Red triangle and hybrid warning light, and Check engine light illuminated! Please help!

I recently purchased a MiniVCI from Amazon, and it works fine on Win7 Home Premium 32-bit.

EDIT: DO NOT rush the detection and driver installation process. I did the first time, and I had to start over completely.

 

after reading many descripts on Amazon...seems it the version (latest) that will work with win 7...and I found a few sources for the DL if the disk is not the latest..

Found one on ebay with cd for $25 and free shipping out of State Island NY.so at least may not have to wait on the slow boat.

I have win 7 support ...and maybe xp.... so will take my time and see if I can get it reading.

Once the full story is known on the computer...then i can pull the battery and bench it getting ready for the exploratory surgery

 

After replacing my bad inverter pump, it flowed like the video.

Not for nothin OP, but 10.0-10.5, your battery is damaged. I am surprised the shops are saying it is still good. 13.2 while on is not enough either.

 

Hi Gittarpikk/everyone,

I just bought a used 2002 prius and the seller knew the battery was bad. I got a good deal on it, and so went ahead and installed a new HV battery from greentechauto in Sacramento. It was pretty bad before couldn't even reverse, and had the additional problem of revving with the brake light on. After installing the battery it seems a lot happier, it can reverse now, but it still occasionally does it's revving thing and loses power. The triangle on the right on the display comes on, and I have to pull over and turn it on an off.

Wondering if you've found out anything else about the revving issue?

cheers,
Arthur

 

Are you getting a CEL? If so what are the codes?

 

Yeah, and the only error code is P3006. I got the previous owner (seller) try to smog it, and this error code prevented it from passing. I wonder what it could be. I cleaned the throttle body and the MAF sensor, I also got spark plugs to replace them, and then looked through the paperwork he gave me and noticed they were changed less than 2 years ago.

Oh and I also get the P0000 code

 

P0000 = NO Fault Found

but you also got P3006 = High Voltage Battery State Of Charge Uneven

Sorry to say but you really need a Mini VCI with TIS or a Prius aware OBD2 Scanner to see if in fact your battery levels are "UNEVEN". I would contact the Sacramento company to help you diagnose since they sold it to you, right? Who installed it for you?

I noticed they offer rebuilts with Gen 1 or Gen 2 cells, which one did you get?

 

If it weren't fer bad luck...I'd have no luck at all!!

Ok nuff pikkin'
I had to wait on the 'slow boat' from China because the dealer on ebay ...even though stating it was from Staten Island NY...was actually a China dealer (pure fraud)..and I raised a case against him in paypal
well he refunded after sending the mini-vin
Don't mind paying him for it if it can be used...but still disgrundled about the location fraud (rampant on feebay)
I now have the mini-vci... My old netbook (win XP) has no battery life at all but I can run ac....so I downloaded the program off the net and ran it. (using trial win RAR)
seen somewhere I needed to change a code from 1 to 0 ...did that and was able to bluff my way in so program running.

Welldiscovered it would not work...and no lights on dongle. finally plugging into second usb port ...bam ,red led came on .

No matter what I tried ,though could not get it to connect to vin (always came back with that error.)
I tried it ignition in off, ignition in run ...both automatic and manual connect,...as well as generic connect to OBDII

Simply not connecting to vin

I did see on one web documentation somewhere that I needed to type in vehicle infocode etc...and vin... but did not see anywhere in the Techstream to enter it... (maybe that is why it wont connect to vin?)

darned ole xp netbook runs pretty good after spending hours just doing maintenance, deleting and those infernal (25+) windows updates having turned it off with a bad battery about 3 years ago.

....help....

....but

 

Oh Poop, Sorry to read that Brother.

So Green Tech Auto will do nothing about the error code or the wrench that installed it???

 

They will. I just called them and they said that the error code is a battery related one, and they will try to send a mobile tech to come replace the battery with another one. Let's see what happens. In terms of smogging the car, I just cleared the fault code, and using the app and the ODBII reader I did a smog test and it said pass? but the code comes back after about 2 minutes of driving. I wonder if I can clear it at the smog place and pass the test before the battery is replaced?

 

my bad sorry Gittarpikk, my old eyes betrayed me :-( I though you were the member that bought from Green Tech Auto.

Articular, break a leg Brother, hope they honor their product!

Some bad news, clearing the codes is not enough, your car needs to be a state of readiness and provide all other readings for you to pass smog.

This is how our state figured out us trying to just clear the codes to pass. Just wait for the new battery, put couple hundred miles on it or google how to get car in readiness mode prior to smoging it.

 

Success!!!... here is a link to exactly how you install that infernal techstream program...if you follow the instructions exactly....yep...exactly...works perfect.!!
Using MVCI: cannot connect to VIM error..... | PriusChat

about half way down page

Tons of data aquired on my battery...looks like 4 blocks need replaced but will probably cycle all the blocks individually with my RC charger and record the data...xcel it, then have at the repair....
that ought to do for a while as no engine codes showed up. nest stop a 3 year reman.

 

Outstanding! Keep us posted

 

I also have some good news. The Greentec mobile installation technicians came yesterday and replaced the battery. The car is super happy now, drove nearly 50 mi with no problems. MPG in the high 40s and lots more power than before. The high revving issue is also resolved

 

Congrats!

 

drove car around for about 5 miles two days ago... then parked it near my shop to get ready to remove it. Got it ready to remove in about 2 hours and brother in law helped me get it to bench today. (his mom , who we take care of is 85 today)
jumped on it this eve and had it down to this point in hour and a half.

First measured with all busses still on from one side only and marked the low suspected cell area with a yellow marker.

Then removed the busses and measured each cell. Pretty obvious who the 'offenders' are....and with 6 similarly failed, can easily see why the computer was grumbling so.,
Wrote all the voltages as you see and will let it 'rest' for a few days while the strips, posts and nuts are cleaned of the corrosion.

Will then take new measurements and any new drops will be charged/discharged 3 times and data recorded/checked against the known good ones.

Methinks that the good ones will remain at full recorded voltage and any weak ones will slowly drop and cycling them will expose the weakness

discovered a few tips that help. Loosen the nuts with a battery impact if possible but dont spin the nut off as it is hard to get the corroded nut out of the socket...take the nut through the last few threads with an 8mm nutdriver which makes it much easier.

Set the battery up on a block of foam or wood 2x4's to make the bottom nuts easily accessible without having to scoot the battery off each side of table.

The glue they used in the factory recall is pretty mean glue and takes some careful prying with a small 1/8" blade flatblade screwdriver to get them off.

I've heard vinegar and baking soda is best to remove the corrosion...but will have to brush on the solution because it would be hard to get the computer harness off..

Do unplug the computer harness though at the computer. Would not be good idea accidentally send any odd voltages into the sensor circuit due to some buss contacting a battery post.

 

Thanks S Keith... May look into getting that HF load tester. can use it on may things around here, not just the Prius battery

Did find a universal voltage drop since yesterday (as anticipated)The drop .05 volts per module
7.87 now 7.82. Of course all reading in the 6v range sure didnt heal themselves overnight...

given a few days, my guess is most all of them are ok and wont see a legit voltage drop due to internal resistance.

here is a cool 'redneck corrosion cleaner' that fits the bussbars and uses very little vinegar/salt. allows you to mix it with a nylon toothbrush.

and next ....you might want to look 'under the lid' of that battery enclosure for 'clues' as to where the main troubles are at.

 

Very nice. That had to be a major leak.

EDIT: Your voltage drops aren't going to be due to IR. They'll be due to excessive self-discharge.

 

a few more days and pretty much all of the blocks are at 7.71.. with only two at 7.70 and maybe 3 at 7.75

worthy of note is that they are all pretty much uniform...or within only a few hundreths of a volt apart .
to me ...they seem healthy and I'm watching the weaker two . It wil be a few weeks before the cash flow covers the needed modules...so I can only monitor the voltage for now.

 

for the record...
prius 2002 200, 000 + miles has been very happy after reman of main... but yesterday hit brakes at high speed and got that pulsing 'brake hot spot' effect that went on for miles but then went away after an hour drive.

pulled brake pad (front ) and had the rotors checked. were under the legal minimum already...so is why the brake was deforming under high speed brake.

put on new pads and found a stuck brake pad pin (causing brake pulsing as well)... fix that,,,, Had pulled the HV traction fuse...so hooked all back up . Brake job perfect... but computer not happy. Had the red triangle with exclamation point and car with exclamation on main display.

read forums and figured either low oil or needs aux battery reset.

disconnected aux battery... stepped on brakes for a min or two to discharge residual charge and hooked back up..

Computer now happy...

...so if after a brake job you get the red triangle ...just disconnect aux battery and step on btrake for a minute or so... then hook up aux battery ... should now be happy.