Red Triangle of Death version 10,468...

Hi guys,

Before I decided to post this, I read through a *lot* of other posts on the same topic before deciding to put my own post out here.
The weather has been unusually wet for this time of year in Tasmania, especially over the last week or two. Yesterday, on my way home from work, the "Red Triangle of Death" popped up on my dash, but the car drive fine, so I got it home, and parked it. After googling the triangle of death for Prius, I found some videos that talked about a seal issue at the rear hatch that could cause problems for the 12v battery, but upon inspection, the seams in the trunk area that they are pointing out do not appear to be a problem with mine. I removed the rear covers and checked the battery. Everything was dry and clean.
I disconnected both the battery pack and the 12v battery for a bit, but when I reconnected everything, the triangle was still there.

- Everything in the car still works, including putting it in gear and putting it back in park
- Engine will not start, even when running heater/AC to try to get it to engage.
- Took the 12v battery to Marshall and had them load-test it. He said that there was something "strange" going on, but couldn't elaborate as to what the issue was. They didn't want to sell me a battery until I had it checked by a "smart tester".
- Belts are good, fluid levels are good.
- Using the display (press power button twice, hold Info button and turn lights on/off 3x) shows the battery voltage at 11.4v with no aux items running. Load-tested, it was 12.4v before the load, 12.2v at 400 amp draw.

This is not the original 12v battery in the car, but I'm not sure how long it's been in it, as I just got this car last year. The only code the ODBII scanner shows is a P0420 for the cataleptic converter that has been bad since I got the car. I'm averaging 5.4L/100km (43mpg) while the temps are still below 15°C, which is normal. As the weather warms up, my fuel economy improves to 4.5-4.7L/100km (50-52mpg).

Any thoughts or suggestions at this point are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Thanks, JC. I'll put everything together when I get home tonight and see if anything has changed. Much appreciated!

 

Well...

The battery tested good, so yesterday I went back out to the car, reinstalled the 12v battery, reconnected the hybrid battery pack, fixed a broken ground wire in the boot, and put everything back together again. Before I decided to tear the bumper off to check the Inverter Pump, I thought I'd give the car one more go at starting. It fired right up. Codes cleared, no triangle of doom... just business as usual. I took it for a drive around the neighborhood, took it up to the car wash (running the entire time). Spot on, no issues. Drove it home, and then back into work this morning - didn't miss a beat.

I think I'm going to invest in a better ODBII scanner, one that will read the hybrid codes. I'll keep an eye on the car and see if that's all it took to fix it. The road was a bit rough where it triggered the triangle of doom, so I'm wondering if maybe there wasn't a loose connection that might have caused it to happen? It used to be a taxi, and some of the wiring has been hacked (like the connection I fixed in the boot), but I have a hard time believing that's all it was that triggered it. Thanks for all your input and suggestions on this one!

 

I couldn't agree more, but it wasn't even a large ground wire. It was part of the set of ground wires that meet at the centre of the trunk, just below the release. Removal of the caddy above the spare can catch or snag the wires. I don't get into that area much, and with the fact that this used to be a taxi (they did a lot of cutting into and adding wires), it's hard to say if this was from their conversion work or if it was just wear over time. This might be important for other users who have the same issue with their car. It's a minor detail, but if it did indeed fix the issue with mine, it's a very important one.