I'll try to be brief(ish). My '06 has, of course, been reliable since I bought it (used) about a year ago. Recently, the dash lit up with lots of stuff including the Triangle and the display said there was trouble. The car put itself into neutral and when I tried to restart, it ran. When I put it into drive it bucked HARSHLY a few times and after moving a couple of feet, went back into neutral. SO, I bought a used inverter and a new pump. Pressed "play" and nothing. Just the door open light. I have the aux-batt on a charger/maintainer. Oh, and I replaced the fusible link. Since the "new" inverter had dead bugs and something resembling styrofoam in it, I reinstalled the original. Still no joy. THEN, I pulled the key fob out of the dash and tried to start and it lit up! No reassuring clicking from the trunk and, obviously, no ready mode. The cooling fans were running though. Using my code reader, I found these: P0878, P087A, P0A94, P0AEF, P3222. Is there a paper clip trick or "dance" that I can use. I have two versions of TS but for some reason can't get them to connect via USB or BT. Thanks, in advance. I have 2 Prii and I'd like to avoid buying another one. I need the car for my job.
The transmission sensor is problematic I'm not sure if you can get to that from outside the transmission or not seems like you've got some stuff going on in the trans and then possibly in your hybrid battery and then the inverter converter section of your inverter which is on the bottom and charges your 12 volt so those aren't humongous problems a transmission may be but transmissions are cheap You have another car and so on so shouldn't be a humongous problem especially if you already own the part. And transmissions are pretty cheap as it goes
It would have been useful to scan the codes at this point and report them. It might have saved you from needlessly changing the inverter. The inverter is rarely the problem and very few get replaced and fix the problem. The first two codes appear to be invalid for the Gen 2. It would appear you have a basic code reader and you need a better one for use on the Prius. This thread reviews several phone app-based (read the first one or two pages then skip to post #37 for the cliff notes version) apps+dongle offerings that can read all Prius ECUs and retrieve subcodes. Getting your Techstream working would also be a good option. It might just need a decent VCI cable rather than a cheap X-Horse knock-off. P0A94 has 25 subcodes (or INF codes) that will help narrow down the problem. Not all problems condemn the inverter with converter assembly although eventually some do. The last two codes indicate a problem with a motor or generator Inverter Temperature Sensor Circuit in the inverter. If you are willing to fix this yourself, I'd suggest you get hold of the repair manual and work through the troubleshooting steps.
It's nice to wake up to a sliver of hope. Can you recommend a good cable? Thanks for the excellent info!
