I've lurked on PriusChat for a few years now. Let me start by saying THANK YOU ALL for posting. You've helped me change a traction battery (or two) in the 3 years I've own my Prius. Enough with the sappy appreciation, here's my issue... Car will not go into drive or reverse. It's almost like it's in a "limp mode." Red triangle with ! and yellow circle with ! are lit. No codes come up. If I remove the positive terminal for a few minutes (and replace it), it'll pop into drive and function as usual but the lights will come back a few minutes later. After some reading on here, I've deducted that it may be the Hybrid Inverter (probably not since it still drives and charges, correct?) or the Hybrid Coolant Pump. How do you know when either of these two items fail? I don't have any codes to go off of and it's racking my brain. Here is some other info... 2005 Prius One New traction battery (last night) New 12v battery (today) Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks in advance!
Does the car continue to drive normally until it's shut off? A high voltage leak will cause the car to not restart once the code is set. Rebooting the 12 volt battery will get you one restart. This sounds like your problem. Having just replaced your HV battery makes it a likely suspect. Or, did your car have this problem before you replaced the battery? Here's the easy no tools required test to isolate the source of a HV leak. What are you reading codes with? Brad in MN
You need a proper code reader to read the codes. With the red triangle warning, you will have codes in the car. Since you just replaced the traction battery, my guess is also the same as the above post, start looking there.
Thank you both. Yes, it drives fine. Like you say, once I reboot the 12v, she drives fine until I shut it off. I had a whole slew of other problems before I replaced the battery. It's a Dorman reman that was 18 months old. I hit a deer and the car sat for 4 months. Once it was repaired, the bad traction batt code came up. Dorman (RockAuto) replaced the battery under their 36mo warranty. I have tried both my BT OBD reader paired with my smartphone and a Bosch reader at Oreilly's. Neither came up with any codes. I saw that video that you had posted in a previous thread but dismissed it because I didn't read any codes. Should I purchase one of these and hook my laptop up? How about a faulty/fried ECM? I ran the car for a while (1,000-ish miles) with the bad battery code (P03008 sounds familiar). Think I did something to the ECM?
I should add that my BT OBD reader was reading all codes fine until I replaced the HV battery last night. Today, no codes present but I've got those two lights on... Hmmmm...
Try the test. For a Gen II Prius to get to ignition on ready off press the power button twice with your foot off the brake. A HV leak is the only fault I know of that produces the one start only behavior. If anyone knows of a different error that can cause a once only restart please speak up. This is my preferred code reader. With SAE J2534 Vxdiag VCX Nano for Toyota Tis Techstream V10 30 029 Compatible | eBay It uses Techstream software and just works much better than the Mini VCI cable. I do not think you have an ECM problem. Brad
Thanks Brad. I completed the test. Part 1: testing with the ignition on/ready off came up negative. Part 2: turned the ignition on - ready light on - and kept the car in park set the code. I did not try part 3: putting the car in neutral immediately. Still no codes are popping up for my OBD reader. Additional info: The warranty replacement battery from Dorman that I installed a couple days ago came to me pretty banged up. The left side of the battery's case (where the HV connections are) was caved in when I opened the crate. I bent this back and installed the battery. Some clarity is needed re: a "HV leak." This means that the connections are grounding somewhere, right? As in touching the case of the battery? As you can tell, I'm not a electrical engineer. Just a backyard mechanic.
If the triangle shows up after you get the car READY, and not before that. The leak is usually not in the HV battery. HV battery leak would show itself when you have ignition on......even if you are not in READY mode.
Son of a gun. This is where I'll need a technician to diagnose the problem. I just have an issue paying $110/hr for simple things. I'll try opening the case again tonight and checking the connections I made a few days ago. Otherwise, I'm definitely not qualified to get deep into these electrical systems. Thanks for your help guys. I'll update you once I find something out. Go PriusChat!
You got #2 and #3 backwards. Try the test two or three more times until you get consistent results. You need a better code reader. 2004-2008 Toyota Prius with code P3009 or P0AA6 and info code 526, 613, 614 | TOYO Headquarters Brad
Well guys, problem is solved. I can thank Rock Auto for the poor packaging of the Dorman reman battery. Picture is attached, but the case was touching one of the HV cables. You can see how I had to bend the case back. She was all mangled. I think it was bent in the shipping process. Hope this helps my fellow lurkers I'm still not clear on what a HV "leak" is... can anyone further explain? Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
If you haven't return the core back to Dorman, you should just take that damaged part from your core and send them back the damaged part. It's only held together by 3 nuts
The high voltage cabling is isolated from the vehicle body ground for safety reasons. The traction battery ECU has a sensor which can detect if either the positive or the negative high voltage cable has a "ground fault" where electricity is being conducted to the body. You have a similar system at your home. The AC power outlet wiring in your kitchen and bathrooms likely have ground fault circuit interrupters. The purpose of that is to reduce electrical shock hazard if you contact an appliance which is leaking electricity, and ground (like a metal plumbing fixture such as a faucet).
A "leak" is a very high impedance fault, with very low current. It can be caused on a battery by leaking electrolyte, causing a current path from terminal to "ground." Wiring or terminal insulation can be similarly compromised by dirty water, oil or grease, or broken down by high heat or chemical reaction. An electrical fault occurs when insulation fails and one conductor is allowed to contact another of different voltage. The type of fault we're most familiar with is a low-impedance fault which draws very high current, 1000 Amps or more, that arcs and sparks and blows a fuse or trips a breaker. But there are also high-impedance faults which do not draw enough current to blow the fuse, but can still be dangerous to life and property. (It takes less than 0.030 Amps to fibrillate a heart. That's why kitchens, bathrooms, garages etc have the very sensitive ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) devices. They trip at 0.005 Amps, about 10,000 times more sensitive than a typical circuit breaker. They can do this by sensing the difference in the current on the two circuit conductors, rather than gross amount of current in the circuit.)
Very thorough explanations. Thanks everyone for your input. I sincerely appreciate it. I'll be buying another Prius after this one, even though this is the third Hybrid battery this car has had in the 60k mi I've had the car. It presently has 150k on it. First one failed in 2014 at 101k (1k mi/6 months after warranty expired). The last one lasted 18 months. I think the first one failed due to heat exposure. It was a TX car prior to my purchase. Not exaclty sure why it failed this time. The car sat for 4 months while a relative was repairing a deer hit. I turned the smart key off, but did not disconnect the 12v or HV plug. Do any of you think that was where it depleted one of the cells enough to fail? Anyone have any experience with Rock Auto/Dorman warranty replacement? Will my 36 month warranty be reset since I received this new battery or will I have the remaining 18 months? I'm guessing the latter will be true... Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
36 months unlimted miles .dont not open battery case voids warranty same warrnty no mater were you purchase it.dorman stands by there warranty !!!
