Hybrid System or Traction Battery Failure - Japanese Import

Thank you all for your very valuable inputs. Today I have managed to get the car started through a private workshop where technicians had access to complete Plug-in diagnostics. I was lucky to find them.

The issue was simple and to me strange as well. The hybrid battery had drained to the extent that when we plugged-in the cable it neither showed the charging status on the display nor the charging indicator lit up. Even the error codes would come back 5-7 seconds of clearing.

When we had almost given up, we tried setting up the charging timer. When we did that we could see the green charging indicator blinking and if you left the start button on it would switch off after a few seconds. We consulted the owner's manual and found out that these indicated the charge taking place. We therefore decided to leave the cable plugged-in for a while.

Thankfully after about 2 hours, when we tried again, the error codes cleared and the MID started indicating the charging status of the hybrid battery. This was the point when we pressed the start button and the vehicle moved to Ready Mode.

What happened with my PIP is neither given in the owner's manual nor in the PIP repair diagnostics. For hybrid system malfunction, the repair manual indicated that hybrid battery may be low and the solution given was to replace the battery pack. I wonder how much I would have ended up spending if we had not hit the clue by chance.

Yes, the brick can do both. Toyota Japan supplies 200 V cable with the car even though they have 100 V. Mine did not ship with the car but I am getting one soon both from Japan and U.K.

The jump start process is the same as that of standard Prius. I had tried it a number of times but without success.

You have correctly understood. There are no Toyota dealers here working with the Plug-ins. They do however support the standard Prius since this has been officially launched by Toyota in Pakistan.

Just be careful to hook up positive with positive and negative with negative or follow the process given in the manual. The ordeal that I have gone through, I am an expert at it now.

Since Standard Hybrid is being sold by Toyota dealership here, they also extend all sorts of maintenance support for it.
Plug-ins are not sold by Toyota dealers but used ones (3 years old max) can be imported from Japan. This is totally legal and one has to pay hefty taxes to the Government for the importation but even after that it costs you less than the Toyota sold brand new Hybrid.
You are absolutely right in your last part but I loved this car and therefore took the risk. Let us hope I do not repent my decision.

Please have a maintenance and service section in the PIP Forum. Thanks.

 

Thanks a million Bisco. I appreciate your support.

Thanks a lot. I am a happy Prius owner now.

Thanks for your good wishes.

Toyota dealership here has limited expertise in PIP therefore they are usually reluctant to repair major faults. For oil change etc one can always go to them.

 

A bundle of thanks.

Here are few stock pictures. Will post fresh in due course. Not sure if these would take a lot of space on the thread.

 

It is Right Hand Drive in Japan and Pakistan like in UK. I leave the debate of better driving system between Americans and the Brits

 

Thanks.

Well I would say it used to be a Corolla country but a major share of the local market has also been captured by Honda for the last decade or two. Toyota, Honda and Suzuki are the leading car makers and popular in the same order of priority. We mostly have smaller cars with engine capacity between 800 to 1300 cc. With better fuel economy cars, however, this trend is changing and we now have a sizable market for 1600-1800 cc cars.

With import of used cars from Japan and UK now allowed, we have all sorts of models mainly from Toyota and Honda plying on Pakistani roads. Prius is becoming a popular ride in major cities but remains limited to conventional hybrid only. Toyota is officially selling a variant of UK's T-4 with reduced options to keep the price tag relatively low. However, it is still exorbitant forcing people to go for various used Japanese trims/ grades like S, S Touring, G, G Touring and G Touring Leather Edition. These Japanese trims are not only cheaper but also carry many additional features that are not available in officially sold Toyota Prius.