The P3000 DTC code was on our 2004 Prius with 195,000 miles. My wife had taken it to the car wash and the attendants could not get it to go into drive, or to turn off, after going through the car wash in neutral. The Master Warning Light was on, as well as the Hybrid Vehicle Battery Warning Light. The car would not go into park, and only turned off after holding the brake and power button for several seconds. Upon restarting, it went to Ready with no warning lights. The car was driven about a mile to the Toyota dealership. They pulled the codes and got P3000 for the DTC, but no INF code was stored. The recommended repair was to replace the hybrid battery. This seems logical since an 11½ year old battery, with 195,000 miles in a fairly warm location (Dallas, Texas), would have every right to be a little weak. However, I thought it would be good to get the opinions of ones more experienced than I.
maybe running it through the wash let it go too low. i would clear the code and drive a while, see if the lights come back and watch the battery behavior and mpg's. carwash in neutral is a no-no, unless the hybrid battery is at least 6 bars. an older battery might not handle it at all.
When the Prius is in neutral it will not charge the hybrid battery even if the gas engine is running. So it just got low while going thru the wash and caused the trouble code. Most codes go away on their own but the P3000 will not. With the age of the car it will probably need a battery in the future but it sounds like it's fine right now. Don't listen to the dealer. Codes that indicate battery failure are PA080 and/or P3011-P3024. The fact that your battery was discharged so low and none of these codes came in means the modules are still relatively well balanced and your good to go. Hope that helps.
Thank you both for your replies, they did help clear up a few things. I had never heard that you should not put the car in neutral when going through a car wash, until the service manager told my wife that even before the code was pulled. And you two confirmed it, along with an explanation for why. So, we are going to just keep driving, and try not to put the battery is such a stressful situation again. Again, thank you both.
