So last weekend I drove my 05 Prius to the store. I sat there for a few minutes with the car still in ready condition in park. All of a sudden up comes a red triangle of death with some other lights. I know I need to tell what they were also, will do later. I try for drive and the car still moves so I get it home as quick as a I can. When I get to the safety of the driveway I plug in the scanner and find...No Codes. I turn it off and back on. Comes up with the same condition but now it will not get to Ready status. So.... I have a prius that will not go Ready, can select only park or neutral, no codes and the touchscreen has the red car symbol and all that says is "problem". I'm thinking I'm looking at a dead inverter, any thoughts? Oh and I put a new 12 volt battery in it last weekend and drove about 1500 miles since.
probably need a prius aware scanner, sounds like you have some weak hybrid battery cells. how many miles on her?
441,000. HV battery shows good even cells according to the torque app. It was actually running really well last week, better than a few months ago when I stopped using it for the summer. (No a/c)
If the inverter coolant pump quit, the inverter would overheat and shut you down. But you should have codes. And you would have had severely reduced power on the way home in that condition. I don't think Torque out of the box has all the Prius codes. Have you installed them? To check on the inverter coolant pump, just put it in READY, remove the cap from the coolant tank, and look for motion in the coolant.
What kind of 12v battery did you buy? If you bought a yellow top Optima battery you didn't buy a real battery, you bought a fake battery from a company with a proven reputation to re-sell defective batteries after they've been returned...
In order to help eliminate mistaking inverter coolant reservoir vibration ripples with actual flow ripples, the inverter coolant flow can be checked just by pressing the power button 2x with your foot OFF the brake. The car will not go ready, the engine will not start, but the cooling pump will run. This allows you to have a nice quiet car where you can check if the pump is running (humming noise) and if flow exists in the reservoir. If you're not concerned about erasing possible codes, just disconnect the battery for a minute and then see if it lets you go "ready"
My bet is the car will start and run fine after a 12 volt reset. Then the code will reappear and it will not restart again. This one start and done is caused by a high voltage leak.
I had an inverter coolant pump failure about a year ago. That was fixed and car returned to service although without air conditioning for some reason. That's why I am suspicious of the inverter since it has possibly been overheated at that time. Yes, have downloaded the prius specific PIDs for the Torque App. Will check today for coolant flow.
It's not an Optima. It is a S46B24R from O'Reilly Auto Parts. Actually this one. https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b/platinum-5003/battery-accessories-16452/battery---automotive-16864/battery---best-fit-16245/ec27e4e51018/super-start-platinum-group-size-s46b24r-51-pencil-post-battery/prius/4742707/2005/toyota/prius?q=Battery+-+Automotive&pos=0
I'll give it a try today. High Voltage leak.....I've heard of problems with coolant getting into the electronics of the inverter, is this what you have in mind?
Follow the directions here. https://attachments.priuschat.com/attachment-files/2018/09/154191_614_code.pdf
Ok, so today I disconnected the 12V battery for a few minutes and when reconnected conditions returned to as they were before the incident. I had a VSC light on before and that is still on now with codes C1210 and C1234. So as of now the car will go into "ready" and will move forward and backwards. Not sure if I can trust it however, I guess next weekend I'll drive it around locally and see what happens. Also found some info on the web about the C codes so I'll be looking into that as well. By the way, anyone know what AC voltage comes out of the inverter, could be useful to know..
I use this item purchased on Amazon, tried to post a link but it won't post for some reeason. ScanTool OBDLink LX Bluetooth: Professional Grade OBD-II Automotive Scan Tool for Windows and Android – DIY Car and Truck Data and Diagnostics Also have an Innova 3030 plug in scanner, shows the same codes.
