Prius (2004-09) :: Red Triangle Warning Indicator On When Driving On Highway
Nov 7, 2012
I was on the highway yesterday when the red triangle went off and the screen said Problem. I babied my 2008 Prius to the dealer. They said the 12v battery was bad. I should have just gotten the yellow top in last week like I wanted but oh well. Here is the problem, today it did it again. It first happened at 70 mph but today it did it first at 15 mph then pretty much stayed on until I did not accelerate for a while. No noticeable performance issues, just the warning indicator. I did notice the noises after shutdown are sounding different than before last week. I also put a code reader on it both without running and on a test drive and no codes showed. What is going on?
More info: Just hit 100,250 miles. Purchased on March 17, 2008. Went in last week before the 100,000 miles for a check up and ended up with $1,000 for a coolant pump (both now, other coolant pump was replaced within the last 6 months). Also got: break fluid, belt, break alignment, oil change, tires (this I was expecting hardly passed state inspection in March), possibly something else.
I have been doing the oil changes since 15,000 miles, filters, pcv (or pvc whichever), all normal items. Problem free until I have them do a check now issues. So to recap non normal items done: blower motor in 2009, radio replacement in 2008, coolant pump in Mayish, other coolant pump and 12 v battery last week. Read more : [URL] ....
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I just changed my inverter coolant pump which is running perfectly well. However in recent times, whenever I'm on the highway with ac on or there is a sudden brake, the red triangle light pops up. Checks on the inverter pump show that as far that is concerned everything is working. I'm really getting worried over this.
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Background: 2004 Phaeton, 38k miles, no major/minor mechanical issues -- until now. Issue is this. The drain lines in the trunk area of the car became clogged one dark and dreary night. Water overflowed -- somehow -- onto the starter circuits.
Whilst driving to the office the "IGNITION LOCK WARNING" indicator came on. When I arrived at the office and shut off the engine, the car became completely immobilized (imagine several hisses and four distinct thunks) and the key became stuck in the ignition.
The ignition circuit was replaced and drains cleaned out with 'nipples' removed to ensure no more blockages. HOWEVER, I have now been told the starter is bad.
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So I have come into ownership of a 2003 Prius and now I'm having issues with the power steering. I contacted Toyota and they told me the recal for the pinions was completed in 2012. Now own in the car I've noticed the steering wheel will start to violently shake and just last week while driving I got the warning triangle and the PS symbol and I lost all power steering. All this happened while driving on a highway. Toyota wanted to charge me 150 to diagnose the problem which I declined and took it to my well trusted mechanic. He told me the rac needs to replace. I've done a lot of research on this problem and have found many people complaining that even after having the recall done, they still had a problem and also were told the rac needs to be replaced.
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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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I took my car to the dealership because it had the red Triangle ! wanrnning on the dash and the red car ! warning on the display panel. They told me the code was P0A82 "hybrid battery pack cooling fan 1 performance / Stuck off" but it was actually working at the time the mechanic looked at it.
He said it would probably need to be replaced anyways so they wanted to replace it. I told them I would wait, so they cleared the code for me. I read a lot of posts of people having the same problem and they fixed it by cleaning the fan. My fan was a little dirty, but not bad at all. Is there a quick way to see if the cleaning fixed the problem?
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This morning I went out to warm my car up for a few minutes because it has been so cold and when I started it the red triangle warning light stayed on and the consumption screen said "problem" across the top with a little icon in the upper left hand corner that looked similar to a high beam headlight indicator. I turned the car off and started it again wondering if it would clear which it did not. I left it running and went inside to get my child and by the time I came out it had cleared itself.
In typing this I recall that I thought it stayed on a little longer than normal the other day and just ignored it thinking it was still in lamp test mode on initial start up.
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I have a 2006 Prius with 186,000 miles. The engine developed a knock. I swaped the engine with one from a junk yard. The swap went well. I reconnected the HV battery and the 12v battery. When I tried to start the car I recieve the red triangle with many other dash displays and (!) over the car in the upper left corner of the system screen. I checked for codes with a code scanner, all I can see is $7ea and $7eb. When I clear them the (!) disapears for about 5 seconds and the word problem displays and then tha(!) comes back. The 12v battery reads 12.4 volts.
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About a month ago my 2009 Prius - 35500 miles - started acting up intermittently. When I first start the car I am getting a red warning triangle for just a few seconds and I feel/hear a soft thump under my foot that is on the brake pedal, there is a few second pause - the warning light goes away and the car starts just fine. This does not usually recur until the car has shut off for a few hours or so. I have had the car to my Toyota dealer twice and they could not reproduce the warning light even after it had been sitting all nite. That was about a month ago - and the problem has been very intermittent. Then yesterday we had a pretty cool morning and when I started the car I got the red warning triangle and a Warning on my screen -- something to the effect that "There is a Park and Transmission Lock" - I turned the car off and started again almost immediately - no warning triangle - no warning message. It happened again once this morning.
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Last night I was driving my 2005 Prius in a light rain. I had only been driving for about 5 minutes or so on the freeway. The check engine light and the big red triangle came on. It was a couple of miles before I could get off the freeway, and by the time I could get to the exit ramp, the car at times was starting to race the ice. It was beginning to feel like it was slipping the "transmission" and I felt fortunate to get it off the road. I coasted into a convenience store and parked it. My scan gauge showed me a code of POA3F. I have discovered that this is the Drive Motor 'A' position sensor circuit. What does this all mean? Is this going to be an expensive fix? After letting the car set for a while and a few phone calls later, I attempted to start and put the car in gear. It would only let me put it in neutral. Is there any chance at all that my problem could be less than major?
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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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In my one-owner purchased-new 2005 Prius w/ 74K miles and w/ no maintenance/accident history other than doing all scheduled maintenances at Toyota Dealers along w/ recalls applicable at each time (other than we had Toyota replace the 12V battery last year just because I knew it would die at some point anyway and I don't like pushing my luck; I'm not 100% certain if there's been a recall on any water pump for this car and if so, don't believe the dealer has mentioned it), I have the following indicators which appeared all at once while I was driving along at around 45 MPH in no unusual circumstances (80F, dry afternoon, about 30 minutes into a trip of mixed speeds, no loads in the vehicle, no effect on the car while driving):
From Left to Right on the display:
1) Red Triangle - Master Warning Light
2) Orange (Symbol)CHECK - Malfunction Indicator Lamp
3) Orange (!) - Brake Warning Light (but it didn't highlight the word 'Brake' in red)
4) Orange VSC - Vehicle Stability Control Warning Light
On the Screen:
Orange Car w/ the ! symbol - Hybrid System Warning Light
We immediately aimed for the house (about 5 miles away); the car drove perfectly fine, with the engine stopping and starting at lights as needed, with speeds going from the 55MPH we were traveling at the time of the alarms down to 0 and back up thru 35/45 MPH and such per normal off-interstate driving. The battery currently shows all the blue bars, and the engine and hybrid systems showed charge/discharge as usual as we drove. There was no discernible change in the driving reaction of the car to brake, steering, accelerator, etc.
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I have a 2005 Prius with 107K miles which I had taken off the road for about 2 months. Car ran fine previously. I just replaced the old 12v Battery with a new Optima replacement battery, changed the oil and filter, and have 1/3 tank of gas. Inserted the key into the slot, foot on brake, pressed the Power button, and, just about every warning indicator light is On (Brake, Red Triangle, Check Engine, (!), ABS, VSC, Traction Control) and the yellow exclamation mark with "Problem" message appears for a second on the Display, then a Red Car (!) appears in the upper left-hand corner of the display. Car will Not go into Drive or Reverse, and engine will not run, even when gas pedal depressed. Am I doing something wrong, or did I let the car sit too long?
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I bought a 2006 Prius. A few days ago the car was driving along just fine when the red triangle appeared together with the 'problem' message followed by the red oil warning displaying in the top left corner of the screen. A few seconds later, the yellow engine light lit up and I drove the remaining mile or so back home (very slowly and carefully). I should point out that the car didn't drive any differently after these warnings appeared and I haven't noticed any strange sounds or anything like that.
I've been out to the car on a few occasions since. It goes into ready mode just fine and drives perfectly in EV mode. The triangle and oil warning reappear shortly after the engine cuts in every time it's started. The hybrid battery charges and discharges on the display when it's left at idle as normal. A friend of mine has a cheap and cheerful diagnostic machine that he brought over and that pulled the P0340 code which relates to the camshaft position sensor. That sensor has been replaced for a brand new one and the fault codes cleared but the code is still showing.
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I was driving last night and my car Triangle Warning Light and Check Engine Light Went on along with on the nav screen a car with a ! mark in it came on. On The info screen the battery level was changing fast from fully charged to just about empty. The car lost almost all power going about 42 miles an hour. I was able to pull to the side and i waited 10 minutes then tried to turn the car on again. I was able to drive home and the warning lights were still on but at least my car had power. What could possible be wrong?
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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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I have a 2007 prius. I was driving home all a sudden I get a big red triangle warning and the engine logo came on. On the display screen its show a logo of the car at the corner in red with exclamation mark. I use the car obdII scanner but no error code came up. I decide to check the engine oil. When I remove the cap, I notice inside the engine it look weird like a gold color and some blackish. The engine cap inside look like it have stains on it too. The hole where you pour the motor oil down I notice that piece inside don't go down for the funnel to stick in. I attach some pictures. I have no clue what's wrong with it and I don't wanna drive it to make it worse. The prius only have 90k miles on it.
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My 2005 Prius has about 141000 miles on it. The red triangle exclamation point comes on the dash and a yellow exclamation comes on the LCD 1st and then a 2nd yellow symbol comes on the LCD. The problem happens once or twice a day. It seems to start, run, and drive just fine. I do restore antique tractors and I am pretty good with computers and I have some pretty good mechanical know how. Attached are pictures of the lights.
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We're on a road trip and the alarm tone goes off. The dash displays the brake warning and the red triangle (and the touchscreen has a car outline with an ! in the upper left). Also, the cruise control no longer operates. We return to El Paso and the dealer utilizes several hours and two diagnostics to tell us the Hybrid ECU needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, they can't get our Prius back to us until Monday, the day we are supposed to be back home starting work the next day.
We plan to call the other dealership in town in the morning. But is it safe to drive our Prius in this state? Can a regular garage make the repair? My father-in-law, an automotive repair professional back in Missouri, says that he isn't surprised if an ECU needs to be shipped from a Toyota distribution center since the part isn't regularly kept in stock by an auto repair shop.
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Yesterday I parked on a very slight slope (the front sat maybe 1 half to 1 foot higher than the rear) for a few hours. It was the end of my carport. When returned to move it forward and park, it was dead. So I put a charger on it and got it started but then the red triangle warning light was on saying that there was a problem with the parking system.
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I have an 06 Prius with about 170k miles. The hybrid battery was replaced shortly before I bought the car last year.
About a month ago, the red triangle warning light started coming on when I'm stopped. It usually stays on for a few seconds once I start moving again. The MFD just says "Problem" for a few seconds, then displays the icon for a headlight. Once the light clears, the MFD goes back to its normal display. Originally, it was lighting up once every other day or so, but now it's lighting two or three times per trip. I'm going to have to do something about it, but I'm trying to get my head around what to expect.
My understanding is that the red triangle could mean anything from "The door is open and you're moving. Please close it." to "Your car is about to melt down! Seek cover!". I have an Automatic OBD dongle, and it's not reading any diagnostic codes. But as I understand it, there's a whole different set of diagnostic codes that a "regular" OBD reader won't catch.
I keep seeing reference to ScanGauge devices -- do they read the second set of diagnostic codes? I talked to a mechanic in the area who will read the codes for about $100. Is the mechanic likely to be reading the codes with that tool/is that what a dealer would use to read the codes? Is the dealer likely to charge to read the codes?
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