Red Triangle, vs, Chk Eng After Oil Change

Hi Scott,

The Prius engine does not have a "safety system" as you hypothesized above. The use of regular oil vs. synthetic would not cause a problem.

Is the 12V battery original equipment or has it been replaced? It is certainly possible that a near-dead 12V battery may cause some of the problems you noted. Pls do not confuse this battery with the high voltage traction battery whose state of charge is monitored via the gauge on the MFD.

 

This sounds like a common problem, too much oil added in, combined with another common problem, a weak 12V battery that runs down quickly with key on/engine off ("Ig-on") and erases the codes in the process.

If you had no oil, you would have the Red Triangle and the oil light showing. I don't know offhand if it would light the ABS/VSC lights.

Any chance you or someone at the quick lube check the dipstick?

 

The Garage may have run down the 12v Battery.

 

Probably too much oil was added. It gets frothed up and sucked through the PCV into the intake, fouling the system. We've heard a few similar stories to this here.

There may be an issue with a flat battery now, but the original problem was likely an overfill.

 

I have a 2005 Prius every time i go to the dealer for an oil change all lights turned on and I can’t drive my car, I looked at some forums and my husband checked the hybrid battery and one panel is low, he replaced it and everything went back to normal, after 6 months my car wont moved in the middle of the road, towed and checked again but this time no triangle light or vsc turned out conventional battery died, bought a new battery at the dealership and my husband replaced it, then it was fine again, after a month maintenance lights turned on, due to oil change since its been 7 months (city driving and sometimes hi-way) took the car to the dealership for an oil change, after 3 hour at the dealer i drove the car from stockton to Elk Grove parked and went to market, start the car and about 1 mile all lights turned on again triangle vsc and cant move the car to drive, my husband pushed the car and towed back to dealership, cost me $95 additional cause its far, and Toyota stockton will check my prius what seems to be the problem, and looking at all the responses here it seems like toyota missed checking my car.

 

Welcome!

How many miles on the car?

It looks like you had several issues here. I notice you mentioned that your husband replaced a bad module in the hybrid battery. Did he rebalance the pack and verify all modules were very close to the same voltage?

Replacing a bad module in an old hybrid battery pack with another old module is not recommended here unless there is no other option, due to cost and you have another reliable vehicle. Another module will cause issues, disabling the car and requiring disassembly again.

Other than taking a chance on modules from a low mileage wrecked Prius, the best DIY solution I have seem is the pack of new cells from user @2k1Toaster here for $1600 delivered.
Many people here use the Prolong reconditioning system from Hybrid Automotive (@jeff652 here) to extent the life of older hybrid batteries before they fail. Users like @jerrymildred , @Raytheeagle and others can provide their experiences.
We have many battery experts here like @TMR-JWAP , @ericbecky , @Texas Hybrid Batteries who will be along shortly.

 

Welcome to Prius Chat .

Some questions:

• How did your husband check the hybrid battery?
• With Techstream or another software program? If you have this, you can read codes so why use the Stockton dealer?
• Sounds like he is confident with module swapping, why not change the oil as it is a lot easier?
• How many miles on your Prius?
• Do you check the oil after the oil change to ensure it isn’t overfilled?
• When the dash lights come on, do you notice a difference in performance?
• Can you supply the codes when read by Stockton Toyota?

Keep us posted .

 

Sounds like that husband is a champion, btw.

 

Yeah, she got a keeper.

 

Bought it 2nd hand, 222k miles, he balanced all modules, this is the second time it happened to my prius every time i asked for an oil change.
So since they’re the last one who touched my car i want them to give me free diagnostic to it. Since we change one module i was able to use it for 9 months. Thank you so much for all your helpful responses

QUOTE="Prodigyplace, post: 2654473, member: 149239"]Welcome!

How many miles on the car?

It looks like you had several issues here. I notice you mentioned that your husband replaced a bad module in the hybrid battery. Did he rebalance the pack and verify all modules were very close to the same voltage?

Replacing a bad module in an old hybrid battery pack with another old module is not recommended here unless there is no other option, due to cost and you have another reliable vehicle. Another module will cause issues, disabling the car and requiring disassembly again.

Other than taking a chance on modules from a low mileage wrecked Prius, the best DIY solution I have seem is the pack of new cells from user @2k1Toaster here for $1600 delivered.
Many people here use the Prolong reconditioning system from Hybrid Automotive (@jeff652 here) to extent the life of older hybrid batteries before they fail. Users like @jerrymildred , @Raytheeagle and others can provide their experiences.
We have many battery experts here like @TMR-JWAP , @ericbecky , @Texas Hybrid Batteries who will be along shortly.[/QUOTE]

 

Yeah he’s a keeper

 

Thank you!

 

at 222k, it could be anything. maybe your husband should teach you how to change the oil, it isn't difficult.

 

[/QUOTE]

How did he balance the modules? Individually? Grid charger?

 

Hello guys sorry for a very long reply ! Busy at work anyway to answer your questions: Tech found code P3190 engine failed to start, texh found throttle body have a lot of gunk build up. Tech cleaned the throttle plate rechecked and vehicle starts up. Tech re-program the engine and HV hybrid ECU to improve the vehicle condition as per tab.

 

congrats!

 

@danlatu Does this sound like an Oil Catch Can candidate?

 

222k I would have to ask if the spark plugs were pulled at all, what do they look like? Does the engine knock at start up? Does your car consume oil? Check oil level every week and top off if necessary. Monitor how much oil is being consumed per mileage. What is your oil change interval? 3K/5K/10K? What weight oil? 5w20 5w30? I would pull the plugs as soon as the code pops up. Spark plugs will tell you why the car is misfiring. Are the plugs thick wet and shiny? Burning oil. (not in pics below) You can also look into the engine and see if wet oil is sitting on top of the pistons. Clean the entire intake manifold and follow the hose from the pcv valve to intake manifold. Replace the pcv valve and inspect the hose. If the pcv hose is wet with oil, I would put an oil catch can in. If the mechanic has all of this apart, I would clean the fuel injectors too. Not a fuel systems cleaner in tank, they need to be flushed with a machine. If the car has too much blow-by, an oil change/overfill could cause all of this oil to be pushed through the pcv and into the intake manifold. Once all this oil is in being blown in, built up into the intake manifold and settles. The next start up fouls the plugs along with engine knocking. Once an oil catch can is installed, check it in 250 miles. If there is very little oil/water/fuel in the can, recheck it at the 500 mile mark and so on. Every car will have different results as to how much blow-by, engine wear, outside temp, oil viscosity etc. During the summer (warmer climate) on a healthy engine, you can changed/emptied your occ every 5k miles and every week for winter depending on mileage and frequency of use. More cold start stops yield more moisture build-up in the crankcase. Check the catch can so there are no surprises along with checking oil level from dipstick. Make sure the occ is never more than 1/2 full. If it is full, it will just get sucked back into the intake and back to problem #1. If your car is consuming more than 1qt of oil in 600 miles, its time for another engine. If you bought this car from a previous owner, there is a chance they did not take car of the car. If a motor runs out of oil, the engine gets loud and the first thing you will here is a tapping noise coming from the head/valve train. If the car runs hot, the oil will break down and loose it's viscosity and engine will tap.

 

Haven't heard of anyone installing an OCC on a gen2 before, is this a thing now ?