2001 Prius major eeeek! symptoms

I'm not sure if anyone can help out from here, but I thought I'd post the symptoms. I'm very much a lay person when it comes to cars, I've been browsing the forums but some of it's a bit hard for me to follow.

Anyway, here's the situation - not looking great at the moment.

I'm in Japan and bought this 2001 Prius in good condition from a friend who moved abroad, I'm mainly in the city but was planning to spend a lot more time in the countryside where the car is located, though due to an ill family member abroad I had to leave town for awhile and basically the car hasn't been driven all that much for quite a long time, though I do believe someone was checking it (possibly starting it) during that time as it was in a mechanic's place. Around last April/May, when I finally got out to where the car is the 12v battery had gone down and needed charging. I took it for a couple of decent runs around then, and last time was May or June, and the main battery was okay - pretty much as it had been when I first was able to drive it in late December - going between 1/2 and 3/4, mainly on the 3/4 mark.

Then I was away all of July and when I got back in August I was still having having battery probs with the 12v, so I ordered a new one, in the meantime the old one went totally flat while I was trying to charge it (the charger's fuse had gone and I hadn't realised it, and I'd left the boot partly open with light on and I guess that was enough to drain it). I was able to charge the battery enough to have the electrics going again. (After I ordered the battery I had to go back to town and it was about 10 days before I could get back to the car). With some charge on the battery I was going to drive the car to pick up the new battery, but I was getting the engine light and triangle light on the dash, and the car icon with exclamation mark in it lit up with a 'warning' sign on the screen. Not ever seeing any warnings before, and not knowing what to do (the manual is all in Japanese) I was worried about driving it. So instead I picked up the battery using another vehicle and had a visiting friend change it for me.

With the new battery I started the car and the triangle and car exclamation mark warning had gone. I had some friends with me and we were starting to drive to the beach, the car was going very nicely, and then the battery level started fluctuating - it went up to full, then down to 1/4 and up and down a bit, then pretty soon after it started kinda revving, like it was in low gear and reading up on symptoms on the forums here, I think it was probably where some people say it felt like the brake was on cos it would only go slow. I could fix that up by turning everything off and restarting, though it slid back into that mode a couple of times, so I went straight to the nearest Toyota dealer (where I'd bought the 12v battery from), they checked the car for quiet awhile and said the main battery needed replacing and would cost around 400,000 yen including labor! This is all in Japanese thru my friend interpreting (not 100% fluent), so I really don't know the details of what they were finding beyond that. I said I'd have to think about it and took the car back to the house. I had wondered if it might have been a computer glitch but of course it's also possible that it's the main battery, even though it was okay before I went away in July.

Anyway I had to go back to town the next day, and when I got back to the car a week later the computer wouldn't let me start the car, the dashboard was showing the turtle icon, the engine light and what I assume is the brake light (exclamation mark in a circle below the engine light) and the triangle with exclamation mark. The screen still showed the car icon with the exclamation mark and also now the main battery icon. I charged the new battery overnight, but the car still wouldn't let me start it, and still showed those icons. Actually, I realise now that I didn't check all those icons just before I charged the battery this time, so I can't say for sure if the turtle and the main battery icon were showing before then, but I'm guessing maybe they were.

I really have no experience with this, but due to the car not being driven a lot for awhile I'm guessing it could definitely be a main battery issue, however, according to the dealer he said I would be able to drive the car in battery mode, though said only for short trips and not very often, thus I'm wondering why the car doesn't want to start and if it's possible there's a computer glitch involved and perhaps the main battery isn't as drained as it seems, since it was okay about 6 weeks earlier. Then again reading Prius Chat, maybe the heat of summer did it in, just sitting there? I also read that if the car doesn't start it could be a stiff throttle that needs cleaning. Anyway I had assumed that car should at least start, and I'm not sure how savvy I am to try and clean out the throttle so I havent gotten that far yet.

At any rate I'm now trying to track down info on prices and where/how to get a reconditioned battery, but not reading/writing Japanese (and not speaking much either) has slowed this down a lot.

Anyway, it's probably hard for you folk up here to make a diagnosis since you'd have probably have to see the car or want to get a readout, but I thought I'd post here anyway in case someone has any ideas. In the meantime I'm still hunting to see if I can find any bilingual Prius folk out my way that can help out. Right now I'm stuck with a car that wont' start, and I'm going away for family matters early next month for another 4-5 weeks, so in between that and having to be in town for work trying to sort this out has been a little slow. I'm hoping there's some kind of cheaper solution to the issue, otherwise I may have to give away the car as the battery is worth more than the actual car out here, and that would be a shame as it's a good car, if I could get it in working order again I'd either start taking it into town with me or sell it and replace it with something that doesn't mind sitting for periods of time.

Anyway, thanks for listening and any comments.

Julianne

 

Thanks so much for your replies, Patrick and mlibanio, most appreciated.
mlibanio thanks for the estimate on prices from other places.

The fact things only went totally crazy after the new 12v battery went in still makes me wonder if the main battery is still okay albiet maybe a little low and that a computer glitch could also be involved. But, that being said, due to the car not being driven so much lately I also agree that it could certainly be exactly what you're saying and what the dealer had said.

Anyway, next step will be to get the car towed to the more dedicated dealer who used to service the car under its previous owner for what I hope will be a more reliable and detailed diagnosis. They already seem to be more aware of other possible issues than the smaller dealer I'd seen. I was able to talk to this larger dealer yesterday thru someone interpreting and he said it sounds like it's the main battery but also it's possible that it's a computer related problem from disconnecting the 12v battery but of course they'd need to see the car. He also then said that there were some models (whether car or battery??) that were recalled due to issues, and if mine is one of these then all work and towing would be done for free. Now waiting to hear back after faxing my registration info with model/serial numbers etc to them. I'm not holding out for that, but hey, ya never know, and I certainly wouldn't knock it back, either!

Anyway, I'll keep you guys posted.

 

Thanks Patrick, I got in touch with him, I'm not sure he knows sources for the batteries as he's not familiar with this model, but he said they're around and guesses perhaps around half price of new including labor.

 

I'm in the process of arranging a tow to the larger dealer for them to check. My one question if anyone can answer - in the event that the main battery is caput, shouldn't the car should still be able to drive just using the (brand new) 12v battery? And if so - why won't the car let me start it? Is it still possible that there was a computer glitch when the new battery was connected (is it possible the person who connected it did something incorrect to cause the wild errors that happened afterward)? And that perhaps the earlier triangle error was due to the old battery not having enough power (since there was no main battery error at that point)?

I'm just wondering about all this as I want to tell this to the dealer when I take the car to them sometime next week. If I'm able to I will try and get the computer readout to show you guys the error codes of that's going to be helpful (or perhaps it's not?).

Thanks
Julianne

 

thanks Patrick. I'll keep you posted, though it may still be a wee while before I'm back out where the car is.

 

Just a little update, had the car towed to the dealer yesterday, he plugged in the thing to check it and at some point was able to get the car started, did more checking and told me it would take a week for them to figure out what's wrong with it so I'll keep you posted.

I'm very glad he's not simply saying it's the main battery without doing a thorough check. I'm surprised it would take so long but they could simply be super busy. At any rate I'm going away so I'm not in any rush.