Prius (2004-09) :: 2006 - Delayed Cabin Heat - Red Triangle With Thermostat Symbol?
Feb 11, 2016
My 06 prius takes a very long time to provide heat to the cabin. In temps below 20 F it can take 20 minutes. Today in 16 F weather the red triangle came on, followed by a problem banner, followed by a thermostat symbol. The triangle and symbol turned on a off a couple of times over a 5 minute span. I had been driving the car from a cold start for about 15 minutes when this happened. The car did start to produce some, but not a lot, of heat at about 20 minutes into the drive. I was also forced to use the defroster intermittently for the first 15 minutes (blew only cold air). After parking the car for 20 minutes I drove 20 minutes home with no triangle or thermostat symbol. Most of the way home I had sufficient heat.
I do have the front blocked with pipe insulation. I have owned my 06 prius for over a year and it has 257,000 on it.
Could the thermostat and triangle be caused by a low engine temp? If so would a stuck thermostat be a potential culprit?
Can I assume that if my car is blowing cold air when I am asking for heat that the engine is not over heating?
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I have several problems with my 2008 Prius that I will try to list below and I have done much of mechanic work myself but now I am a little stuck with some of the codes that are coming up and with some of the problems my Prius is experiencing:
Here are the codes that were scanned when I took car to a local parts store:
Coolant Temperature Sensor Evaporated Emission System (Vacuum Leak)
p3193
Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor
Pump Control Circuit Low
" High
I replaced the thermostat and now I get the red light displays on the dash anytime I go over 45 and the thermostat light on the panel displays there is a problem. I think there might be air in the system. Should I have a mechanic bleed air out or is there an easy procedure that I can do on my own to fix this problem?
I have also purchased a water coolant valve and this will be my next part to replace at 106.00 dollars. I am not sure this will fix my problem with my heat but I do not want to replace the heater motor because those run 630 dollars each.
Being that it is winter I want to fix the problem so that we can drive the car with some heat and not get the red light to come on intermittently. How to get to the root of these problems listed above?
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After driving for 2 or 3 miles my car turns on this red triangle and says "problem" on the GPS. All the threads i have found this is accompanied by a check engine light but mine does not. On the gps there is also a symbol that i looked up in the manual, it says to take the car to a dealer. is there any way to know exactly what this triangle means? There is not CEL tripped, tried 4 code reader and nothing.
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Last month my red triangle would pop up along with the yellow head light symbol. Most times it would be for a few seconds, other times it would stay on for a few minutes. Today I rotated my tires and I thought I would check out leveling sensor while the tires were off.
I took my left rear tire off and this is what I saw when the sensor was removed.
So everything looked normal to me. Looks can be deceiving. I've seen pictures on here of leveling sensors where the guts are completely rotted out. That's what I was thinking I was going to see. Here is a picture of the bolt side of the sensor:
Again, it looked normal to me. If you don't know what you're looking for, especially if parts aren't mangled, it can look normal. So I took the four screws off of the sensor and this is what I saw:
The inside of the sensor was in pristine condition! The springs are shiny gold and there was only a small amount of dust inside the sensor. I started to think about how the sensor works and I figured out that the sensor must move in some way. Hmmm. But there was no bracket on it to turn the sensor.
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I have a 2005 Prius with 240,000 miles. About 4 months ago the triangle warning symbol appeared. A friend and I decided to pull the big battery out of the car and find the bad cells. We did that, replace two and the car worked fine for 4 months. The triangle warning has returned. We have done several things but the triangle remains. We pulled the big battery out and checked all of the cells. We replaced one that was probably OK. The latest reading was 8 volts on cells all but one at 7.9. We cleaned all of the bus contacts. We went into the maintenance mode on the MFD and found the aux battery to be 12.6 volts and under load it dropped to 11.8 with the lights on.
The aux battery went up to 14.1 volts with the car on. The inverter cooling fluid has movement and there is a slight humming which I believe to be the inverter pump running. The inverter fluid was topped off. The MFD showed the battery bars start at about three fourths full, drop down to one bar. With the engine running the battery bars climbed to the top purple. The engine turned off and the bars continued to climb to all green. All of this occurred in about 3 minutes while the car was parked. There were codes on the MFD while in maintenance mode. I understand that these codes are for the navigation system and the audio system.
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I have a 2009 Prius Touring with about 55,000 miles on it. Had it regularly serviced last Thursday at the Toyota dealer/service center, and they said it needed to have the coolant flow control valve replaced due to sticking - so I agreed and they did it under warranty.
On Friday afternoon, I was driving out to the desert and about 50 miles into my trip, the red triangle with exclamation point symbol appeared on my dash, and the word "Problem" beeped on my screen. Then it went off, and then back on a few minutes later. Then it happened again and the high coolant temperature warning light came on the screen...and then went away. I turned off the A/C and opened the hood to check for steam or heat, but there was nothing. Since I was far from my destination, I called the closest Toyota service center and promptly drove there, but the light was off when I arrived. They said they checked everything out and ran the codes, but nothing came up.
When driving home on Sunday, the car did the same thing - Problem Triangle and High Coolant Temperature warning light on and off for varying amounts of time and with no correlation to how fast I was driving or how hard the engine was working. I left the A/C off the entire time.
Today, the car did the same thing after driving for about 10 miles. I brought it back to my regular service center, they ran codes and checked everything out...but they cannot find anything. They said they can't determine anything with the light off, but it doesn't stay on consistently so it's nearly impossible to bring it in with the light on.
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I have a 2004 Prius with self-leveling headlights. I have no problems seeing at night but i have a red triangle on the dash and the headlight symbol on the monitor. I was able to aim the lights level when the self-leveling sensor broke. but is there a way to disable the sensor so i don't have any of those symbols on the dash or monitor it just is pain to look at the the sensor cost to much and it doesn't have any affect on driving during the day or night.
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My 2007 Prius has stopped producing cabin heat; the blower fan is working. I have no dash warning indicators. I am in an area where the are no Toyota dealers and need to drive 160 miles to home and shop. It has just turned cold. Why and if I am ok to drive to the shop?
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First background: G2 car has 215,000 mi and recently got P1121 scan code, so I replaced the coolant control valve. that's when high coolant temp and no cabin heat started.
on CCV top nipple connected to hose that had a dot on it and hose goes under inverter cover on right, next nipple down went to hose slightly to left of first hose, bottom hose goes to thermus can. initially ran car in diag mode with high heat, no heat in cabin.
so I got a Autel 519 scan code reader and I see now that the only code is a P0505 (idle air control malfunction)
taking car down my road for short test run, I turn off cabin heat completely and watched the ECT. after a while it climbs to around 220, then while engine is running quickly goes to 245F then 260F. At that point in time (around 245F) the high temp indicator lights up, temp stayed at 260ish so I return home. With car in park, cabin heat off - the temp returns back down to 220F. if I rev the engine temp again climbs.
I have gone through all suggestions, open radiator bleed valve, manually 'pumped' coolant hoses, turned on/off high heat in cabin and finally with car off removed and jumped the CHS multiple times for about 20secs.
Have purged the coolant system over period of days and coolant appears to be full as level is near top of radiator cap, no bubbling, no gurgling.
However 2 mentioned problems continue... I am starting to suspect coolant thermostat but it would seem strange that it would go at precisely the same time as coolant control valve.
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Went today to check out a buddy's truck, 06 F350 164k egr and cooler delete. He finally did his thermostat yesterday, after not having warm heat for months. Today on the way to work, had great heat for about 10 miles, then it went cold. Pulled over to check coolant, cracked cap loose, let pressure out, now had heat again. Same thing on the way home. Had the white streaks down from the cap, lost a small amount of coolant, just at min line now. He's owned this truck since 48k and no heads have never been off.
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The dealer has tested every system for leaks and can't find any. They have changed the filters. They have contacted Nissan to see if there were other complaints of this nature and there weren't. They did a smoke test to detect any leaks that weren't visible to the naked eye and found nothing. This problem has not occurred at the dealership only when I'm driving but my husband, daughter, son-in-law and car pool buddy have all been in the car when the smell was evident. It's very strong and smells like you're in a gas station with the windows open.
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Our prius is 13 yrs old and the fan of the heat/ac broke. We had it replaced at the dealer and also had them replace the cabin airfilter. Since then, whenever we use the fan (heat or AC), we've been getting fumes in the car, a gas smell (even when there are no cars in front of us, so it's not from other cars). We brought it back to the dealer twice and they have not fixed it. They found a hole in the exhaust system and replaced the muffler etc. My questions:
1) Is there a way to measure the air quality in the cabin and find out what fumes are coming in and how dangerous they are?
2) What could it be and how can we finally get it fixed.
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I just bought a 2006 Prius about a month ago (57K). I love the car and have been educating myself on all things Prius, This car has also made me change my driving style quite a bit. I am getting around 50 MPG (combined) and very happy about it.
I have been using some of the hypermiling techniques to get the mileage, one of the things I do is to put the car in Neutral (to emulate the Glide portion of the Pulse and Glide) especially when coming down a gradient. I was bit concerned about using the Neutral gear and called Toyota Corporation to get a clarification, The answer I got from Toyota was - there is no technical issue, however they do not recommend this be done for safety reasons.
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My 06 Prius with 130k miles just starting to briefly (1-2 seconds) show "PROBLEM" on the MFD and beep and sometimes show a red triangle.
This only happens when I am going down hill on a tight curve when going fast. This never happens going up hill (since I am generally going slower) nor on flat roads. Since this is my normal commute road and I have not changed the way I drive for several years, I am surprised that this is now occuring.
Some possible theories: oil is low - I will checksome level sensor is complaining? some tire rotation sensor is complaining?
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Took the Prius to the crosswalk today, one mile roundtrip, everything was fine. Came home and being lazy I put it in the driveway and locked it with the windows up instead of my normal in the garage with the windows down. At close to 100 degrees outside the interior was blistering hot when I went to start it and head back for my afternoon shift. The dash lit up like a Christmas light display. Brakes, red triangle, vsc, check engine, etc.
Put it in the garage with the windows down and let it sit for a couple of hours to cool a bit. Started it up and let it idle for about 15 minutes; everything reset except the red triangle and the check engine light. Drove it down to the dealer but they won't have a diagnosis until tomorrow. It handled the drive just fine like normal.
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Purchased a used 2006 prius with ~180K miles on it from south bay a few months ago. At the time of purchase the guy warned us that it 'ate' motor oil.
After 2 months of driving without issues (driven couple of hundred miles), on an uphill road the engine overheats and throws the red triangle, vsc and check engine lights on the dash, along with loss of power. After cool down I check oil level and sure enough it is low, since this is on top of a hill we essentially coast all the way back home without any real issues. Once home I top up the oil. I do a test drive around the block without issues (no loss of power) though the check engine/red triangle/vsc lights are still on. But after I take it for a longer drive the loss of power returns.
Since my bluetooth obd2 connector wasn't working I borrow one from my friend and try to get a read. Unfortunately the thing puts out no obd2 error codes. Living in the bay area I apparently cant just take it to an autozone, to get code readings. I take it to meineke auto repair, they too are unable to get an obd2 read, and want to charge me $100 for a full reading, which I decline.
I do a few diagnostics steps including 'resetting' the computer by leaving it off of the 12v battery for a few mins, this clears the red triangle et al on restart. I do a test drive, at first everything is working just fine, but after about 10 mins or so of driving the red triangle/check engine/vsc lights returns, along with loss of power. (under ~20 mph only, cant go uphill).
Take it to a mechanic and they come back with code: "APOA92. Trans Axel issue - MG1 performance is off. Measured torque is different than executed torque, enough to be a problem. 95% sure it is the transmission." I still haven't checked the 12v battery.
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Our '06 has 68K on it. Last weekend I changed the front bumper (just cracked from small accident last year) and changed the oil. Used Mobil 1 5/30 and a Fram Oil Filter.
After about 125 miles of driving intermittent Red T.O.D. Always when ICE is running.
Oil level is OK - not loosing any oil. Filter and bolt on the pan are fine - no leaks.
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I have had the red triangle after having the car parked in extreme rain/heat pop up when I start the vehicle 3 times in about 6 months. The first 3 times I did not have Techstream so I just cleared the codes, but the third time I finally read it and had those 3 codes, the first two I assume being most important. I clear the codes each time I see them and they stay off 1-2 months. About 140k miles on car. New 12V battery. No driveability issues. Car still gets decent 60 mpg in summer, 50 in winter. P3000 P3009 B2799
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What is the little triangular thingy just to the left of the gas pump icon for? The only thing that I can figure is that it is there to tell you that the gas cap is on the left-hand side of the car. That is somewhat useful (especially if you have a new Elantra as a rental car), but only if you know that it is supposed to mean that! So is that what it is for?
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Got the triangle of death after letting the car set during my 2 week vacation. P0A80 and Battery block is 14.17V all the rest above 15.35. That's a lot of money to repair a car. Not sure if I want to cut my losses and move on or replace it and drive as long as I can.
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My beloved 2006 Prius with about 117,000 miles on it needs to go to the shop (I'm not a DIY mechanic). As I was driving home yesterday from work, all of the sudden the red triangle, VSC, check engine and a little car with an exclamation point on it on the display came on about 2 miles from home. There also appeared a kind of wind sound from the passenger rear area when this happened.
I drove it home and pulled into the driveway. Lights, radio, etc all work. I stopped it for about 30 minutes and then started it up again to pull it in the garage (all warning lights still on).
My question is can I drive it safely to my wonderful mechanic's shop about 10-15 miles from my house (assuming it starts)? I don't want to further damage anything.
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