2008 Prius Red Exclamation Mark, (!), VSC, and Check Engine light

yes your battery is gone, the failing AC is the first sign as it uses the most power.
if you ran the car without coolant you did a lot of damage.
if you keep driving it the way it is you will destroy the rest of the car.
sell it as is and buy something else, you don't have any options if you cant afford the repairs.
its just a car, dump it and move on
post it on craigs list for $2000 and see if you get any offers

 

Yes, there is a good chance that your car has two relatively small problems. At the moment it is unclear that the high voltage traction battery is at fault.

Unless you are able to walk or bicycle everywhere you need to go, you must allocate some money to service your car now.

1. Buy a gallon of Toyota Super Long Life Coolant and use that to fill the "coolant overflow" container. I assume you are referring to the engine coolant overflow reservoir. Also, remove the large black plastic cover over the radiator, and fill the radiator.

2. Make the Prius READY. Look at the inverter coolant reservoir. If you do not see fluid turbulence then the inverter coolant pump needs to be replaced. I have posted on how to do that, you can DIY for <$100.

3. If #2 is OK, rev up the engine while the car is sitting on your driveway, gear selector in P. Turn on the cabin heater, temp MAX HEAT, fan speed MAX. Make sure the cabin heater is working and you do not hear air bubbling in the heater core. If you hear air, then rev the engine around 10 minutes or until the air bubbling goes away. Then turn off the car. Wait until the engine cools down, then remove the radiator cap and replenish coolant in the radiator as well as in the overflow container.

4. Repeat #3 until the coolant level remains steady.

5. Look at the engine coolant pump pulley. If you see a pinkish stain on the inside of the pulley, that is where the engine coolant is leaking. You will need to replace the coolant pump (which I have posted on how to do) and this also will cost you less than $100 if you DIY. However you can defer this replacement for a while as long as you frequently monitor the engine coolant level and keep the radiator full.

6. Try the air conditioner compressor to see if the AC will produce cold air. You should not have to set the temp at 68 unless you are using your car as a refrigerator.

 

You might be covered under warranty for the hv battery

 

are you talking about the coolant in the engine or the invertor (the invertor is in the center of the engine compartment if that's empty you cooked the invertor and that in turn killed the battery) when it was checked last is meaningless, if it leaked out and ran hot for about 20 mins its cooked.

if you owe money on it let them repo it..if it needs a battery and invertor the car is worthless..you are going to have to get it towed to the dealer (Id join AAA today) and spend about $100 to see if its worth fixing...

either way Id start looking for a $1000 beater and dump this car, the damage has been done.

 

The car has 103k miles, what's this talk about beater? Almost any hybrid repair would probably be done on a goodwill warranty, if it's not covered by a carb warranty. There should be no cost

 

what makes you think Toyota will give them a free battery?
just because one in twenty get it does not mean they will.
even at 50% off its still $1500 out of pocket with no idea why the battery failed so early.
bad invertor?
bad charging system ?
other issues..
who knows.

 

I recommend you taking to the dealer to see what's wrong with it, then you can have an idea what you are facing.

If it's the battery or inverter, ask for a goodwill warranty and chances are they'll cover the repair at no charge. What state are you in?

 

is the fluid in the inverter reservoir swirling?

 

There is a recall on the inverter pump

 

I live in north Louisiana. I recently had a similar problem with my Prius and it was the main battery!!!!!!!!!! Dealer wanted $4000.00 to replace the battery. NO GOODWILL HERE!!!!!! I started reading up on re-conditioned batteries and what they did to re-condition them. I am pretty "handy" so I pulled the main battery (about an hour and a half), checked each cell. I found I had 3 bad cells. Ordered 3 off of eBay. After I put the battery back together I had to cycle each cell (discharge and charge each cell 3 times) and this took a long time. After I put the battery all back together I put it back in the car and haven't had any more problems with the car other than the A/C. But all the lights have gone off on the dash and the car is running great.

 

depending on where you are in Louisiana I may be able to help you with this.

 

How do you know which cells are bad? Are there any special tools needed to determine this? How did you charge the cells?

 

you need a mini vci, and an old compatible windows laptop.

 

just watch the videos on youtube on rebuilding prius batteries

 

check the fuses under the hood. I had a similar issue with my 2011 and there was a blown 10 amp fuse in the panel under the hood. I forget what the fuse is for but it fixed the problem. can't hurt to check.