Hi Everyone, This is my first time posting, but I've gotten a lot of useful information from other peoples' questions so thank you in advance. I own a 2005 prius that I purchased used this year. This morning I had my first issue. I turned on the car and it gave me the following error message: "Transmission p lock mechanism is abnormal. Park your car in a flat place and apply parking brake completely." The parking break wasn't on and I was already parked in a basically flat parking space. I couldn't move my car because it wouldn't go into drive or reverse or neutral. (The car turned on, but the engine wouldn't start). I tried turning the car off, but the car also wouldn't turn off. I let the car sit for 5 minutes then tried again and the car turned off. When it turned back on, everything was fine. My questions is: Do I need to bring this into a mechanic? The car seems to work fine now, but I don't want to be stranded again or do damage to the car by driving it with an issue. Thanks everyone for your help! Ben
Set the parking brake each time you park (that is what it is for), then it's unlikely you'll see this message again.
Thanks. Should I replace the 12v battery even if the car seems to be working fine now (has been ever since it first had the issue).
As you say that you don't want to be stranded again, then it would be a good idea to change the 12V battery now. The symptom that you posted about is an early warning that the battery is about to die. If you wish to wait until the battery actually dies, you won't cause any harm to the car. However, those no-start events often happen at the worst possible time, which tends to magnify the inconvenience and cost that you will bear when the car doesn't start. The Prius 12V battery is a non-standard size that you will not find at a discount auto parts store, Costco or Walmart. You can buy a replacement at your local Toyota dealer and some PC members have also successfully installed an Optima battery after replacing the terminal connectors.
