2001 shuttering to start, won't move in drive.

Probably disconnect fuel line and let the pump, pump it out into a container.

 

More troubles? What a bummer.

You can connect it up front, or if you can get to the underside of the car, you can actually disconnect it and drain it back at the tank sort of near the passenger rear tire. Just follow the lines.

 

Aha! Check for a couple other very recent threads about rust holes developing in the metal fuel filler neck up above the rear tire, where the tire throws water up during rainy driving. This seems to be a thing and we're discovering the age where it happens.

Makes me want to go right out and check mine....

-Chap

 

I think there is some sort of software-only "startless start syndrome" that our cars sometimes get into, sometimes after interrupting the 12 V supply, and then after another reboot they start just fine. That seems to have happened to me at least once, and to some others.

But of course that doesn't mean you can ignore all the usual normal reasons for an engine not to start. If it hasn't fired up perfectly fine after a reboot, then quite possibly there's some real problem that needs fixed.

Some posters have reported success getting the engine to run longer upon starting by shifting into N immediately after start. That's out of my experience and I've been skeptical (as I often am when I have no good mental model for why some idea should work), but I keep seeing posts about it.

The usual big three reasons for an engine failing to start or stay started are spark, fuel, and compression. Sometimes you just have to draw those boxes on a piece of paper and start testing and checking them off.

But keep an eye on your traction battery state of charge, because every start attempt will drop it some, and at a certain point you won't get any more attempts. Then the traction battery would need to be charged somehow, which I can at least say is more practical/affordable now because some companies are offering grid chargers for sale.

You have a scangauge, right? What's the state of charge down to?

So the name of the game is to plan your testing activities carefully so that you learn as much as you can within a tight budget of start attempts. I.e., each time you turn the key, you might want to have instrumented or changed one more thing so you get more information each time.

Good luck!
-Chap

 

As soon as you hear the gasoline engine start, shift to N. If the engine continues to run, rev it up using the accelerator pedal. The point of doing the above is to confirm that the engine actually started.

If the above does not work, then the engine didn't actually start and MG1 is just spinning the engine. Stop repeating this procedure because all you are doing is draining the traction battery. In that case it is time for you to seek professional assistance unless you want to end up buying a new traction battery plus fixing whatever is wrong with your car.

 

By the way, have you followed up your earlier suspicion about water in the fuel? If there was, do you know that it's corrected?

-Chap

 

I'd max out on fuel conditioner/deicer/water remover in the tank before I went any further. Been there... water in the tank caused me problems several times, all caused by the rotten filler pipe.

 

I don't think the gasoline engine actually had started, MG1 was just spinning it.

Another way to prove/disprove that is if the engine responds to the accelerator pedal input or not. If not, then the engine had not started.

 

MG1 is one (of two) motor generators in Prius transaxle. Toyota Prius - Power Split Device But in this case you can just think of it as starter motor. It uses hv-battery to spin the engine so don’t try to start it many times since you will empty and destroy hv-battery.

Getting engine to run is same as fixing the problem so if you can do it then it’s already fixed.

 

The transaxle contains two motor generators, MG1 and MG2. One of the jobs of MG1 is to spin the gasoline engine to get it to start.

I really think you've done all that you could reasonably do. Now it is time to have a tow truck pick up the car and take it somewhere to be repaired. Good luck.

 

Try bursting starting fluid into the throttle body while another person turns the key. Can you keep it running for a minute or so with bursting ?

 

Be very careful. Yes, if your 12 volt battery is measuring 6.56 volts, you have a problem there, and you won't be able to find out what else is going on until you've done something about that. If you have even a small 12 volt battery charger, just hook it up and plug it in the wall. If you check that its output voltage doesn't exceed 14, and it doesn't complain that your battery is so trashed it shuts down, you could continue troubleshooting your car with this charger simply plugged into the wall the whole time.

Now comes the part to be careful about. Every time you try to start your car, you drain some from the battery. This time I'm not talking about the 12 volt. The work of cranking your engine comes from the 274 volt battery. If you drain that, I'm betting you don't have that kind of charger handy, nor do they have one at your neighborhood car store, and your experiments will have come to an end.

You mentioned having a scangauge. Have you programmed in the battery state-of-charge XGAUGE? What reading do you get for that, right now before making any more start attempts? (You probably will need to have straightened out the 12 volt situation before your scangauge can give you a reliable reading of the 274 volt state of charge.)

-Chap