So a while back my girlfriend had put her 2010 Prius with about 92k miles on it in Walmart to get new tires and the oil changed on it, After they did that, They Check Hybrid system message came up as well as the Triangle of doom and almost every dummy light was on... It was late in the evening, Called Toyota dealership and the person we spoke with claims that if Walmart lifted it wrong, they could have pinched some wires or something... Said to have it towed to them the next day. Had it towed to them the next day, Sadly the Hybrid guys weren't in, but they said they could atleast pull the check engine codes. They said when that when they pulled it into the bay, the Check Hybrid message was gone and so was the Triangle of doom.. But the CEL was on. Pulled codes, guy claimed it wasn't anything that will leave us stranded... Drove it around, shut off, sat for abit, turned back on and it was cleared. No lights, nothing. It was fine for a while. Still no idea why after Walmart touched it, it did that. Fast forward to a month ago, Hit a deer, Check Hybrid light came on, but we figured it was because it lost all it's inverter coolant. Now it was 2 days ago, Dealership said the message is still on, they are gonna take it to the toyota dealership and have them look at it. Guy said the codes may just need to be reset because of them having to replace the Inverter cooler or something. An hour ago, Toyota called her and said all it that had happened was some Switch got open (Which I am assuming they mean the safety breaker for the hybrid battery?) so this has got us both thinking and worried.... With about 96k miles, is the Hybrid battery starting to fail? I've heard rumors about the 2010 Prius having issues with the inverter system, and the hybrid motor itself. Any ideas to has what would cause those issues? the car has about 85% of it's miles on the highway doing about 80mph. We are in Montana, so it can get really hot in the summer, and extremely cold in the winters.
i haven't heard of any issues with the inverter system or the hybrid motor. i think other than going to walmart, and hitting a deer, your fine. all the best!
I would still like to know how or why after we had Walmart putting new tires and changing the oil that the entire system went crazy. Is there a safety switch or breaker of some sort for the battery / inverter that trips in or on impact?
if there was, you would have to reset it. a lot of funky things happen after service, you read it here all the time. no one ever figures out why. maybe ran the 12v down a little. a lot of shops don't realize how tiny it is, or how low voltage can make the computers confused. then driving it charges back up, and everything resets with the on and off.
do not know, but it's pretty typical to run down the smaller 12v battery in service. It's a small battery so if they leave lights on or something, that could do it with a few hours.
Same thing here after a Walmart oil change, had it towed to Toyota and they said the air box was never fastened securely after Walmart checked the air filter. Walmart paid the $112 Toyota charge, road service covered the tow.
