I have a 2008 Prius, about 190k miles on it. No warnings ahead of time and nothing that made me concerned. One day I hopped in and the car just wasn't working. Inverter pump was replaced about two years ago, and I've kept it in pretty good condition. My car's battery is activating but the engine will not go on (I can't shift out of park), and the Red Triangle of Death is a glow. Googling/Prius forums suggested that this could be a bunch of things with the common three being a weak 12V battery, a busted inverter, or the High Voltage battery being kaput. I tried to jump start the car, no luck. Most advice then said scan to get the error code and then clear it to start the car. I used an old OBDII reader I borrowed, got no codes. Thought it was because it was out of date so I bought a new OBDII reader (the Ancel AD310) but still get no joy. Anyone have advice?
The Ancel AD310 is a basic OBDII reader that will read a couple of ECUs and is inadequate for a Prius. A Gen II Prius has 14 to 16 ECUs, and you need to be able to read all of them to get an idea of what's wrong. This thread, Gen2 OBD2 app review, provides a review of a few on the market and should inform a decision on what is suitable for the Prius. Read the first post and then skip forward to post #37 for a summary.
