I was driving my 2005 Toyota Prius and all of a sudden some lights came on the dash. The orange check engine light, The big red Triangle with an exclamation mark on it, the orange VSC symbol, and the orange exclamation mark all at once. I also heard the fans in the back seat kicked in which I never heard before. It felt as though the car didn't have much acceleration. I took it to the dealer and they had it a whole week trying to figure out what it was wrong. They said they got the P3000 INF 123 code from the car which they said the HV control ECM for $2000. Needless to say I don't want to pay that! I found used ECM on ebay for $85 and I bought a scangauge 2 . I pulled 2 different codes out with the scan gauge 2 P0A80 and P3021. Do you think the dealer diagnosis is right? What does the codes I read out mean?
The codes are... "Replace hv battery" (P0A80) and "battery block 11 becomes week" (P3021) You can find all the codes here... Complete list OBDII codes - GreenHybrid - Hybrid Cars It looks like you need to replace a module. Read this thread... Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | Page 11 | PriusChat And... Prius Battery rebalance thread | PriusChat They should both be a HUGE help.
This happened to me and I'm in the midst of fixing mine right now. Including the tools and everything needed to rebuild the battery it's going to/has cost me around $250
I see you are located in the Bahamas. As others noted, you have some weak cells in block 11. If you plan to do the work yourself, let me know. I can send parts and talk you through a few things. Or if you have a reputable independent shop, I could help them as well. It's unlikely that you need an ecm. But as you noted you can find a used one for much less than new. We can talk via email, or if you have Skype we can give that a go. Drop me a line.
While the Scangauge is a good unit for monitoring while driving, if you want to completely troubleshoot the battery system, you would do well to get the mini VCI (eBay and elsewhere). This gives you as much info as possible. Your dealer appears to be less knowledgeable than the many helpers here on PC. These reports of P0A80 are becoming almost a daily event now, so you are in good company.
This is why I changed my shop to full time last year. Prior to this there wasn't enough out-of-warranty work.
Uart mentioned in another thread today about the failure rates of HV batteries being in the 2% range, surveyed by I forgot whom. How accurate do you think this 2% replacement rate is? What has been your experience?
This is excellent info! It seems as though my cheapest option is to replace a individual battery module. What is difficulty level for replacing an individual module? And is there a danger of me causing harm to myself or to the battery by doing this? Im no mechanic but Im very tech savvy and can follow moderately complex instructions. GT-I9500 ?
By you asking this question, you might want to get it done by someone else and you watch how it's done. Maybe after that, you can try it on your own if another cell fails. YES YOU CAN KILL YOURSELF DOING THIS!
I can guaranty that if had you have paid them the $2000 that it wouldn't have fixed the problem. I can also guaranty that you would never have seen one cent of that $2000 refunded. Instead the dealer would have steadfastly maintained that there *really* was problem with that ECU and that now there is another *different* problem with the HV battery - and that will be another $4000 please. Lucky for you that you did some research yourself on this before letting the dealer cut lose with your wallet.
Battery balancing in its present state of knowledge is something you could do with small investment, but it is time consuming. The car would be out of service for a while. Start with some of the threads on how to proceed: Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | PriusChat Prius Battery rebalance thread | PriusChat HV Battery Rebuild - Cell Capacity and Balancing Help | PriusChat There are other threads which can be searched out as well. Don't be put off by the voltages, people work with this equipment daily without problem. This is helpful: Prius battery exploration
Lol thats the first thing that popped into my head when everyone said it was the battery. They would have made me pay for that. Now i just have to read links you guys provided to see if I can change a individual cell by myself. I also have to see what kind if equitment will I be needing to perform such a task. I really need my prius back on the road because I am borrowing sombodys 2009 ford sportstrac which gets 12 MPG. Compared to my prius's 50 MPG GT-I9500 ?
I am having the same problems with my 2005 Gen II Prius. They originally told me it was the ECM, so I had them replace it (Cost $2000), then it didn't fix the issue, they said it was the 12V battery, replaced it- Nope, still didn't fix the issue. Today they say it's the Hybrid Battery...UGH. I will not buy another Toyota. I owned a Camry (which was a perfect car), then a Lexus which was in the shop and I spent more on it for fixes than what I paid, now I'm driving the Prius, and I love it, but a new Hybrid Battery is going to be $3,100! Ugh. Time to say goodbye.
If someone told me that a $2000 part would fix a problem and it didn't, I'd be telling them to take it right back out or face a lawsuit. Have you contacted Toyota corporate about this, or are you just accepting it as "bad luck"? They are a dealership, and should know better and stand behind their work. Nexus 4 ?
Sounds like a real crap shoot. The reality is that ECU's are generally very reliable and rarely fail. Unfortunately for us however, there's a darn good profit margin for dealer in replacing them. Sometimes I even wonder if some of these ECU failure misdiagnoses are no accident.