Triangle of Death - Appeared then Gone

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by dgprius06, Aug 23, 2022.

  1. dgprius06

    dgprius06 New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2022
    1
    0
    0
    Location:
    Northwest North Carolina
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Hi all, first time posting but have just read a bit.

    Background: I got a used 2006 Prius a few months ago. The battery in it had died (before I bought it) and was replaced with a newer battery from a totaled car. The new battery was working perfectly fine, the whole car was running great, mechanic (specializes in foreign and electric cars) ran tests and everything was working fine! He had also replaced part of the heating/cooling system (I believe the heat wasn’t working).

    The other day I drove up my (very bumpy) country “driveway”. As I pulled out the red triangle and I believe a brake light(?) came on. I pulled over nearby and turned the car off to restart. It wouldn’t restart, the power button was red, all the dash lights came on, and it would only go into neutral. Someone pulled over to help. I read on here about the battery safety plug. He pulled that out and reinserted it. Still didn’t work. He went and got his reader and the code POA0D and P0AA6 came up. Tried clearing the codes. Didn’t work. Towed it to the mechanic. 4 days later (today) the mechanic resets the safety plug and it starts, no codes. He can’t see what any of the original sub codes what have been because they were cleared.

    Now, he’s not confident in this was the fix. He’s thinking if the triangle came on in the first place something is wrong. I’m wondering if anyone’s had a similar experience - could the triangle have been a fluke? Is there still something wrong? Can it go on then off then on again?

    thanks all! I’m stressed and don’t know what to do! I just got it and was so happy with it..
     
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2013
    16,641
    8,496
    0
    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    The mechanic is right, you have to figure out why the code P0AA6 popped up. That's the reason the car won't start (restart). Normally on a Gen 2 car, when P0AA6 pops up, you would need to reset the battery to start the car. It will only allow 1 restart per reset. That code can mean a number of expensive issues. Here are the 4 most common areas of failure

    1. HV battery
    2. AC Compressor
    3. Transaxle
    4. Inverter.
     
  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2020
    11,599
    2,049
    0
    Location:
    Durham NC
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    The battery's been recently messed with. That's the first thing that suspect I didn't hear you say you had the air conditioner running but with those goads and you just had battery work done have it looked at again carefully.