Car just stopped, she said. Wouldn't go. Police told her to try to move it; it ran okay, she said. When I got there, not even check engine light was on, and no red triangle. She has no clue if there was any diagnostic message on the display. While waiting for tow, I powered it up and since there were no warnings of any kind, I drove it in a tight circle around the parking lot she was in. Ran fine, but battery indicator had only two purple bars. Since tow was almost two hours away, decided to do a potentially stupid thing and drive to Toyota dealer three miles away. No problems; in fact, got all but one green bar on battery indicator. Had she not told me about shutdown, I'd have thought all was normal. They found quite a few codes stored, one of which was temperature related, one about injector coils, others I forget. They explained that the codes more or less cascaded owing to the serious nature of the shutdown. They plan to clear the codes, run it until check engine light or triangle appears and see what the code is. They'll call tomorrow with what they want to do. Has this happened to anyone? Any thoughts about how screwed I am? P. S. Triangle had appeared several times in past two years, but always immediately went off. Twice the message was oil problem. Oil level was fine. Toyota found no problem with anything oil related. But nothing remotely resembling a real problem such as shutting down.
I think the car just freaked out for no reason. Maybe some fuse got bumped loose and went back into place. Drive it with the technician until something bad happens. It doesn't seem smart, but might as well if no lights are on. Good luck!
could be the first sign of a bad battery. how hot was it? you should check/clean the battery cooling fan. how many miles on her?
This does fit the pattern of a weakening hybrid battery. We hear stories like this from our customers often. The ignition reset (turning car off and back on) resets everything and the car runs OK for a while before the symptoms return again. If you start performing preventative maintenance on the hybrid battery now you can likely avoid battery failure for a few years or more. If you wait until the hybrid fails it will probably require at least a module or two to be replaced: What causes hybrid batteries to degrade and fail? - Prolong Battery Systems - Hybrid Automotive
jeff has some good advice on reconditioning. do you carry any pets? fur seems to be the number one cooling fan clogger.
I agree that this matches symptoms I had with a traction battery fault. In my case water had got in and the terminals had become rusty, so got the leak repaired and the battery terminals and all now fine. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I don't know for sure, but probably about five years, at least three. Toyota checked both it and the hybrid battery and found no problems.
The several codes that were stored didn't suggest what had gone wrong.Toyota agrees it could have just been a glitch, then added that this will probably keep happening, more frequently as car ages. Not what I wanted to hear but it only cost $50 for my trouble, half what they originally wanted to charge. But, seriously... fuse bumped loose then back into place?
more likely one of the two batteries. with intermittent problems, testing doesn't always work. 10 year old car, 165k, triangle appears now and then, could be something loose, could be anything. could even be a bad solder on the back of the mfd. if you can't diy, you should probably trade her for a younger model.
It's interesting that your dealer hinted that the problem will likely return. They probably don't know what the early warning signs of battery degradation are. They will just wait for the failure then try to sell you an entirely new battery for 7x the cost of a little preventative maintenance.
Well, that's what happened with my A/C blower, the A/C would turn on after I hit a bump or pothole. $300 fix
I'm ignorant of this preventive maintenance. Can you point me somewhere? Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Here you go: How do I know if my hybrid battery is failing? - Hybrid Automotive and Prolong™ Battery Reconditioning Package - Hybrid Automotive Jeff
