2006 Prius not going into ready with multiple warning lights

first time post here. My 2006 Prius has problems with not going into ready mode.

Issues started just over a week ago when suddenly the warning lights came on saying "problem" and the red triangle with what looks like an engine symbol. Car would hardly go and I had to limp home at about 3mph then suddenly the petrol engine came on and I was able to go a little faster but it still seemed hesitant. A few days later I managed to get it into drive mode and drive it up to the Toyota dealers and all seemed fairly normal.

Toyota phoned me the next day and said it was water damage to the nsr B1 multi-connector (I'm in the UK). They said around £700 to fix it! Then they would look at any other issues!! As I work in electronics I thought I'd look at it myself. When I went to pick up the Prius they said they were having difficulty getting it into ready mode for driving. After about 30 minutes they said they had it running. I got it home.

The next day I looked at the plug and there was corrosion so I cut the wires and soldered all the connections with colour coded wire I have using heatshrink to cover the joins.

It will not go into ready and I can hear clicking of the relays in the hybrid battery. Any ideas on what could be going on. I've attached an image of the corroded plug. Any help appreciated.

 

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm attempting to get the codes from the Toyota dealership but may be Monday before I do - don't understand why I didn't get them on the report they did, seems like they don't want you to know! I changed the battery for a new one a couple of days ago - showing 12.5v now - no obvious connection problems that I can see.

This morning after about 10 attempts it went into ready mode and the engine kicked in and started charging the hybrid battery to about 3/4 of the way before I turned it off. So it seems something intermittent is happening.

I may try and drive it on Monday if I can get it into ready mode (or get it towed) to a hybrid specialist garage I spoke to today. The guy seems on the ball and said the wiring can throw up lots of error codes and dash lights. Will keep you all up to date on progress and feel free to send any more info or advice.

 

Do you mean the connections to the Hybrid battery? I've not checked anything on the Hybrid battery yet.

 

Quick update. Managed to get it to the garage that I mentioned and the guy put a fancy large screen diagnostic OBD on it. It came up with hybrid battery fault. He then ran another test which showed each individual battery voltage and 2 and 3 were fluctuating between 15.2v and minus voltage. He said this is almost certainly the bus bar set and wiring into the ECU as he'd seen this before. He said it would probably need both the ECU and bus bar set replacing.

I left it with them. I'll post when I get the car back and share the results.

 

He said he would give me a breakdown of the cost on Wednesday or Thursday - hopefully not too much of a shock!

 

" I don't generally recommend trying to clean or repair the no.2 frame wire. Those wires are all skinny and coated in some miracle thin insulation for the voltages involved, and not uncommonly some of them have just broken right off".

Thanks ChapmanF.

That's what the mechanic at the garage said and also about the ECU. He said he would look if anything is repairable. I expect the ECU will need replacing but we'll see later this week when he gets back to me - hopefully with news it doesn't.

 

Just a quick update. Got the car back today from ManchesterHybrids here in the UK and all is good - the car drives great again. The ECU and wiring were replaced with salvaged parts so the cost of repair was a very reasonable £288. I'm more than happy as Toyota wanted more than double to repair something that wasn't even the main problem. My trust in the main dealership is pretty much at an end now and doubt I will use them again.