2007 Toyota Prius w/198k and many warning lights simultaneously

Any ideas?

Last week, while driving on the highway, four warning lights lit up instantly, accompanied with a minor smell of smoke, and my A/C stopped blowing cold air. I brought it to Herald’s Family Automotive and they reset the codes (indicated a transmission computer issue) per “step 1” and advised me to return if they lit again.

Today, a week later, they same thing happened again; however, this time I noticed that the transmission felt like it was slipping – engine revved up for no reason (no hill, not pressing gas, etc. It just felt like it was slipping. This slippage sound and feeling happened a couple more times on the way home.

This time, however, as I was pulling into my neighborhood, the brake light lit up accompanied with a constant high pitched tone that continued until I parked the car and shut it off.

Of note, the four warning lights pictured become only two lights, also pictured, if I turn the car off and back on. Typically, the A/C begins working again too if I do that; however, at some point, the slippage occurs and the other 2 lights come on, accompanied by a loss of A/C.


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Doesn’t make sense why all those lights came on at the same time; the brake light just joined the cascade effect, I understood the brake light was associated with the whining deep as they occurred at the same time. The thing is, nothing was going on with the brakes, it’s just all started coming at the same time. It’s like a slow trickle in cascade of warning lights. Who knows what will pop up next time LOL

The car is immaculate and very well-maintained. I have invested my fair share into it as recently as couple months ago so I certainly hope it’s not the hybrid battery. I asked Herold’s what the error code was and he couldn’t recall but indicated it was with respect to the transmission computer.

He said that I would need to take it to the dealer for this particular issue. I explained all this to another local auto shop with a good reputation and they also said that this is a dealer only matter. I am concerned that this is going to get expensive fast working with a dealer… Hoping to get some insight from these forums before hand.


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Bad news... ballpark estimate how much are we talking for either of those?


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The description of the code was low battery voltage to the TCM. The auxiliary battery in the trunk checked out ok when they checked it.


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I hope it’s smaller like that. What would the cost of that be for repair? And is it something I could DIY?


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Great news! How would I make sure that is the problem?


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This is my driver side behind headlight… I’m not seeing any sort of reservoir or cap near the headlight


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This is the passenger side


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Sure enough I hear the humming sound behind the driver side headlight and I opened this fluid reservoir and I can see the fluid rippling.

Does this mean no luck? It’s not as simple as the inverter pump?

Or could it be intermittently malfunctioning? Reason I ask this is that everything is working out fine when I first drive it and it takes a good 15-20 minutes before I run into the warning lights and losing AC.


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Haha good analogy! I’ll get the codes and update the thread today.


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Different code this time. However, I haven’t tripped the AC off by driving on the highway and such… Usually, once I feel the transmission slip, the AC goes off and so does the rest of the warning lights. So this could possibly be the first code in the cascade that follows. Thoughts!?


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If it helps, here is my VIN as well: JTDKB20U277565496


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