Driving my 2008 with 189,000 miles on the congested "freeway" the ominous red triangle and the yellow exclamation next to it just lit up. A quick scan of the OBD showed no error codes and good auxiliary battery, engine coolant Temps etc. And good gas mileage, engine vacuum. I had replaced the spark plugs with new iridiums two months ago. When I stopped and checked the hybrid converter had good levels and turbulent flow. The oil had been changed a week ago and checked again at lunchtime. Now only the red triangle shows. Any good advice?
Get them read by Toyota hybrid capable scanner. If you want to do it yourself get techstream. Post codes here and probably somebody can help you.
I went to the dealer for the transmission fluid change. They did not find any hybrid problems so maybe the clean fluid will prevent future MG issues. Thanks to the info on this forum for the warning and advice on this fluid change. The dealership did not seem aware of the problems old fluid will cause. They wanted to change the air and cabin filters but that's just too easy and fast to warrant the high part and labor charges.
So what did your dealer's service writer have to say about the red triangle? Or is that warning light off now?
The red triangle went off after parking in the cool night for a few hours and did not come back. The next morning i got the transmission oil changed at the dealer. Now weeks later and many hundreds of miles climbing the Grapevine and on the 405 congestion, no more red triangle. Having just passed the 190,000 mark, it looks like it has fixed the problem.
I agree that commute is an excellent test for your car. If there are no warning lights now then the power train must be in basically good shape.
