So guys I had all the symptoms of a bad 12v battery on May 29th. I had it changed, and it was running great for about a 5 days. Then all of a sudden I got the red triangle again, and of course it wouldn't start. I opened the back cavity up today to take a look and see if everything was hooked up correctly. I un-did the white plug-ins in the battery, and put them right back in. I got the car to start but then I immediately got the red triangle, and the VSC sign again. Do you guys have any advice on what the issue could be? I think it could be a small issue, but I'm not sure. Thanks!
Welcome to Prius Chat . Some questions: What were the symptoms of a bad 12v battery? What is the current 12v measuring after it sits overnight? How many miles on your Prius? Do you have a way to get the diagnostic codes read? You’ll need Techstream to read the cause of the red triangle code. Know anyone with this toyota software? How much gas is in your Prius? What was the battery state of charge? You tried disconnecting the battery and that did not allow a restart. Be careful how many times you attempt this as you are on a pitch count and if you do it too many times, you’ll need a way to charge the hv battery . Keep us posted .
Charging a dead battery really fixes.....NOTHING. You need to have the battery charged again and tested this time. IF it is 4 years old or more, just replace it. A new one needs to be charged before use. Also the charging voltage needs to be checked while the car is "running".
If your car is starting 1 time after you reset the 12v, chances are you have a big problem. High voltage leak (P0AA6) and the car is protecting itself by disabling it. If your car can start multiple times after you shut down, then that's not the issue
Sam, find your reading glasses, he's saying "changed" not "charged", lol. Still, it could be the new battery was stale. And/or it's something else altogether that's the problem. Current battery condition needs to be verified, say by a battery retailer with electronic load tester, or you can use DIY with Solar BA5 or similar. There's some newer ones on the market now, more features, and cheaper.
Oops. Sorry. I think the brain needs a bit of refurbishment, not the glasses. So.....then two things with a new battery: It should have been fully charged before being used AND the charging voltage needs to be checked while the car is "running". Make that 3: ALL of the connections on the main cables need to be checked, that is a minimum of 4 places.
After I started the car yesterday, the battery was registering at 14-14.2V. I have a diagnostic scanner and the codes I picked up were C1818 & C3E1F. The battery was brand new from Pep Boys, and they installed it on May 29th. I have 277,000 miles on the car, and the hybrid battery was totally revamped about a year ago. It's registering good levels as far as I can tell. I checked the connections on the battery and they looked pretty good to me. But exactly what all am I supposed to check, I want to make sure I didn't miss something. And I have about a half tank in my Prius currently. Thanks for the replies guys, any help is much appreciated!
That 14 volts, presumably measured with the car on (dash display?) is meaningless. Check with a digital multimeter with the car off is more meaningful. A digital load tester is another level up.
Not completely. It means that the charging system is working. It means nothing as far as the health of the battery goes.
I'm still waiting to hear from the OP what "all the symptoms of a bad 12v battery" actually were.... -Chap
Red triangle. 277,000 miles. Unlikely that it is a small issue. Good chance it is your hybrid battery. Doesn't sound like Pep Boys have a reader that can access the necessary codes. You'll need to get a proper diagnostic scan. For ~$75 you could read (and clear) them yourself, plus see a lot more hybrid battery data. - Android phone/tablet - Elm 327 Bluetooth OBDII adaptor - Torque Pro app Perhaps there is a P0A80 or p30xx code. Hard to guess without proper data.
