Red triangle and more - need urgent help!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by cooldyood, Jun 8, 2015.

  1. cooldyood

    cooldyood Junior Member

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    First, some background: On my 2007 Prius, the keyless entry system was steadily failing for the past 2 weeks. The car wouldn't unlock even with key right up to the door. And then it completely stopped working last week, 2 days before I was going for a week-long vacation.

    The car otherwise operated fine with key inserted into the hole below steering wheel.

    I left for vacation last week and left my trunk slightly open (didn't want to come back and struggle with unlocking the car). I returned today, and found something else - the battery was dead.

    A nice guy gave it a jump start, car turned on well but showed on MPD - red triangle + tons of lights + this error "There is a problem with the transmission 'P' lock mechanism".

    After some online digging, I realized this may signal an issue with 12v battery. He jumped 12v battery too, while I ran diagnostics (held display button + turn headlight on/off thrice). Battery showed 11.3v and dropping. However, I could put the car into gear and drive. Red triangle light was still on, all other lights on dashboard were now gone. I drove the car anyway (too tired and lazy to think otherwise).

    After an hour of driving, I ran diagnostics again. Battery now showed 13.9v (screenshot attached) but red triangle light was still on.

    What should I do? Am I ok to drive it 20 miles from work to home? If the logical next step is to take it to a Toyota dealer, can you let me know what to expect..
     

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    #1 cooldyood, Jun 8, 2015
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2015
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    might he have crossed polarity when he jump started you? maybe no harm. what do you mean, he jumped the 12v too? what did he jump the first time? try disconnecting the 12v for a few minutes to see if they go away. i think you can drive the 20 miles. how many miles on her?
     
    #2 bisco, Jun 8, 2015
  3. cooldyood

    cooldyood Junior Member

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    He definitely did not cross polarities. He and I watched a video and carefully did it together. We jumped both batteries - the one in front and the one in trunk. Just to confirm - 12v is the one in trunk correct?

    My Prius has 168k miles on her.
     
    #3 cooldyood, Jun 8, 2015
  4. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    There's no battery in the front of the car, it's just a jump point. The battery is located in the back of the car.

    If you charge up/change the 12v battery, all your problems might go away.
     
    #4 JC91006, Jun 8, 2015
  5. andrewclaus

    andrewclaus Active Member

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    If that's the original 12V battery, it's definitely time to replace it. And be happy you got such good long service out of it.

    The 13.9 V you're reading is during charging, and it should be higher, more like 14.2 to 14.4 as I recall. You're seeing a high voltage drop which means a good battery is charging at a high current, or more likely your battery is bad and will not charge.
     
    #5 andrewclaus, Jun 9, 2015
  6. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    I agree the OP needs to replace the 12V battery now - unless the battery is less than four years old in which case he can try charging the battery overnight with a charger intended for AGM batteries, 4A charging current.

    ~13.8V is the normal voltage produced by the DC/DC converter. If the voltage was 14.4V then the 12V battery would charge faster, but the DC/DC does not produce a voltage that high.
     
    #6 Patrick Wong, Jun 9, 2015
  7. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Sounds like you just have a 12v battery issue, I replaced my orig a few years ago on a 2006.
    How many miles on her? Your hybrid battery should be warranted for 8 yrs, maybe 10, I don't think we really know if Toyota handles DC as CARB or not (we must assume not so 8-yrs 100k miles).
     
    #7 wjtracy, Jun 9, 2015
  8. cooldyood

    cooldyood Junior Member

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    Update - since the jump start + 1 hour of driving (on day of my original post), almost all problems have disappeared.

    I will certainly prioritize replacing the 12v.

    The only pending issue is key fob failure. If I replace battery on it, is it likely to resolve?
     
    #8 cooldyood, Jun 11, 2015
  9. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    The key fob battery is an easy and cheap fix
     
    #9 JC91006, Jun 11, 2015
  10. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    One hour of driving time is insufficient to charge up the 12V battery, so don't be surprised if you have another no-start incident soon. The battery needs to be charged at least overnight to have a chance of being restored to normal functionality.
     
    #10 Patrick Wong, Jun 11, 2015
  11. cooldyood

    cooldyood Junior Member

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    Second update - key fob restored after changing it's battery last night.
     
    #11 cooldyood, Jun 12, 2015
    bisco likes this.
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