Dead Fred

I have a dead 2002 Gen 1 Prius in my driveway.

I've replaced the HV battery three times...only purchased one from Dorman and they were great and honored the warranty when the "codes" came back with bad cells. I honestly don't believe the cells were bad. I think there is something electrical that has gone wonky in the car that is screwing up the HV battery.

I last replaced the battery in April 2014. By June of this year, the triangle of death came on and the fans that cool the HV battery would come on almost immediately after starting the car. This last time the triangle of death came on, I was about to go out of town for several weeks so I wasn't able to take it to have the codes run. I came back from vacation in mid-July, the car was completely dead.

I'm totally kicking myself over this. I tried to sell the car in January and got an offer of $3k and turned it down. Now I have a giant paperweight that I don't know what to do with. The car only has about 150,000 miles on it. :/

Any advice on what I should do now? I've emailed Dorman to see if they will send me yet another battery under the warranty but I'll be shocked if they do. HELP!!!!!!!

 

I get that, but how can the codes be read if the car is completely dead? Is that possible? I really don't know much about cars at all. I expect the codes will be the same as the other three times this happened. So my question is more WHY does this keep happening? I've attached a PDF with the codes from last year. How is it possible that the cells in the HV battery keep going bad so quickly? I feel like I need to find someone with an advanced degree in electronics to figure it out. Certainly the dealership is of NO help to me anytime I have an issue and they want to charge me a bajillion dollars to even diagnose an issue.

 

Absolutely no sign of life. The 12V was having problems just before the HV went out. I had to jump it a couple of times before the HV went out. The 12V is new last August as well.

 

I'm in Houston.

 

I should clarify. The 12V was having issues where I needed to jump the car to start. Once started, it was fine. After a few weeks of that BS, the Triangle of Death came on and the fans for the HV started to run. I don't drive the Prius regularly as I have a 4Runner. I've been saving the Prius for when my 17-yo daughter finally gets her license in December. When I came back after being gone for three weeks, NO lights were on inside the car. Typically, when the HV is fine but the 12V is dead, the car won't start but the little flashing red light on the stereo indicating something related to the alarm would be blinking. When I came home after 3 weeks of vacation, it was not blinking. I honestly haven't tried to do anything with it since then. I don't have a multi-meter. Can I get one at Autozone or the like?

 

Do any of you have any theories why the cells on the HV keep going bad? This will be my 4th battery from Dorman (presuming they replace it again). It seems highly unlikely that I would keep getting malfunctioning batteries time after time. When the Prius is running, I usually drive it maybe 30-50 miles a week. I mostly use my 4Runner. Could my lack of use be the problem for the HV? Clearly that seems to be the problem with the 12V. I love my little Peanut (that's the Prius' nickname) and I feel like the car has many many many good years left so I want to figure out this problem so I can drive it forever.

 

Hey usnavystgc...that's a decent frame bag you have on your bike in your profile picture. Do you bikepack? My Man and I love to bikepack. He is in the process of starting a bikepacking outfitting business. google "big foot bikepacking" I tried to put the web address in my message but the bots here deleted it. Strange.