2004 Prius P3009 and beyond woes

2004 prius with 176K trouble free miles until....now. Below is a quick recap of the last month of forum reading, troubleshooting and unresolved issues.

Approximately 100 miles away from home, the car shuts off in a fast food drive thru- triangle with exclamation point and the car icon on the MFD. Pushed it into a parking spot. The car will not switch into drive or reverse. A friend looks up on the forums that it might just be the battery.

Looked up a local mechanic who works on Lexus, only other ones I could find were the dealer, yikes! We remove the battery and take it to the shop. He tests and sells us a 12v prius battery ($255). Installed it and then drive it 5 minutes to the shop. He said there are no stored codes, but clears the trouble light by a handheld scanner. We drive away and the warning triangle is on again. We go back and he clears the non-existent codes again. We drive away and the lights come back again, always within about 5 minutes of driving. We go back again and he clears the codes and tells us that we should drive for a while and let the computer re-calibrate. We have a 100 mile drive home! We decide to risk it and head home. We make it home and for three days the car drives fine. On day three, in a drive thru again, the car throws up the warning light but still drives. Once it gets home it will not switch into drive or reverse.

The warning triangle, the exclamation point in parenthesis, vsc & abs lights are all lit up.

Forums suggest to replace inverter and inverter fluid- done.

Got a mini vci to test with- p3009, c1259 and c1310.

forum advice: The first step is to clear the P3009 trouble code and then turn the key or push button to key on/not ready mode, (This is IG ON on a Gen I or the second position on the ignition switch (after ACC)) wait 30 seconds and if the code comes back, the leak is in the battery case.

The light comes on within a few seconds.

Rip apart car and test HV battery- each cell records;

7.64

7.64

7.65

7.65

7.65

7.63

7.65

7.65

7.63

7.64

7.64

7.65

7.63

7.65

7.64

7.65

7.64

7.64

7.64

7.64

7.64

7.62

7.63

7.65

7.64

7.65

7.64

7.64


Next on the list is to drain and refill transaxle fluid which will occur tonight and double check the connections-

another thread suggests double checking connections and making sure there are no corrosion build up. I have some CRC 2-26 multi purpose lubricant I am going to use on any connections that appear corroded.

Any other suggestions are urgently welcome.

 

Actually, I used a volt meter to get the battery data. I'm still trying to learn the TIS software that came with it. I will look into the battery usage function late tonight or tomorrow evening after work, thank you.

 

I really appreciate all the feed back, you all are great! My biggest fear besides playing with electricity was that what if I bought a used or rebuilt battery and that still didn't fix the issue, but all the responses lend themselves to seemingly having two choices;

1. Use the software and the advice above to track down the bad cell or cells, replace them, clean the battery pack and then rebuild them. I've read forums on that and I don't feel that's the route I want to go. The balancing of the whole pack seems a bit daunting to me and of courae I'm in a bit of time crunch

2. Replace the pack and move on. Most likely the best option. Any reputable settler recommendations.... that won't break the bank, oh wait, already did that.

 

Detail code 1 is zero
Detail code 2 is 526
Detail code 3 is 612

 

Thank you Brad. The toyo link is awesome and helps put me at some ease. I am sorry if I belabor the issue as I only have enough money to either buy a battery or try and get a new(er) ride.
Is it possible that the leakage reported or the insulation resistance reduction could be from something else?
I am hoping that I could feel at least 90% for sure that after the battery replacement there will not be a following problem, like transaxle failure or ?.. I will look up Mr. Keith as a potential option.

 

Great picture and great post Brad! There is a small amount of white corrosion under module 10, counting from the connectors towards the ventilating area, when I tried to measure that from the positive post to the case my multimeter reading starting counting up into the hundreds and then shut off with OL. A few others without visible corrosion displayed in the low one hundreds. I'll call Steve today about that battery, thanks again Brad.

 

The bus bars are still attached, I only pulled off the black covers as S keith instructed and completely disconnected the battery from the ecu.
I assumed it was displaying volts, not millivolts, but the unit, gardner bender 3200 does not turn on anymore.