants $100. to pull the codes, which I'm alright paying but I would like to have some idea of what I'm looking at for a repair before I take it to the dealer, as I need to save up the repair money in advance, if it it will exceed what I have on hand. I'm not meaning to whine here, just have had most of the family laid off & the credit cards are at the max, so I need to budget for this repair.

Can you give me your thoughts? Thanks a million!

 

Hi Patrick, Thanks for the speedy reply. I have a couple of questins.

1) I wasn't sure if the low power & the rough running could be a result of the triangle of death & the warning lights having triggered an override to prevent driving too fast & damaging 'something"

• In times past, my Chrysler mini-van wouldn't let me go over about 35 (dealer refered to it as a computer triggered govenor) when the warning lights came on, does the prius do the same thing?

2) I wasn't sure if maybe the Invertor might be bad or maybe I have a problem with the system not cooling the battery. If it were a case of overheating the battery, would it be running normally once it cooled off or would it remain as-is until the computer is re-set?

3) A friend suggested that I find out how to reset the computer at the fuse box, to see if the car still runs badly, with the triangle of death off.

• I have some electrical experience but I'm obviously not an auto tech. I can follow some directions for mid-level repairs, if you know where I can get some info to follow. Will disconnecting the starter battery for 30 minutes or so reset the computer?

Thanks!

 

Hi Harold,
Yes I also thought it was strange that it would go bad without any warning. This is my 4th Prius & I had to replace the Traction Battery in my 2001. It gave me indication of problems before it went belly up!

It currently has 3 green bars & it's charging. When I was driving it home, it had low bars but I don't remember if it was green or not.

I will check tomorrow to see if the cooling vent is clogged & I will pull out the spare to check the fan & see if it has any "rats nest" or something. That is a good suggestion!

I'll also check the 12v battery. I hadn't thought of that.

You've given me a couple of things to check out. I appreciate your thoughts!

I'll report back later.

 

Hi Patrick,

1) I'm in southern California, in Orange County.

2) It has 165.000 miles on it.

3) The pump was replaced about 40K miles ago, as per Toyota recall.

Thanks for your information. I was concerned that maybe it had a cooling problem, which may have triggered the fan. would that make any sense to you?