2006 Prius Inverter ( It's Not the Inverter)

It’s always worth reading the codes and/or diagnosing before guessing and replacing parts.

 

ANYTHING is possible, especially if it's old (5+ years) and the vehicle sat unused for any length of time.

 

There's no reason to put it in maintenance mode to bleed the inverter coolant. The inverter cooling pump runs anytime the car is on regardless of what the ICE is doing.

It would be very unusual for the car to run that long and then die. A lot of people confuse the spinning of the engine on start-up with it actually running but that only lasts 15-20 seconds. When it died did any trouble lights come on the dash (check engine, red triangle, hybrid system warning)? Running for 10 minutes and then shutting off sounds more like normal behavior, could it be that your new to the Prius and didn't realize that it's supposed to shut off after the engine warms up?

Definitely don't start down that road until you know that something is wrong with the battery. Also remember that a bad hybrid battery will never cause the engine to die. If anything it will cause it to run more. Things that would indicate a failure of the battery will be the red triangle, hybrid system warning light (looks like a car with an exclamation point top left on the MFD), battery SOC down at 1-2 bars or green all the way to the top with rapid fluctuations between the two, or the cooling fan in the back running all the time.

 

Check the am2 fuse in the engine compartment, maybe you shorted the water pump.

You did buy a new water pump right? Not used from a donor car?

 

Check the voltage of the battery when the car is in READY mode. Should be around 14v

 

Once the car is in ready mode the 12 V is no longer needed, can actually be disconnected! However buy a emergency battery pack, lithium I think I paid $35, made in China, really nice unit. Can also be used in charging cellphones,computers, etc. comes with all cables.

 

Eleven years old? I'd replace it in a heartbeat.

 

An 11 year old 12 volt battery? .....er.....mine lasted only 6 years in the vehicle before beginning to fail and getting replaced.

Yes, please, do absolutely replace the battery. The miracle in my opinion is that it’s STILL holding a charge at all .


iPhone ? Pro

 

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I have 2 of the Yuasa batteries, the one that is date-stamped August 2008, is in a 2009 wrecked Prius: It had been parked in the PO's driveway for about 3 months with the emergency flashers on (hint: a Prius won't go into neutral If you try jumping it with the flashers on). After a few days on a 2 amp trickle charger, it came back enough that it's usually able to start the vehicle, even after a week of sitting.

The other battery has August 2010 date code, it's in the daily driver and so far no further issues (after initially leaving it
on a 2 amp trickle charge for a couple days when I first got it - about 150 miles @ 42.8mpg, so far so good).

 

Always enjoy learning something new, can you please elaborate on how this could be necessary.

Example: If I wanted to jump start a prius, when might it need to be in neutral?

 

Don't know about that. In my case, when the wrecker showed up to pick up the wreck I'd purchased, the guy couldn't
get the car into neutral to roll it onto the flatbed, so he skidded it up , and back off when he dropped it over to the shop.
Since he'd previously told me he knew all about hauling a Prius, and agreed that he wouldn't skid it onto the truck, I wondered why, and then found when I connected a battery to the 12V posts that the coming-on process was disrupted
each time all the lights flashed and so couldn't be put in neutral till the flashers had been turned off.

Whew, did I kill that story or what...8^( - anyway, my point was the fact that, being essentially short-circuited for 3 months this one Yuasa battery (S26B24R) still came back to the point of holding a charge and being useful again. Now I'm babying it, may get a few more years out of it 8^)