[New Owner] Many dash lights when powered up

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Valendr0s, Oct 24, 2013.

  1. Valendr0s

    Valendr0s New Member

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    Just bought a 2005. My wife had turned the car on and had the heater on while I was loading groceries. Then I got in, hit the power button, and the console turned on (though I don't think 'ready' came up), and several of the dash lights came up as amber. ABS, VSC, and 3-4 others. I couldn't shift. After 20 seconds or so of confusion, I turned it back off, sat for a second, and turned it back on again - worked fine.

    Not sure what happened there. Any thoughts?
     
    #1 Valendr0s, Oct 24, 2013
  2. Britprius

    Britprius Senior Member

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    If the care was in ready mode, and park while loading the groceries everything should have been fine.
    In ready mode and neutral the car cannot look after the state of charge of the HV battery as the engine cannot start to keep it charged in this condition. This should be avoided.
    If the car was in accessory mode or ignition mode (one or two pushes of the start button without the brake pedal being pushed) the 12 volt battery is being used to run everything without any charging.
    The battery is very small and quickly looses charge particularly if it is over about 4 years old. This lowers the voltage available and causes all manner of problems with the cars computers.This to should be avoided.
    A check on the voltage of the 12 volt battery after sitting over night should be carried out to give an idea of it's condition. A check on it's age (date on the top of battery) would also be a good guide, if it is the original replace it.

    John (Britprius)

    The problem with the Prius 12 volt battery apart from it's small capacity is that it is not used to turn over the engine as in a normal car.
    This normally gives a clue as to the state of the battery "slow cranking", but in the Prius the only way you notice is when the car will not go into ready mode.
    Usually with a warning "but not always" on the MFD something like "the park is not normal take the car to level ground apply the parking brake and try again". There are many other ways the problem manifests it's self.
    Even if sitting in the car listening to the radio have the car in ready mode and park, it will then look after it's self using very little fuel as it starts and stops as required.

    John (Britprius)
     
    #2 Britprius, Oct 24, 2013
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  3. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    It is likely that what happened was the car was in IG-ON mode, where all warning lights on the dashboard turn on. The Prius has four operating modes and you should be aware of how to move between them:

    IG-OFF, where the car is powered off.
    ACC-ON, where you can play the stereo. The MFD is lit but dashboard warning lights are off. Some of the other electrical accessories are not functional.
    IG-ON, where all dashboard warning lights are on. Do not leave the car in this mode for any length of time because the 12V battery is being heavily drained. All electrical accessories operate in this mode (for example, the power windows.)
    READY, where the car can be driven.

    To move from one mode to the next, start with IG-OFF. Press the POWER button once without depressing the brake pedal. The car will become ACC-ON.

    Then press the POWER button again, without depressing the brake pedal. The car will become IG-ON.

    Press the POWER button again to make the car IG-OFF.

    To make the car READY from any of the other three modes, press the POWER button while the brake pedal is depressed.
     
    #3 Patrick Wong, Oct 24, 2013
  4. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    And you'll probably need a new 12 volt battery very soon.
     
    #4 uart, Oct 26, 2013
  5. Valendr0s

    Valendr0s New Member

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    Yeah. I was looking at the manual and toying around. That's certainly what it was. Just have to depress the brake when starting the car - I guess I just wasn't in the habit. I don't make a habit of leaving the car on while parked, it was just for a minute or two.

    Now I was stuck in some pretty insane traffic this weekend (stop - wait for 60 seconds - move 10 feet - stop - etc), and I drained the heck out of the traction battery (big battery, w/e you all call it) - I assume that's probably a bad thing.

    In-all it's very interesting experience. According to the MFD, I'm getting 50+mpg in the last 200 miles, but I'll corroborate the voracity of that rather bold claim myself when I have to fill the tank next... so next year sometime.

    My current (very minor) gripes:
    1. Backup beep - I can turn that off and will today.
    2. MFD beep - I can't turn that off and that rather loud beep is very annoying
    3. Doesn't automatically lock the doors when you get over a certain speed - but that's just picky.
    4. I'm kind of worried that the dealer only gave me 1 key. Somebody out there is walking around with a key to my car and I can't fix that unless I spend quite a bit of money. Also the carfax says it has lojack, so they also know where my car IS...
    5. No AUX jack - But I bought the Grom Audio update for that, so that'll be fixed soon. It seemed like the best deal for the price out of the 3-4 options I had.
    6. Small 'used car' things like I don't love leather seats, the center console arm rest cloth is coming up a bit, and it has this strange seemingly after market wood paneling on the interior.
    7. I can't seem to empty the gas tank so I can start tracking my fuel consumption.
    8. I always want to drive it.
    9. I can't seem to stop talking with my friends about it.
    10. I can't stop researching upgrades I can do to it (after market plug-in, etc)
    11. I can't remotely believe that nobody has made a completely aftermarket MFD/Stereo system yet. I can hack my droid, I can turn my PS3 into a linux PC, I can make my wristwatch play pong, but nobody's come out with a nice MFD hack/replacement yet? Seems odd.

    But in all I think I got a very good used car for a very decent price and I really couldn't be happier.

    Is there anything in particular that would make you think this? Like some clue I said? Should I be overly worried? How expensive are they? Do you mean the standard car battery? Or the traction battery?
     
    #5 Valendr0s, Oct 28, 2013
  6. nh7o

    nh7o Off grid since 1980

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    Look in the Audio and Electronics forum for what people have done in this regard. In case you wanted to read more...
     
    #6 nh7o, Oct 28, 2013
  7. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    I said 12V battery right?

    Yeah, all the warning lights coming on and not getting to "ready mode" when you try to start it. This is often a sign of a weak 12V battery. However in this case it seems there's no problem. I hadn't realized that you'd pressed the power button twice without applying the brake. With this new info I now realize that you'd gone from "Acc" mode to "Ig on" mode, and yes in that particular state then the dash lights you describe are normal. So most likely there was no problem other than operator error.
     
    #7 uart, Oct 28, 2013
  8. Zedhomme

    Zedhomme Member

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    As far as the traction battery in traffic, as long as it's in drive the gas engine will kick in to recharge the traction battery to a minimum level, just trying to get your its best mileage. The A/C is actually an electric compressor run by the traction battery so sitting in traffic with A/C on can scare you too seeing the two purple bars. Trust the Prius to make it work.
    Did you not have an auxiliary jack in the console? I do in my 2007, but I installed an iPod adapter, lots better sound quality. Same company USA Spec also makes a Bluetooth iPod adapter now for the Prius.
    I hated the material on my console too, so I changed it for some vinyl that matches the dark gray portions of the console. My dog likes it better too, riding shotgun sitting on it.
     
    #8 Zedhomme, Oct 28, 2013
  9. Valendr0s

    Valendr0s New Member

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    Nah. It's a 2005 - I guess they didn't think anyone would ever need one. I have a CD changer & tape deck... yup... gunna get tons of use out of that tape deck. I even threw out all my tape-to-aux adapters I had from the 90's because "I'll never need these again!"... No stock aux.

    But the thingy I ordered should be here in a week and I've heard good things. Seems like it should be fine.
     
    #9 Valendr0s, Oct 29, 2013
  10. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Yep Valendr0s, I've also got a 2005 model and it's the same deal here, no aux. :cry:

    You know what's worse though. Mine has the basic audio system with just a radio and CD player, but the CD player can't even play mp3's. It's amazing that in 2005 they were still holding back on something as basic as mp3.
     
    #10 uart, Oct 29, 2013
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