Prius (2004-09) :: Red Triangle And VSC Warning - 12 Volt Battery Not Charging?
Feb 16, 2014
I've seen this a couple times but always made it home with the Red Triangle and VSC warning. A year ago, I blamed it on the OEM 12 volt battery and eventually replaced it with a Optima Yellow Top. No more problem until today. Day time driving with my Plug-in Supply 10k rechargeable conversion performing normally. City driving raining but normal Western WA conditions. Red Triangle and VSC warning. Other systems operating normal.
I knew, from previous experience that the Prius operating systems would continue to work only until I turned it off. I did turn off the Plug-in Supply controller to isolate that system and observed that the OEM traction battery was at a fairly high state of charge and the ICE was still providing the normal amount of assist to the traction battery through normal street and driving conditions.
I should have driven the 20 + miles to get home, even with the Red Triangle warning. I had done that in the past with the old OEM 12v battery. But I needed gas and went to a station and turned off the system ICE out of habit. Sure enough, the system wouldn't go back into Ready but would go from Park to Neutral. Since it was rain hard now, and I was calling my road service, I ask for a Flat Deck Tow home rather than a jump start.
As soon as I got off the tow truck I put my battery charger on the Yellow Top and it only read 11.7 volts. It's still on charge now. Now I'm wondering why the power conversion system wasn't charging the 12 volt battery or is my 1 year old Optima bad?? Or is there something about my driving conditions/plug-in conversion that is effecting the charge of this battery. I did a 2400 mile road trip to So. Calif and back to WA without any problems. Car has just 98169 miles right now. About 10k miles on the Plug-in Supply conversion.
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My dad's Gen III has been sitting garaged for almost a year now, and of course the 12 volt battery is dead. Firstly, it's sitting in a one car garage, and secondly I have a Gen II so a straight jump isn't possible. I have a trickle charger that should be able to bring the 12 volt back up in 15-19 hours, but here's my question:
Maybe I'm being lazy, but I'd rather not deal with climbing in the back to release the hatch and running an extension cord so I can get the charger close enough to hook straight up to the battery..
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My 12 volt battery is flat. I attached my CTEK MXS 5.0 and started on the Normal setting. I figured (wrongly it seems) that having the battery charger attached would support in starting the car. The green light displayed when I depressed the brake pedal and I pressed the Start button, but everything went dim and the brake pump slowly wound into life. The Start button glowed was on but no other functions started.
I pressed Start again and the light went out. Now when I connect the battery charger, a whining noise starts from near the inverter. The speed varies; dropping from a peak and rising again, and there's probably a pattern to it.
I've disconnected the charger a few times and the noise stops immediately. I wonder if the car has not switched itself off. I've disconnected the charger and I'm waiting some period of time before connecting it again to see if something will fall asleep. If not, I'll just have to climb over the back and disconnect the battery from the car before I charge it.
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First a little background on the car , it has 217,000 miles. The battery was just replaced with a used one. While taking it through the carwash, she put it in neutral and a minute or two later she got a warning that the battery was not charging and to put it in gear. Sounds like the battery is having issues to me. She has a 60-day warranty.
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I own a 2005 Prius with 233K miles. I got the terrible red triangle of death and several other warning lights. Had the codes checked out at Toyota and confirmed a bad HV battery. I am kinda handy and I replaced it myself. No big job, it took about two hours, most of which was spent removing the interior panels, etc. Test drove the car and all looked well. Thirty or so miles later, BAMMM, lots of warning lights. At this point I took it to my mechanic to have it checked out. They found nothing you wouldn't expect when you've disconnected the two batteries.
They cleared the codes and off I went. Again about thirty miles out the lights went on again. Back to the garage once again. What they found was a corroded connector running to the fan, located under the rain gutter of the hatch, passenger side. Hmmm, how'd that get corroded?? Two years ago I remember drain the sump where the spare's located of 6 inches of water, how'd that get in there??? My mechanic confirmed he has seen that before in the Prius. So now I am wondering, did the initial battery fail because the fan may have failed??? Perhaps we need a warning light.....
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Im the second owner of a 2008 Toyota Prius (Package II) with 23k miles.
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I started having a problem last week when my 2007 Prius was setting for two days while I was using my pickup truck. Found the 12 volt battery dead so I disconnected it and tested it with a battery load tester. And it showed it was bad. Well Ok, that figures, since it was an OEM battery and ~6-7 years old.
I have another 2007 Prius here for body repairs so I took the aftermarket (newer) battery out of it and topped the charge off in it. The battery load test indicated it was still a serviceable battery.
Put it in the car and cleared the red triangle, etc.. Everything was fine.
Since I was still going to be short one battery, I contacted Battery Systems, my shops battery dealer and ask them to drop off a new Yellow Top Optima that fits the Prius (FYI my shop price is $159.96). I would be a couple days til their deliver truck would be here and again I left the car sit for a couple days and drove my truck. On the day of the delivery, I had an appointment and drove the Prius, about 15 miles. No problem. Left it at in a street parking space for about 2 hours. Came out and all systems were dead. Nothing. Dome light was the only indication that the battery was so low that it was very dim. Head light were off and I hadn't used them while driving.
I called for road service and got a jump start and the systems came up and I was able to clear the Read Triangle when I got home by turning the car off and back on again.
The new Yellow Top Optima arrived shortly there after and I installed it. Drove the car for 6 days and this morning everything was fine when I drove to church and left it, head lites off (never had used them), came out 2 hours later and when I started the car, I got the Red Triangle and Ready but continued home. I turn it off and on again but this time I got no Ready but the Triangle and the whole sting of check light. Could only get it from park into neutral. Nothing else. Wouldn't clear.
Using my Torque Pro program, tried to read the ECU and it indicate no codes stored, Several tries, no codes or history. Called friend who has reader that will read the CAN Bus and he managed to find an odd P0503 code having to do with a speed sensor. Cleared that and the Triangle went out.
In the end I went and checked the voltage of the new battery and it was only 12.01 volts. I put the load tester on it and the condition is fine. Just the charge voltage is low.
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2009 Prius 36,000. Driven at least 30 miles per day. Two months ago, 12 volt battery wouldn’t boot up car. Crazy messages on MFD like “Park on level surface and apply parking brake.” Jump started and drove car to the dealer. No problems found. Three weeks later, same problem. Again, no problems found but dealer replaced the battery. About three weeks later same problem except this time got the friendly Triangle illuminated. Drove to dealer and left car. I have an extended warranty so Im not too worried about any costs. The next morning the triangle was NOT lit and the only error code was low voltage. No interior lights on and current draw is normal when car is parked.
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I recently discovered that the compartment where the 12 volt battery is located had water inside. I checked for leaks none found. I also found a drain plug underneath, to drain the water out. Where might the water be coming from.
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Changed my 12 volt today with a yellow top. After starting car found brake warning light on, is the something that will reset when driving?
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My Prius has 150k miles on it. We didn't drive it for a few days and when we went to turn it on,it wouldn't work. We were able to jump start it a couple of times, however after that we ended up having to replace the battery. We purchased it brand new from toyota. Then, the car wouldn't do a thing (No sounds, no lights, other than the red amber power button and the flashing check engine light, which was not on before.) We ended up having two blown fuses and we replaced them today, one was for the battery.Now the lights are on, but the car still won't start. It will cost over $200 to have the car towed and I am really trying to avoid that right now. I don't know much at ALL about cars. but I'm trying.
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A purchased a new 12 volt battery at the dealer. I was getting weird warning lights, so I had them run diagnostics. They said all the codes were voltage and I needed a new battery. Shortly after this I noticed the Smart Key no longer opened and closed the doors.
The car starts ok.
My question is this, could the changing of the battery have caused this? I tried searching for the answer BUT all answers refereed to adding a new smart key purchased on Ebay.
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So our '06 Prius has been very, very reliable, and we have a bit over 105K miles on it now. But we have a problem that the dealer hasn't been able to confirm, much less fix.
Probably three months ago now I began to notice that, from time to time, when I started the Prius, the master caution light (red triangle) would come on for 2-3 seconds. At no point did it stay on, and at no point did the Prius fail to start. So, it was an intermittent caution light of brief duration.
Then we had a bad storm coming (Sandy) and although it wasn't nearly as bad here (N. VA) as it could have been, I put the Prius in the garage, and it sat there for three days. When I went out to start it, the 12 volt battery was dead.
Fortunately I always back into the garage, and so jump starting the Prius - although it was my first time doing so - was no problem, and I got it to the dealer that morning. They tested the battery, and it was fine. They checked the codes, and all was well. It was as if the battery had never died. AND we stopped seeing the master caution light ... until two days ago, when my wife said that she saw the light a couple of times when she was out running errands.
Is it possible to have a problem with the 12 volt battery and/or electrical system that doesn't show up in the codes? And am I wrong to lose confidence in this very, very reliable car??
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I replaced my hybrid battery of my NHW10 a year ago. now recently it shows the warning triangle. Once it went off after a long drive but now its permanent. is there a way to Diagnose what is the cause of this? If its a Hybrid battery issue, will it go off if i replace the bad cells?
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I have got Prius 2004. I have got a problem. With MFD. It's showing the screen where it should show that the battery is charging but it's not showing the charging at all. Car is running fine and starts as normal. I have changed the 12V battery but it's still not showing the charging.
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Recently we went on trip requiring a 3 hour ferry ride. Decided to keep it in READY to listen to the stereo and maintain a minimal level of heat. I noticed the engine kicking on and no arrows from or to anywhere. The HV battery gauge was mostly down to 2-3 bars but still no arrows. There were times that it kicked on and the arrows showed the batteries being charged too. Was the engine kicking on without charging just to maintain the engine coolant temp to provide heat for the cabin, or what?
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I have an 05 prius with 108k miles that I bought about 3 months ago. I had noticed some times during phase 1 warm up where prius is in park and ice is charging the battery there will be mildly violent jerking of the car.
I was messing around the other morning, after driving the car about 30 minutes then letting it sit for about an hour in 40 degree f weather. I readied the car and it started charging the battery. While still in park i pressed the gas pedal to see what would happen. The mfd showed no arrows which I assume is normal. But when I let off the gas pedal there was a abrupt jerking as the mfd showed power flowing from the ice to the battery again.
Experienced jerkiness while in phase 1? After phase 1 is complete I do not notice any more of this behavior.
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195k miles.... I have charged the battery, I have bought a new battery, I have Charged the new battery... All with no avail.. Slowly but surely one at a time the abs trac control and stability control lights come on and eventually the triangle of death... Meaning when I shut it off its not going to restart.. If i drive it sparingly it might take a week if i drive it all day then it takes one day... when fully charged there is no warning or sign that there is a battery issue or draining untill the voltage is starting to get low. I have an ultra gauge hooked up and shows 14.14 while driving, I am lost as to whats the issue. also no codes or pending codes... I have taken the new battery to auto zone and had a functional test done.. said checked good... signed befuddled
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The MFD on my 2005 prius shows that every time the gas engine kicks in, it trys to charge the batt. even when it doesn't need to be charged. This has been happening for about 2 weeks, and not one time has the gas engine kicked in without showing the arrow going to the electric motor, even when the batt is completely full. I know it's not just a problem with the MFD because my MPG average has clearly gone down since this started.
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I've been noticing that my battery is almost always fully charged or close to it. Then I noticed that when I 'should' be getting assist from the MG2 and not charging the battery, i'm not getting the assist I would assume I should be getting. Seems like most of the energy is getting put back into the battery instead of assisting the MG2
Notice how the arrow is going to the battery from the MG2 (ELECMOTR) and not vice versa. This is majority of the time. Getting less of this also. hince - MPGs are down also.
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The red triangle warning light on our 2004 came on and went away again It has 100k miles If I take it to the dealer can they pull some codes and figure out why it turned on We have to drive the car to 600 miles for the upcoming weekend and I don't want to be stranded on the side of the road The car has 103,000 miles We just replaced the 12v battery so I know that is OK
I also saw the following things to check. Is there anything else we should check?
1 - Are any warning lights on besides the red triangle? For example, the red BRAKE light, the amber ABS and VSC lights, or the amber circular icon?
2 - Did you check the brake fluid level? If low, buy a new container of DOT3 brake fluid and replenish as needed This fluid will dissolve paint, so do not spill it
3 - While you are at it, check the radiator and inverter coolant levels by looking at the translucent reservoirs behind the radiator and next to the inverter If low, fill with Toyota Super Long Life Coolant
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