Prius (2004-09) :: Won't Start - Red Triangle Message
Feb 5, 2014
I purchased a 2009 Prius last year in the US and then got stationed in the UK. I had my car shipped Aug/Sept 2013 to the UK. Up until now the car has run great with no problems. Three weeks ago a red triangle with the message "there is a problem with the transmission "p" lock mechanism. Park your car on a flat surface and fully apply the parking break" appeared.
A week later the car wouldn't start. After reading several forums and posts I checked the battery and it was indeed low. It looked like the original battery and was reading 9.3V. I had the car jumped, drove to the local Toyota dealership, and bought a new battery. After installing the new battery the car ran fine with no issues.
Five days ago (Friday) the car wouldn't start in the morning, but all of the lights worked. Then about 3 hours later the car stared and ran fine all day.
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When I tried to start my 2006 Prius ,it wouldn't start and this message appears with the red triangle "there is a problem with the transmission "p" lock mechanism. Park your car on a flat surface and fully apply the parking brake.
It is at a parking lot now because I couldn't start it!
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I went to the dealership today with my '05 displaying a master light ( big red triangle) and "problem " posted on the screen with the green "hybrid system problem" box displaying.
The Prius guy had the car plugged into the computer for over 3 hours. It spat out a page and a half of codes, and then after a time distilled the codes to 4 things: a bad hybrid fan motor, the relay, a blower motor controller, and a bad aux battery. The problem is I replaced the aux battery a year ago. So it makes me doubt the entire diagnosis.
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Twice this week I have received the Yellow Triangle alarm with the message Key Battery Low. This is the first time I have seen this alarm since I bought the car in August 2009.
I changed the battery the first time after 3 years based on recommendations from the forum. This time the batteries lasted just over 2 years.
I tested the batteries on both Key Fobs and they were both in the 2.9V range. The new batteries tested at 3.3V which is their rating. So ~2.9V must be the low alarm setpoint.
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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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The car is a 2005 Prius II hatchback @ 70,000 miles. I like my local garage and they have a good reputation but bad things keep happening. I'm ready to lose my temper but I don't want to. Here's the summary:
3 weeks ago - Started getting the red triangle of death. Had trouble starting. Finally, the car would start, but only go into park or neutral. Towed to garage. Garage put in a new 12 V battery. The car drove away from the garage nicely.
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Recently, my Prius hasn't been getting much use, so the 12v battery drained. The car worked ok after I gave it a jump. But, because I don't drive the car very much, the battery drained again, maybe completely.
When I jumped it again, the car ran ok, but the red triangle is displayed, along with the check engine light on the dash, and a red car icon on the MFD. The car drives, but the lights are on.
Before replacing the battery, should I take any steps?
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Today after running several errands, I stopped by the local CarWash to rinse the car. Same as always, parking brake off, shift into neutral and away we go. Half way threw she starts beeping, I see the yellow triangle and to the right a boxed message "LOW TRACTION BATTERY SHIFT INTO P POSITION". There was a sudden rush of anxiety because I could not shift while being conveyor-ed threw the wash. As soon as I was pushed out and the light turned green, I shifted into drive to exit. The warning and box cleared instantly.
I pulled into parking, shifted into P, and noticed the battery indicator had only 1 bar. Did a quick walk around of the car and got back on the road thinking, head directly the Dealership. Before I got to the freeway I was back up 4 bars and climbing. Continued on the freeway and within 2 exits all looked normal. As it is Saturday and the Dealership was 1 hour from closing, I proceeded home. Later we went to dinner and an event, then came home. All is still normal. Owners Manual only states to follow the command on page 515.
I know this is a long story and was intentional to starve off multiple questions. The only thing I can think is that the air conditioner, radio and headlights were on prior to, while waiting my turn for wash (park-roll-park-roll...) and up to the point of the warning (tuned off all at that point) while in the tunnel. However this is normal for me. Will monitor the battery indicator more closely for a while. I'm sure this event latched in a computer somewhere, so will run by the Dealer if anything else acts up again. A/C and radio and lights are turned off now while in "neutral", for whatever reason. The car is a 2010 II and only 27600 miles. Was not a pleasant feeling.
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We are having an intermittent issue with car starting up and immediately throwing a CEL, red triangle and going into limp mode. Shutting off the car and restarting it sometimes resolves the issue. I'd love to be able to pull the logs from the car to see what is causing this issue.
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So let's start with this. A week ago my dad went to start his car after going to the store. I wasn't there so can't say exactly what happened but when I got there the car would basically go into accessory mode with check engine light VSC and triangle on. Also displayed problem on the screen. I checked 12v battery with just the radio on (one button press with foot off brake) and it only showed 12.0 volts. So I hooked our jump box directly to the battery and it still wouldn't start. I scanned it for error codes and it showed nothing but I could erase them and the lights went off so probably codes from one of the hybrid computers I can't read but the car still wouldn't ready. I unhooked the 12v for about 30 second seconds and the car started fine without the jump box hooked up.
At this point I don't have any codes and with nothing to go off of I'm at a loss. We drive it 8 miles back to our shop and it drove normally with no errors. Once it was back in the shop after turning the car on and off 10 times or so still no errors. On the last time it was in ready mode and the errors came back on, still with no codes I could read. His 12v optima was still under warranty so we got it exchanged for free even though I was reluctant that it would fix the issue. Well a week went by and all seemed to be fine until yesterday.
My dad had left the car in ready mode for probably 20 minutes and when he got back in it all the lights were on. I will also add that the battery fan was operating normally and not screaming like if there was a traction battery issue. I changed one of the modules in his traction battery about 6 months ago when one failed. Without any codes I don't know where to start with this problem. 2005 with 170k miles....
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Is this a bug? I hit the start button, everything comes on, put on my seatbelt, etc... then I shift into reverse (out of park) and it says I must start in park. But it's already started. I then have to hit the start button to turn everything off, then hit it again to turn anything on. How to avoid this?
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My 2001 won't start. When the key is turned, the system starts up and the hybrid system initializes, there are 3 clicks in the dash, and the check engine light stays on, without the engine even turning over. I had a mechanic look at it cursorily and he said it looks like the hybrid system is fine, the signal to start the engine isn't resulting in the engine starting. He said it was probably the starter or a fuse to the starter, but the gen 1 Prius doesn't have a starter, so I don't know that I can trust his diagnosis.
The 12v battery is brand new (3 months old) and is an aftermarket deep cycle battery. Also, it has been very cold here. The triangle of death doesn't appear, so I am hoping that it isn't something in the hybrid system. It did this off and on before it stopped starting at all. I was also getting the turtle intermittently when it was giving me occasional problems. Turning the car off and on a couple times usually made this go away. The car has 154k on it. I am thinking it might be the ignition starter switch, but I'm not sure.
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I'm getting the triangle &a red power light and the word "problem" on the display. No codes show up. Car won't start anymore. I went to check mode pushing the display and lights on off 3 times to check the battery.
I was able to turn it on once (after disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it) and the 12 v read 14.7
In diagnosed mode and no load It reads 12.3. It reads 11.8 under load (pushing power bottom again but engine still off).
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This morning I pressed Start and all I got was the Red Triangle. This has happened a few times in the last month, but it always started up right after that. Today nothing. Well, a couple other attempts got some of the display to come up, but really nothing. The doors, including the trunk, won't unlock.
Since it has over 119K miles I think it might be the Aux battery, but it ain't easy to get to as I have to enter the trunk via the passenger compartment.
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I have a 2004 Prius, the Red triangle came on intermittently and went off so I changed the 12V battery last night, after changing it the red warning light went off and everything seemed okay. Today while driving, the warning light came back on. I checked the battery voltage via diagnostic mode on the cars computer and the specs are what they should be. I noticed the following error codes in the computer:
01-D5, Sub-code: 190-30-8
01-DC, Sub-code: 190-B7-8
01-DC, Sub-code: 1C6-4D-F
Not sure if these are what is causing the problem.
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I tried installing a backup camera today. big mistake. When I start the car the yellow triangle shows up. and warning says check hybrid system. I try and put the car in reverse and I hear a snap, it slips to neutral and a warning appears that says put into P position. The only wire I tapped into was the red reverse light camera. I even tried undoing the install and I get the same messages.
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I have a 2001 Prius with 204K miles. On cold mornings when I start the car first time, within a minute it shuts down with red triangle flashing. After resetting it, car works fine all day without any problem.
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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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My 2007 proud of 180k miles which hasn't had any issues up until now just randomly gave me this error, where the red triangle of death, vsc, and tire pressure ((!)) Sign came on. It drives fine and there is no check engine light.
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My 2006 has about 67,000 miles on it. The other day it began to behave in a very strange way. I had the triangle show up and it just would not go away. I checked all the fluids and they were good. I did notice that there was a new icon I had never seen before. It looked like it was an curved device with a thermometer attached. When I looked it up the suggestion was to go to Toyota right away. So I decided to drive over. As I drove I could hear the fan from the back seat coming on. It was going very fast, so I guessed that the traction battery was overheating. The car would barely drive, no power. Even when I floored it there was very little acceleration.
I got it to the dealer and they gave me a loaner because it the car was recalled due to the accelerator pedal. Later in the day I got a call saying that a couple of ECUs needed to be replaced. The next day I got a call saying the traction battery was bad and would be replaced under the long term warranty. They said I also needed an aux battery. I knew my battery was not charging up to better than 10 1/2 volts dc. They said it would cost $300 installed, so I said I would get back to them.
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Gen III, 2010 Prius III ... There is a flashing yellow triangle, dashboard lights up, but won't start. The dome lights won't turn off, in any position.
Drove it last night and drive it regularly, daily. I came out to the driver side door being not fully closed. What's going on?
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