2008 Prius with new 12 V battery won't shift; lots of warning lights

I will do that. I did take a picture of the codes we saw in the car. Would that be the same thing? There's a photo attached with the first message of this thread.

 

Okay, thanks. I requested a copy of the quote to be sent to me in writing (by email) and I'm just waiting for it. Everything has to go through the service advisor, who's never readily available to answer a question or act on a request.

 

I found the code the dealer used to diagnose the problem is P0AA6-526. They say it needs a new transmission, although it's not called a transmission on a Prius, apparently. My husband spoke to the service adviser. He was told it's part # 30900-47040, and it's some new, updated transmission. I guess maybe Toyota is no longer making the original transmission that came with the car? It's about $1,000 in labor alone to install. Still waiting for that emailed quote.

 

Thank you for your reply, Sam. I wondered if I should get a second opinion. There is no way I can sink $4,800 into a $6,500 car, although I guess the alternative is basically throwing it away. I took it to the only Huntsville AL dealer which, sadly, is probably the biggest dealer in north Alabama and the only one in our city. I was holding for them for 5 minutes to ask them if they have disconnected the 12 V battery and checked to see what codes come up, but apparently that's the limit and you just have to leave a message. I guess they know they are the only game in town.

 

I am so thankful for this community. Bisco, the battery is supposedly not the problem, but if I EVER get to speak to a mechanic over there, I'll make him tell me what all they checked. I really want to know if the codes will change after the battery is disconnected and reconnected.

Ed, the hybrid gauge sounds like a good idea. I had found myself on that lusciousgarage.com site briefly today while trying to figure out if the dealer was lying or inept. I'll go back and more carefully read about the issue you mentioned. Can I ask you about that coolant? You just open the reservoir cap and look for movement in the fluid? I assume the engine must be running; can the observation be immediately after start up? I don't know if it will run in its current state. Whatever we end up doing, I think it won't be at Bill Penney Toyota. We had it towed there. Hopefully they will reset the codes to make drivable, though I'm not sure that's advisable. I would like to drive it to a different shop if we can find one.

 

Wow! The plot thickens. I joined Toyota.com Ed suggested and it was VERY illuminating. I looked up the service records and this code showed up before. The last time was in October, when it had about 1000 fewer miles than when we bought it 8 months later. At that time, the dealer recommended a new transmission and the customer declined. I bet he traded it in. And before that, the 12V battery was replaced by a Toyota dealer. That battery was 11 months old with only about 4k mi!es on it when our dealer charged us $300 to replace it. Shouldn't it have been under warranty!? And get this! The code, P0AA6, was detected in May 2016, and in response, the dealer replaced the hybrid battery!!! The next day the car was brought in again because it was still experiencing issues. I bet that hybrid battery wasn't even needed. It might have been under warranty but if it wasn't needed, the dealer managed a profitable warranty repair. We will grill our dealer tomorrow. The car was previously serviced in Atlanta, not Huntsville, by the way, so it was a different dealer from ours. Surely dealers have access to these records, though.

 

I think the seller had bought the car from another reseller, or an auction, so maybe he didn't know. He was newly licensed in Georgia.

My husband finally got to talk to the service adviser and then emailed me. He said:
"Parts 3462.02
Tax 311.58
Labor 944.00
Misc. 100.00
Total 4817.60
I talked to Adam. Above is email estimate he sent. He said he emailed you but maybe wrote down wrong address. The car is drivable now but said it could change on the lot back to undrivable in same situation.
They do not disconnect the battery. He said they have a high end computer scanning system that thoroughly goes over the system. It’s much more than just a code reader. That is what tells them what the problem is: specifically the transmission thing.
I told him about the car’s history and asked if he had access to it with the vin. He said he had only Bill Penny Toyota but then was able to see what we saw. He said it has new hybrid battery like you said. I just told him I didn’t want to continue putting money into the car if it was a lemon. I mentioned that they told us the car was fine but apparently it has some issues in the past that they didn’t mention to us. I told him I didn’t have an answer to what we wanted to do at this time. I did say I don’t want to leave the car on the lot if we decide not to do anything."

So I think we'll pick up the car and then look at the coolant to see if it might be the inverter.

 

I just went on Amazon and found the Scan gauge X-gauge Ed mentioned, but it's $159.95. Does that sound right? Or is there a cheaper version that still works? The description name shows this: ScanGauge II Ultra Compact 3-in-1 Automotive Computer with Customizable Real-Time Fuel Economy Digital Gauges.

We do already have a couple OBD2 scanners, which were inexpensive (under $30, I think). I'm not sure if those are what you referred to, though...?

 

I'll check out those threads. I had just started looking at one. I'm not good a working on cars, but I'm good at trying to avoid a $5,000 repair, and if you think the mini vci will help, it sounds like a good idea if we can figure out how to use it. I don't mind making some investment. I hope we do end up keeping this Prius, especially since it has a new hybrid battery. When I joined PriusChat, it asked me to list my car, but I actually recently bought a Prius for myself (literally a week after we bought my daughter's car in June), so we're a Prius family now and issues will come up.

I'm going to try to reply to Ed's post about the gauge. Thanks, Bisco!

 

Ed, I hope you see this. Does $159.95 sound like the correct gauge? On Amazon, it was called ScanGauge II Ultra Compact 3-in-1 Automotive Computer with Customizable Real-Time Fuel Economy Digital Gauges. Or is there some cheaper version that is still appropriate? Thanks, Suzy