Red Triangle and Christmas Light Dash

I've been fighting with the warning lights, ALL of the warning lights including the always enduring red triangle, coming on, turning off, coming on, turning off, etc. for a while. Understandably, I wore another group of great guys down because of my physical and learning disabilities, but I owe them big for trying so hard for so long. We tried a bunch of things, but the problem went beyond my finances when I tried to hire a local experienced mechanic, he wouldn't cooperate with the forum's conclusions. Now, neither one wants to help.

Collectively we discovered it seemed OK to reset the lights and the car would run a week, a month, or a mile then come back. We chased harnesses, fuses, parts, and both the hybrid and 12V battery. I replaced the 12V and the coolant inverter as I continue to get P1121 for DTC. I honestly cannot afford much more (disability checks suck) but we need the car. Yesterday I discovered one of the 3 bolts holding the coolant inverter pump was broken and could be moved by hand, but still stayed in place. I don't need to irritate the other guys who have tried to help any more, and I hope all I need to know is can the broken bolt cause the lights to come on?

I talk too much, so I'll try and leave it there. If anyone is interested, the other thread where you can find all the things we've tried is I'm Too Old To Fix This. It is as embarrassing as it is important for me to always be upfront and admit I developed a learning disability following a stroke a few years ago which I think frustrates people trying to help.

Any info is appreciated.


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You're a great guy. My wife and son's birthday are Mon and Tues so we're celebrating getting our van running and going camping. Hopefully when we get back my brane will finally cooperate and I'll get that done correctly. If not, I promise I'll at least get it done incorrectly and maybe you can redirect me from there.

Thanks again.

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I will give these guys a call. If they can at least get the correct diagnosis we can decide from there what we can, can't, should, and shouldn't do.

I found something I want to send the two of you later this week. I think (hope) you will like it. I consider it a blessing to be able to do that so don't cheat me out of the pleasure of returning a kindness.

Thanks again!!

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I promised to give updates and, although still not finished, I didn't want to wait to share very good news.

After being urged multiple times, most recently by SFO, I finally surrendered and contacted Matt at Texas Hybrid in Weatherford, Texas which is 20-30 minutes west of Fort Worth. Amazingly, he had been monitoring my struggles but has the class and professionalism not to intervene without being invited. I'm sure I don't have to tell any of the clearly intelligent people who have endured my ineptitude that character and ethics are not guaranteed in the auto repair business and Matt's are well beyond the best of expectations. I discovered, as he was aware of our difficulties, he already seems to have answers or at least a plan of attack that will probably yield a year's worth of my incompetent fiddling around in a single visit. As has become common with the help and advice here in this forum, I want to say "thank you" again to everyone. Of equal value, it is important to myself and my family you all know our gratitude is genuine and as sincere as anything you will ever find in any thread here or anywhere else. I've mentioned my Christian Faith but I make mistakes. I never want to beat my chest, say "Look at me, I'm a Christian", and then behave like a sailor just coming back from five years at sea without seeing a woman and being dropped off at an all female resort where they haven't seen a man in 10 years. In other words, if I say it I really mean it, and if I mean it I need you to know. I won't apologize for being "sappy" in the process.

Of course, it's possible Matt will visit and be forced to declare our Prius DOA, but that changes nothing other than the direction we will go (including the decades I would otherwise put into trying to water a dead frog because of my stubbornness).

I will return with the verdict, but I would plead with you all that if you run across someone asking for help and you never hear from them again after you cures their aches and ills, feel free to contact me again. I have enough gratitude to cover several of those who disappear without a proper thanks.

With that said, does anyone have any ideas regarding where I left my driver's license?

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This is why I like you so much. I got too overwhelmed with minutia and simply couldn't handle such simple tasks. Thank you for sticking around so long anyway. I have spent a great deal of what little productive time my jumbled mind allows me to have preparing a book about depression. Through God's Grace, an incredibly successful, talented, and patient editor has been working on the project every step of the way. If I can ever complete it I would like to come back and share the challenges my family has to endure because of my illness. Hopefully, you will also see how good people like you make a very real and tangible difference.

I hope you're right about what Matt finds, too. If it took nothing more than opening the hood, I'm ashamed to admit I am currently incapable of applying even that small amount of logical, coherent thought. It doesn't make sense to most people, but this is the reality I've tried to convey from the start regarding my disability.

That is what my wife and children see almost daily.

Again, thank you all for trying so hard to help me do something good for those I love.

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Matt just left. Apparently, I was never going to find the problem so I must have been cutting too many corners and wasting time. We're going to have to replace the hybrid battery. He found a leak in a cell with his very nice laptop driven Techstream. I'm pretty sure I may never have found that abd if I did you could have read about me in the news shortly afterward. Matt is as polite as advertised, yet professional and capable of delivering bad news in the most considerate manner anyone could hope for. I've said many times how much my wife and I like the car, so we consider even the expensive repair better than going somewhere and getting another car that we know nothing about.

I will encourage anyone in the area to contact Matt long before putting time and dollars into something you're not sure about. To be clear, we were certainly hoping for a better result but the relief and confidence we will be getting in return makes the decision much easier.

Thanks to all, and although I am not able to commit to specific times, I am able to commit to returning your courtesies to us. Please let me know if there's ever the smallest to the biggest thing you can imagine where I can return the time and effort everyone here has given.

God Bless you all.

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I need to sing praises for Matt. As advertised, he took the time to come check out our poor Prius and diagnose something I wouldn't find in 100 years and quite different from what I had been told by the first Prius "specialist" mechanic. We had a bad cell in the hybrid battery and some ventilation mechanism (I think that's close to what he said) that wasn't put back on when the original battery was replaced. Matt needs to be recognized for honesty, integrity, and most of all, for myself at least, willing to listen. I could write another million page dissertation, but I don't want to lose reader's attention. I will pare it down to this: I cannot recommend his work highly enough and anyone in need in the DFW area is making a mistake if they don't pick up the phone and call him before you waste time and money elsewhere.

Thanks to this forum and some specific and incredibly empathetic members, our family now has a functioning, reliable car. I've seen many, many, many posts where someone came here asking for help then disappearing never to be heard from again. When I expressed my gratitude, I meant it and I want every person who has offered their input to know you got the job done.

I talk a lot, but I still can't think of words worthy of how thankful I am to you all. If you can think of a time you needed something and a group of altruistic strangers pitched in and got you through it, you are on track.

God Bless you all.

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