I'm not adverse to taking on a project. I've watched a few videos and rebuilding a hybrid battery doesn't seem all that hard. Here's my question to y'all. I have a chance to buy a 2007 Prius with 200,000 miles on it but it has the red-triangle-of-death. Current owner says it's been sitting for two years. I test drove it and the battery took a charge (went up and coasted down a steep hill twice). The next day she said she took it to wash it and got the red triangle. I nearly paid $2500 for it but she's now wiling to sell it for $800. What are opinions on taking on this $800 project? We have two 2007's in the family. My daughters is pushing 320,000 miles with nearly nothing ever having to be done to it. Mine is at 150,000 and ditto no pretty much nothing to fix.
Red triangle isn't necessarily a battery issue, you'd have to pull the codes to know what it is. Any number of things can cause a red triangle. With the hatch seams known to leak, the battery fan connector being right there, and it happening after washing it... There's a non-zero chance it could be water/corrosion in that connector. It's been really bad on most of the Prii I've owned.
It would be your lucky day if one car washing caused that connector to fail but never say never. +1 to reading the codes. It is a must so you know what you're dealing with.
In Gen2, in addition to the high-voltage battery, with mileage and years, the engine may start to consume oil (therefore, the engine must be replaced or repaired), the brake booster weakens (it cannot be repaired, only replaced). Inspect the body for rust. Everything else, in my opinion, is unimportant. The car is quite reliable. $800 is almost free.
This is part of the Corolla family they are some of the most reliable cars on the planet ever. You've got two and your family so you should know a little bit about em . In Colorado appearance in rust is going to be one of the big issues right been years since I've been there but I think that's correct so other than that the rest of the system should be reasonable wiring from the battery to the front of the car and those sort of things can be tricky in areas of rust and salt but other than that everything's pretty stable The red triangle just means hey I need you to take a look at these other lights over here that should be on and find out why they are so maybe we would do this before we go to car washes and so on? Just a thought usually I go to the car with my scanner a 12 volt battery and all of that in my Prius that I'm driving ready for the Prius that I'm going to look at so that I can get all systems up and running and see what I got before I think about car washing and spraying water and all of that so I read the codes see what the deal is all of that It may turn out that I'm only going to offer $500 for the car given the rust the location and whatever else might be going on when I pay $700 I'm getting the car with leather interior and all four body panels are the same color I'm in the southeast United States that's how all cars look for the most part. Usually when I do this I drive them away and I don't go to the car wash I go to my house The car wash and washing and all of that doesn't happen until the cars running and driving up and down my street with no tag on it and getting the temperature and doing its business maybe then I'll consider hosing the dust off.
You need to share more about the car for a valid opinion to be given. Rust is the biggest one, other items include other dash lights, tires, interior, etc. What I can type is that for $800 what is your potential loss? Some parts can be used on your cars, others have value on the market. Do you have the space and time to keep it around or expect to get a completely reliable car with a few hours of work? But in my experience this car is at worst case a break even deal.
800 is a steal, even when you replace it with a refurb battery or just individual modules. If the engine is shot you will know it once it starts but +1 on getting the codes first.
