I am hoping for some guidance & help because I’ve been given some incorrect info from this dealership over the years. Our catalytic converter got stolen for the 3rd time on Aug 10, 2024. The dealership replaced it & after picking it up, we took it to local car wash. When we drove home, a bunch of lights came on so we towed it back to the dealership. The service tech just called & said our hybrid battery needs to be replaced due to block V-14 has a low voltage. Below are the codes they provided in the $4600 quote: P1121-COOLANT FLOW CONTROL VALVE POSITION SENSOR CIRCUIT STUCK P3000-BATT CONTROL SYSTEM P0A80-REPLACE HYBRID BATTERY PACK. AS PER FREEZE FRAME DATA BATTERY BLOCK VOLUME-V14 13.10V.HAS 1.6V DIFFERENCE THAN THE REST OF THE BATTERY PACK.RECOMMEND TO REPLACE BATTERY PACKS,FILTER AND CLEAN BLOWER FAN. P1121-COOLANT CONTROL VALVE STUCK OPEN OR CLOSE.RECOMMEND TO REPLACE VALVE AND CHECK When the catalytic converter was stolen last year (May 2023), our Prius sat for a while because they didn’t have a catalytic converter in stock. A couple of weeks after we picked it up, our Prius kept dying & suddenly wouldn’t start. We towed it back to the dealer & they had us replace our 12v battery which was 2 years old. One year later (May 2024), we towed our Prius back because it kept dying. The AAA tech told us they installed the wrong 12v battery so that’s why it kept dying. Toyota denied it & said we needed a new 12v battery because it was 5 years old. We told them that they just replaced the battery last year so they searched their records & replaced it again for free. I am worried that they may be giving me bad info because I am a small female. If our hybrid battery was indeed problematic, wouldn’t they have known this a few months ago when they replaced our 12v battery? If I would’ve known about this, I probably would’ve taken the insurance money instead of replacing the catalytic converter & purchased a new car. When I looked at their service notes when they replaced our catalytic converter in 2021, they replaced a bunch of fuses. I was wondering if someone could help guide me with these codes above & maybe just changing a fuse would do the job. Money is tight so I am trying to figure out the best path forward. Thanks in advance.
Well you're in California so having catalytic converters and all that stuff in place is mandatory unlike where I am your battery block voltage if that's the reading and that's what's going on the voltage being low could be because the bus bars on that blocker dirty black the nuts are frosted with like the white stuff that grows on old car 12 volt battery terminals It's a living organism keep your car from starting lots of times that can happen in your HV battery pack and that can wreak havoc on how that assembly works Toyota will not look inside of that battery pack they just replaced the $3,000 battery pack when someone's at their house and their driveway you will see pictures here of what people see when they look in their HV battery pack It can be quite ugly Just cleaning up the copper bus bars the nuts and a rock tumbler with the proper abrasive and making sure everything is clean and no modules are leaking on the lower tray and so on can go a long way If money's that tight you may not want to be looking at a 3,000 or $4,000 new Toyota battery get a rebuilt It sounds like you're inching your way out of this car very slowly because of age looks whatever the problem may be I can't see from here The car is a good car generally a generation 2 will carry you to $500,000 pretty easily of course you'll be replacing tires 12 volt batteries and consumable things like any other car If you go 600,000 mi with it you'll replace a few of those things more than you will on a car that only makes $150,000 mi obviously so you have to weigh out what you have going on I have four of these cars three of them have rebuilt batteries in them and have been doing very well One of them has a brand new battery from about 2 years ago that I put in so there are lots of variables I don't pay but $700 to a thousand bucks for one of these cars generally and usually they're in pretty nice shape leather interior so on I don't buy any cloth so there's always that but you know driving a car like this to 600,000 means you're sitting in a 16-year-old car until it's like 24 years old to make that kind of mileage and well people look at you funny and all kinds of things so peer pressure can have a lot to do with changing cars and refrigerators and appliances and things like that just depends where you are in the game
Thank you for your detailed reply & I really appreciate it. My Prius has 147k miles on it & is in decent shape. I think I am going to tow it home & try to try your suggestion first. Our 12v battery kept dying this past year so I read the battery vent needs to be cleaned, too. I will provide an update after. Thanks again for your insight!
FIRST, what kind of carwash did you take your car through? If it was one where you have to leave the car on and put the car in neutral, you probably drained the HV battery to the point it triggered the code, since the HV battery does not get charged when in neutral. If you leave the AC on it will rapidly drain the HV battery since the AC compressor is electric. If so, the battery could likely be restored to service merely by force charging it.
It was a carwash where it’s put in neutral to go through & then the workers finish it up after. I had no idea but felt Toyota was just trying to give me a quick fix. I am praying that’s what happened & that forcing a charge will clear the service warnings. Thank you so so much!!!
I would pull the negative cable of the 12v battery for a couple of minutes to attempt to clear the codes and then drive it. The hv battery may partially recover. The coolant valve is less likely to respond as well but the next thing you do is find an independent hybrid shop in the area, even if you have to drive an hour. Taking a 15 year old Prius to a dealer will result in first class service and parts at two to three times what an independent may charge. Like anything you have to shop around. Realize many shops are not knowledgeable on Prius, one of the most complicated cars ever made. It is not unusual for both of the defined issues to be real at that age. Again, a good independent hybrid shop is a good second opinion and a better price.
Hi everyone, I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to send an update. I want to thank everyone who didn’t mock me & helped me figure out the problem. When the catalytic converter was replaced, we also asked Toyota to complete an oil change. Our Prius takes 3.9L & when I checked dipstick, it had a tad too much oil. I checked the records & the tech put in 4L so I bought an oil change extractor from Amazon & removed a little oil so it had exactly 3.9L. That changed everything & fixed the shaking & all of the problems. I have gained more confidence now & just replaced our headlights. Our tire sensor suddenly just came on a few weeks back so I bought new ones from Amazon & took it to American Tires to replace them. I spent $25 for (4) sensors $92 for the installation versus $350 if I were to buy the parts from American Tires. While I was waiting for them to finish the install, I realized how much our paint was chipping in various places. So I googled if there was a recall or similar issue & found out that there was a paint issue & the timeframe to get it repainted was from 2015 to July 2025. So I made an appointment & Toyota is now repainting our Prius for free. I feel so empowered now & just wanted to thank everyone & this forum. We have saved so much money but even better, I have gained so much knowledge & insight on cars. ♥️
Oh that is hysterical they'll paint my 2009 gold car maybe my 07. This is too funny .my silver 700 o7 would be great paints literally peeling . All over car little squares
I was shocked myself but I believe it’s only for their white paint. It doesn’t hurt to call & ask if you see chipping!
No I have major fading on a gold and a green generation 2 that funny looking light color green and the standard gold car with the tan velor interior. But anyway no I don't expect any of this is going to go on in the southeast United States absolutely not every paint job down here this happens to I don't care what it's on General motors Kia Hyundai No I can't imagine this must be for California people or something certainly not for anywhere in the real world I don't think Toyota would be so foolish but hey you never know and for white paint why because it turns to chalk That's what all white paint does especially if it sits outside I mean I see the list here I didn't notice it say anything about white paint that said something about certain months of the year or something 7th to 9th month or whatever I didn't fully read it I have a friend that is a service department manager for a big dealership here in the southeast He will know all about it I'm fixing to call him Monday morning just for haha's We will see I'm sure it will be quite a funny conversation and I'm sure he will mention yeah this is for California only you know Governor what's his name and whatever but it's great I'm glad you're getting your car painted the last thing generally I ever worry about on an old car is a paint job personally a 2008 car should look like a 2008 car 20 something years old almost shiny clear coat and bright shiny paint generally wouldn't be a thing at least not for people that really own vehicles.
No I didn't read all of it there's two pages I see something about some dates and what have you and a bunch of small texts so apparently it's only for white cars or something and that's just great perfect like I say nothing that we have here so nothing to be much looking into I figured it had to be a cat somewhere white paint doesn't even make any sense to me I would think it would be the colors that did all the fading and all the nonsense but anybody who buys a metal flake car knows that this happens to that paint so duh.
Yes I see the second page I have to enlarge it I'm on a small phone Blizzard white and something else yep no problem wouldn't make any sense those two colors really shouldn't have any problems The blizzard white doesn't chip and peel anything like the silver or the gold but yeah but that makes perfect sense I wouldn't have either of those colors generally here anyway. It's always something.
