2005 Prius with 144000 miles, all routine and recall service done, 12v battery replaced at 5 years/100k miles. With no apparent change in performance, the following lights illuminated: red triangle, yellow circle with exclamation mark, yellow check engine light on dashboard, and red square with car shape and exclamation mark on display panel. The dealer says the codes - no, I don't know which- indicate a hybrid battery problem, but that Toyota says to reset the lights, drive around for a few days, and see what happens. Problem is, I am supposed to make a 700 mile road trip in a few days and find this to be less than reassuring. Any experience with similar situations? Thanks.
Find out what the codes are, pronto. If the traction battery is bad, your 700 mile road trip will almost surely be cut short and you'll be stranded.
Just to eliminate one of the most typical causes of weird things happening, try the test mentioned here and report back all three numbers. I know you pointed out that your 12v isn't that old. It doesn't have to be. Weird stuff happening? MPGs dropping? Test The Battery | PriusChat
Without knowing the DTC it is hard to comment on your dealer diagnosis. I suggest you plan to rent a vehicle for your road trip if it cannot be postponed, since your Prius clearly is not roadworthy at this moment.
Thanks everyone. The code is P3000. The 12V seems to be fine, at least when it was checked early today before the performance problems started. The warning lights are back on and the car is losing power, so I will have the battery replaced before making my trip. New problem: the battery is under warranty in my home state, but not in my current location. The local dealer states that he cannot honor the warranty. Is there any way of making it possible?
There are a few different ways for the P3000 to be set. One is due to the cooling fan not working. There have been recent photos of how badly that fan gets clogged with debris. If you have not cleaned it out since 2005, it *definitely* needs it. In some cases opening the battery and blowing out the dust is indicated also. It's a 1 hour job. Dead Hybrid battery? Look for the root cause.. | PriusChat
Thanks for the additional insight. I got the new battery, made it home without a glitch, and all is well. Toyota will refund the entire cost - the warranty is nationwide, despite the dealer's protestation otherwise.
can anyone help me with my 05 Prius?! So... where to begin... I’m like 5 minutes into this chat situation so please forgive me for just sticking this post somewhere....this car had a ton of work done to it in the past month or so. It has 255,000 miles on it, it has a totally brand new hybrid battery cooling fan system (or whatever the correct name is lol) it has no reason to keep giving me the Red Triangle warning light as seen in the picture. I’ve taken it to Toyota and they say it’s fine after keeping it a full day and over night to recheck in the morning time. I’m trying to figure out via YouTube and chats how to reset the red triangle warning light.... I want to see if any other warning lights show up with it this time. Can anyone please help me? Im at my witts end with this car because every other week it’s a different thing. I baby it! It runs so smooth and great I can’t figure out what this warning light is about now. That’s why I want to reset it and see what it does. Help
Here's a video, You need to find out what codes were set, get them from the dealer, post them here for further help.
If the warning lights keep coming on, there is a problem, you just haven't asked the car what it is yet. (If cars could get frustrated, you'd be driving yours nuts!) A code reader capable of getting all the information from Prius computers, such as Techstream, should be the first stop ... before fiddling with your battery, which will erase the information you need. -Chap
The Prius actually must have some AI (Artificial Inteligence) built into it, as it will one day in the very near future just refuse to work, if you continue to drive it, in the current state.
