Prius (Gen 2) :: Red Warning Triangle Appearing Intermittently
May 20, 2010
Just this week the red warning triangle is appearing intermittently. I live over 200 miles from a dealer or Toyota certified shop- Light seems to come on only when I push the brakes moderately hard and is on for just a second then disappears- beeps when it comes on, too. I called the Toyota dealer and their answer is to "just bring it in"-- not able to "just bring it in" as it's again, 200+ miles away. One of the service reps said it might be low brake fluid- but the actual service tech said it was a failing ECU most probably - seems to be driving fine- should I be panicking about now?
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I have a 2003 with ~230,000 miles on it. We are the 4th owners, and have owned it for 7 years / 120,000 miles.
7 months ago, in December, I experienced my first red triangle of death. It happened on a warm start, but drove fine. Took it to O'Riley, they used an Innova 3120 to check the codes, and these are the 3 that came back (P1455, P0420, P3191). After starting the car the 4th time, the warnings went away, and all seemed well. It happened again about 3 months ago while on the highway, and again went away after 4 starts. At the time I was not too terribly worried about emissions codes, we live in an area that doesn't require testing, but the 3191 was the more ominous one.
The red triangle came on again two days ago, about 5 minutes after a cold start, and again today, about 5 minutes after a warm start. I do not know what the current codes are, but I will be taking it to a store tomorrow to get them checked. I had an oil change 4 days ago. I checked the intake manifold for any sign of liquid (I saw several posts in RE to the 3191 of that being a possibility), and it is as clean as our '05s. I checked my service history, and didn't have anything done the first two times this happened.
If the same codes persist, I'm assuming the problems could be cheap to almost what the car is worth (~$2,500).
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ESC Off & Brake Light keep appearing intermittently. When I turn the car off and then back on, they go off. This has happened about 5 or 6 times in the last week.
I want to take it to the dealer but I just know I'll get a, "cannot duplicate problem" from them because it doesn't happen all the time. I'm going on a trip in two weeks and I don't want to run into problems on the road.
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I have a 2007 Prius with 107k miles. Last July it had a minor drivers side front end collision. Last November it had the hybrid battery replaced. I believe all this is unrelated just putting it out there for information.
I am currently having the red triangle pop up intermittently. When it does a "problem" message will display on the MFD. This seems to occur most often after a long downhill or when the Energy display is showing the hybrid battery is nearly full.
The hybrid battery seems to be functioning normal and the car is driving normal and has expected fuel economy. I do have a headlight that cuts out occasionally but no other noticeable electrical problems. I do not have a diagnostic device to get the codes.
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It is a fairly new vehicle, Touareg SN 42xxx. It has two problems, which might be inter-related, both of which have defied all the repair attempts of a very competent and concerned dealership.
First problem: The warning message "Headlight Range Control" keeps on appearing. Much work has been done to try and fix this: Alignment of lights checked, suspension level sensors checked, vehicle inspected for damaged wires, etc. Later on in the process, both headlight assemblies and the instrument cluster were replaced. The message still appears.
Second problem: This is really minor, I only mention it because it might be related to the first problem. The instrument cluster trip computer (MFA) will not store accumulated mileage over a series of trips. In other words, if the car is stopped and started a few times, the trip computer will zero out.
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Yes, they are all on. I have the red triangle, the check engine, the brake, and the vsc lights on. I put in a new high voltage battery this past summer so what now?
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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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A 2001 Prius is getting a warning triangle. No check engine light, and with my OBDII scanner, it shows there are no codes. I can erase and the triangle goes out, but it comes back on eventually. It seems only if the car is driven a long time/distance it comes on, indicating some heat issue perhaps.
The 12v battery is good, the radiator coolant is good, the inverter coolant is good and flowing. The washer fluid hose is broken, could THAT give the death triangle? There must be a way to have the cars display whats wrong with the fancy software and touch screen?
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The last few weeks I've been noticing that, upon start, the hybrid battery is showing at 1 line. It's been really hot in SO cal and the air con has been blasting, so I've been letting it charge up a bit before driving. Once I'm on the road, the battery charges fine and seems to hold a charge.
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This morning i picked up my friend from her house and got into my Prius to start driving away, immediately after entering ready mode it beeped, the red triangle came one, the MFD said something like 'problem' or 'error', I don't remember the exact word and then two symbols came up. I turned the car on and off again and it was all still there. I drove anyway for about a mile to my other friends house where i turned the car on and off again and everything went away. The whole time the car felt fine, there was nothing wrong with it yet it had the triangle/symbols on the MFD.
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I am lucky my SO (more on that in FHOP) had the diagnostic tool to see why my Prius woke up with a headache as I was starting my day. Displaying the orange triangle, telling me to park and then telling me to shift to park... Yet I parked her in the garage the night before. I should have had a pen at the ready as I did not get the three codes that came up (they are stored on my SO's work computer now). Two were about some miscommunication - one having to do with navigation; the third was a malfunction with the USB port... I have had a few issues with connecting my iPad to the USB port.
I am getting close to 10K as well. Very fortunate to have a Prius doc in my world!
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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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My car (2006 Prius with 250k miles) was operating normally all day today. Still getting very good mileage around 52 mpg on average. Then abruptly, the big red triangle and few other yellow warning lights (check engine, VSC, and an indicator with exclamation mark in the middle) showed up while the car was moving around 20 mph.
Now, the car does not have much power and it was very difficult to speed up or going uphill. Turned the engine off and then back on. The symptoms still persist. The battery indicator was at only 1 bar. Let the engine run for a while and the battery indicator went to 3 or 4 bars. Turned the car off and then back on, the battery indicator went back to 1 bar immediately. Also the battery fan was running at high speed, even through I have just started driving for about 5 minutes.
Will do the following tomorrow:
(1) check 12v battery,
(2) use Torque SW to see if HV battery has proper values, and
(3) read diagnostic codes.
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2001 with about 117,000. Just had it in to get the transaxle fluid replaced for preventative measure. Now I'm getting an intermittent triangle/exclamation warning. It seems to go off if I let it sit, mostly. Runs ok for the most part. But when that comes on, it practically limps on very little power.
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I have a 2001 Prius with 150k on it. It has been giving me the triangle warning light and the car ! warning light. I can start the car and drive it, but sometimes when I press the accelerator the gas engine just dies and will not kick back in, unless I stop, turn off the car and restart it. (Issue seems to occur more in hot weather, could be a coincidence) When I start it the engine will run rough and shutter for less than a min, and then run normally.
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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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I'm not sure if this is a general FWD car problem or a Prius problem but a week ago I noticed a loud, and reasonably pure, tone that seems to be coming from the front of my '05 Prius at highway speed I don't believe it is tire, alignment, or road noise The car knows that something is wrong because it occationally throws some error lights but refuses to reveal the specific code My current thought is drive shaft, axle, CV joint, or similar but I don't know if that can turn on the error lights Any thoughts? Could I have two independent issues?
The car has 157k miles and was in two minor accidents before I got it One required a rear bumper replacement, the other they had to pop out a dent from the front driver's side quarter panel The records do not indicate that any other parts were damaged I have owned the car for 25k miles
Error lights: A few days after the noise started and 30 minutes into my morning commute while driving at highway speed up a hill (20kW from the ICE) I got the big red triangle of doom, ((!)), VSC, and the mark on the red car on the MFD. Aside from the lights the car appeared to drive normally I checked the voltage on the MFD less than a minute after the lights came on and it showed 14.1V The MIL light was not lit, and the Torque app on my android was not able to pull a DTC but was able to clear the error and consequently turn off the warning lights
The next day the same warning lights popped up again and at the end of the commute I used a paperclip to connect pin 4 and 13 on the OBD port in an attempt to read the code When I turned the car on with the two pins shorted the red triangle lit but the ABS, ((!)), and VSC lights all blinked at 2 Hz indicating their systems were normal After turning the car on and off four times the red triangle went away
The error lights have now popped up four times, each time after more than 30 minutes of driving I have also had several trips longer than an hour where the lights did not come on
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