09 prius red triangle

yes, you need an old laptop to run it on.

 

There will be codes once the triangle appears. Once you reset and erase, they'll be gone again. So read codes when the triangle is on

 

It sounds like your engine is not having any performance issues, the problem is on the hybrid side.

The ac compressor sits very low on the car, that may have been submerged in water and is having the issue.

 

Finding a short can be a real bear, especially in a car, and basically a high voltage leak is a partial short. All you can really do is look for it. If there are places to disconnect it between the battery and the inverter, they could divide and conquer to save time. But it's going to be labor intensive anyway.

Having started when you hit a puddle, should give a clue, though, as to where to start, so make sure they know about that. Sounds like $685 is a "just in case" figure. Maybe you can get it in writing that that's the most labor would be and it would be less if they find it quickly?

 

The $685 is just to tell you where the problem lies, not to fix the problem. A transaxle leak can be thousands of dollars.

Does your ac work?

 

just drive it i guess.

 

That might be a good idea. If you can just keep driving it, maybe (if it's moisture related) it'll dry out and be OK.

 

I'm going to put 2+2 together and say you went through a hellofalot more than a puddle. The12v battery was in an inch of water? I'm picturing you trying to drive through a flooded area from the recent rains you've had out on good ol' Cali. If you had an inch of water at the 12v, you hade a lot more than that in the engine compartment. Your best bet may be to park it in the sun, open the hood, set some fans around the car, pointing under the car, etc and ventilate the heck out of it to try to dry out any hidden moisture. for a day ....or two...or three. Or you fess up to driving through a flood and contact your insurance company...........

 

Water in the 12v area is common, seeps through from the roof area

 

So how deep does a "puddle" need to be to make you wonder if you got water in your exhaust? Was that water in the sparkplug recesses?Salvage title...wonder what repairs were made to it? Jackweeds do some pretty shoddy repairs to "slightly wrecked" cars sometimes... like electrical tape wrapped around bare spots on the high voltage cabling. Ever seen that? I have.........and then unload it via craigslist to some poor unknowing soul. I stand by my previous plan to dehydrate the car and hope for the best. I doubt Monique has the electrical knowledge/training or tools/test equipment to start disconnecting and isolating/troubleshooting. None of us want Monique to eat 210 vdc.

 

I had the same code, turned out there was one battery module leaking on the positive side where it screws to the bottom of the case, when you remove the battery pack cover look for a rust make, the rust color is the acid leaking out. I changed one mod for $25 and the car has been fine for a year now..the dealer also told me $700 to find the problem as well..look at youtube videos on how to remove the battery from the car.

 

Yes, all factory warranties are null and void on a salvaged vehicle.

 

Hi all... I have a code P0A4B situation that I would appreciate any insight the board might have...

(actually, a lot of the material posted above has been extremely helpful to read, so TIA)

I have a 2009 Prius, 178,000 miles on it...

Last Thursday, the car passed Massachusetts State Inspection, received its new sticker...

Last Sunday, on a very very rainy afternoon, we took a drive an hour and a half south for lunch. No problems.

On the way back from lunch, under a now-clear sky, we got about five minutes into our drive and got the red triangle - along with several other warning lights on the dashboard display. The little green car on the lcd Energy Monitor screen in the center of the dash also changed, to a car with a slash through it.

The car kept driving fine.

We pulled over. Consulted the manual - I should state here that I am not afraid of opening up the hood and tinkering, but I have zero expertise/knowledge to justify doing so - and after learning what the red triangle meant, decided we should call AAA, get the car towed to a service station, borrow another car to drive home with. So we did just that.

It was a busy Sunday for AAA. They were going to be a long time. Everyone else left with friends to get the other car, I stayed behind with the Prius. And got to thinking about the inspection that had just been done. What if something had been knocked loose? It was worth opening the hood, anyway. So I did. I stared at the engine, etc, for about ten seconds and said to myself, who am I kidding, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing here.

So I shut the hood. And for the heck of it, started up the car again.

All the warning lights were gone.

I drove around for five minutes. No warning lights. We cancelled the AAA call. Drove home, on the highway, no problem. I drove around town, probably another 50 miles total, over the next couple days, no more warning light, except on one big bump the first day back, the cabin lights for some reason blinked quickly on and off. I decided to take the car in just to have it double-checked. Took it to our Toyota service center, LIA Toyota of Northampton, last Thursday.

They could not get the red triangle to come on either. But they did read the code, as above. Here's what they said.

Possible malfunction in transaxle (Motor/Generator #1 or #2) has code P0A4B (generator position sensor circuit) with detail code 253. Code is not pending. Malfunction is no longer present.

Performed visual inspection of related wiring harness etc. No obvious problems.

If code comes back on transaxle assembly will likely need replacement. $5582.92 for replacement.

That .92 terrified me.

No. But seriously.

It would be insane to spend that kind of money on a repair, obviously. And even buying a reconditioned transaxle assembly as suggested above is probably not the way to go.

But am I wrong to think that it could be something else - perhaps related to the electrical system? Again, any thoughts folks might have would be greatly appreciated...

 

if it were me, i'd be shopping for a new car. but i have no clue. you may want to start a new thread, if you don't get any expert attention here. all the best!

 

Thanks, bisco... yes, good idea, I will start a new thread!

But new car shopping has already begun...

 

Might try changing the fluid. I might even change it a second time 5k miles later. I don't know much about cvt that the Prius has but a lot of cars when they get metalic wear particles in the trans fluid it can cause electronics to short. The very fine film with metallic partials builds up on electronics. I've seen it happen more than once to regular transmissions....this isn't a regular transmission but it still gets wear particles in the fluid and has electronics. Might be worth a shot.

To the OP I'm sure you've dealt with your car already, but if you have full coverage your insurance should fix the car or at least pay for the portion above your deductible.