Prius (2004-09) :: Red Triangle Icon - Car Not Switching To Gas Engine
May 9, 2013
Today, I was driving on the street when I got the dreaded red triangle icon and the word "problem" appeared across the top of the MFD screen. I then noticed the bars on the battery screen kept lowering down to where they became purple when stopped with the transmission in D. The engine would usually start up at this point, but it didn't. I put it in B and gave it a bit of gas to force it to start up. Once I started driving again, the bars went back up, but it has happened two more times (every time the battery depletes to purple).
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2004 Prius, 149,000 miles. Driving on a highway when suddenly it felt like a headwind was bearing down on me, and a minute later, the red triangle of death and all the other lights came on. Did not totally lose power. Pulled to the shoulder and while waiting for the tow truck, started and turned the car off several times.
After the first few times, the red triangle did not light up, but the check engine icon remained on. The tow truck driver had a very difficult time getting the car into neutral to pull onto the flatbed, and then when he took the car off the truck to park it at the dealership, he said it shifted "hard" into drive.
I don't have a code since I don't own a reader. What this might be? I really, really hope it's not the traction battery needing replacement. I have no training to replace single cells.
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I have a 2001 toyota that I was driving yesterday. I parked my car on the side of the road for 2 minutes to find something in the car. Randomly after a minute of being parked the car suddenly flashed the red triangle on the dashboard as well as the check engine light.
Also as well on the main computer screen where the radio stations normally are displayed a Problem alert appeared. It shows the PS icon, the Battery Icon, and the Red Car exclamation icon. Only the Car Exclamation point is red.
As some basic steps I tried (Because I don't know that much about cars) I opened the hood when the engine was off and cold and checked the air vent filter to see if it was clean. I cleaned just in case. I also check the gas cap to see that the cap was closed tightly. Also checked the tires air to see if that could be the case. Oil was looked at by me and I didn't see anything abnormal as well.
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My Toyota prius 2006 get red triangle light appears when I start the engine and it disappears when I drive the car. When I stop the car, it comes back again. The warning light is like in the picture I attached.
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My wife has a '03 that has been great. No issues. I am a excellent mechanic, on conventional cars and motors. Here's my story:
Bought the car used and working last week. Put in a new 12v Group 26 battery w/conversion. I verified the 12v battery was at 12.8v and when engine was running, 13.6v to charge the battery. Car was starting and driving wonderful for about 600 miles. No shuttering, no shaky starts. Mileage was about 38.6. Anyway, yesterday was driving and all of a sudden the warning Triangle comes on, Hybrid system icon comes up and the engine goes off. I was able to drive the car about 1/2 mile on the traction battery back to my work.
It happened to have a code reader handy and it reads a P3125, Inverter. I realize there are sub codes that further diagnose the issue, but I don't have that type of OBDII reader although mine is a very expensive model. Anyway, I reset the code and got the car to start. Motor begins to go up in RPM and throws the code again. I shut it off, reset the code, try to start the car and I feel it slightly jump forward, engine does not start, then throws the warning code again. I did notice the traction battery is at 25%. I do this two more times trying to get the engine to start before I call the tow company. BTW, the car rolled easy, so I don't think its the MG2 is bad, although correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't Mg1 start the engine?
Oh, incidentally, also the ignition key does not release either. The key release solenoid is energized unless I unplug the 12v battery, then I can get my key out.
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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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I have been having some hybrid battery issues. My prius is a 2006 with 198,000 miles. The original battery was replaced at around 120,000 with a junkyard battery. About a year later that battery gave up the ghost and I decided to rebuild that battery. So far that has worked quite well until recently.
My troubles started a couple weeks ago when I got the Red triangle and all the dash lights and the hybrid system icon on the MFD. Naturally I thought it was the battery again. Took it out and checked the voltages of the modules. All the modules where within tolerances. I grabbed a OBDII scanner and checked the code. It was telling me that the Hybrid current sensor was bad. I changed that out with the wiring harness from the old battery.
That lasted for a few days before the red triangle came back. I checked the code and it was indicating one of the blocks was bad. I think P3019. So I took the battery back out and replaced that block with other modules. Almost instantaneously the red triangle came back with two more bad blocks. I think it was P3012 and P3022. So I took the battery out once more and tested all the voltages of all the modules. Everything was 7.86-7.9v. So I decided to start the rebalance of the existing modules in hopes to find some bad modules.
I also bought a new 12v battery and installed that. I got everything back together and took it for a road test. It took about 30 mins before the triangle came back. I grabbed the codes and it was still indicating bad blocks. P3011 and P3018. I am a little at a loss.
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My car Gen.2 was 200K. I change the water pump and thermostat on 150K. The reason to change the parts because I think my car a lot of miles. The car run great no problems. Till last month my car had overheat on freeway at night time. The temperature up to 245 F have the red triangle on dash and thermometer icon on Navigation screen. Before overheat on same day on the daytime when I take off I heard sound water running in the engine. The day after I check the level coolant in the reservoir tank was full but in the radiator need to fill up the coolant. After that when I drove the car the coolant overflow form the reservoir all the time. I have to check and fill up the coolant in the radiator every morning. I been the many shop ask them about the symptom of my car. Some they told me water pump failure, some said thermostat failure open all the time or some told me head gasket leak. I check all the engine didn't see any leak but I saw coolant overflow from reservoir...
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I got red triangle and headlight icon on the screen. I hooked OBD and It gave me error code P1116, I checked all my front, back lights are working fine.
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I have a problem with my car (prius 2004 ) just this morning , my car air con doesn't work without reason, it used to happen the same about half month ago but i just turn off the engine and turn it on many time it work as normal, and now it was happen again. and engine red icon also appear long time ago as well, when i ask technical guy to check it reply the code : PC 172 System too reach (....)
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2006, 2G, 43000K. This has happened twice now. Both times on an extended trip of 3+ hours in hot weather: Cruising along at about 70 MPH, the engine just quits. RED Triangle; check engine light; and vcs light. Turned everything off. Car would not restart right away, but after waiting 15 minutes or so, the car restarts and runs fine. All warning lights off except check engine light.
Immediately drove to a Toyota dealership where the following codes were found: P0AOF info 204 (Engine failed to start); and P3190 (poor engine power). The Tech checked the EFI relay; checked for oil puddled in intake; and checked for a contaminated MAF sensor. "No problems found"!
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I got my oil changed today and thought everything (10 am) was fine with my car. I drove it straight home after the oil change. About 4pm I drove it to work and no problems still. Finally tonight on my way home right as I turned on to my street the car at first seem to hesitate. Slow a bit and I pushed the accelerator. Then suddenly as I pulled in my drive way the engine began to shake as though I was about to stall and the check Engine light came on as well as the big red triangle.
This has happened before. The display being lit up like a christmas tree so but this time the engine shook. I turned the car off, check the oil, which is full and the coolant which is full. The engine has not shook yet ( but I wont leave the car on for a long time to see if it happens again) the Red Triangle has turned off and now only the check engine light remains.
I am going to call Firestone, that is where I got the oil change all I know is that they did a routine check up (unauthorized by me) and told me I needed a new water pump drive belt and tires and a air filter..... So I am hoping they didn't touch something by mistake. I told the man that I would much rather have that done by the dealership.
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This Prius is an '04 with 156k and it will only start with a jump box. I went into the display and found the 12 volt battery reading 12.2 volts after sitting for 4 hours. When driving stop and go around town I will get the red triangle of death and vsc lights but NO check engine light comes on. Using a Scangauge it shows no codes, system ready. I look into pending codes and there is nothing. However when I force clear pending codes the triangle goes away.
It's strange there are no codes associated with this fault. I'm thinking to drive it and not force clear the pending codes and maybe a code will show up eventually but I'm not sure.
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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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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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Bought my daughter a used 05 prius. So far had had to repair the MFD, ac blower, 12v battery.
The engine light, red car light, the triangle light turned on. We replaced the 12v battery since we didn't know if it had ever been replaced. Drive the car for about 5 minutes, then all the red lights reappeared followed by not being able to accelerate. Immediately drove back home. First looked up the acceleration problem and it says to check engine coolant levels.
Low and behold the reservoir was empty. Purchased some, added it and drove around the neighborhood. The acceleration problem gone! Engine lights gone! Just as I am getting home, the dash lights disappear and the engine light only is lit, and red car on MFD. I drove it to our mechanic for error codes. It drove perfectly. As i go to turn off car, it wont turn off. It took another 5 minutes of power button holding, brake release and parking holding. It finally turns off.
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Ok 2007 ran out of gas I think, red triangle. Engine sputtered to end. Put in gas. Wont start. Jump started little battery nothing. Can I jump big battery? Been running well....
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I got into my sc430 2002 tonight and noticed that the little circle with triangle inside, that represents the car on the nav screen is blinking. I could swear that it is usually steady. Need to confirm, it's normally steady or blinking!
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My 2009 Prius is overheating at times. I have a Scan Gauge connected and it normally shows an engine temp of 181-182 f. Rarely approaches 200. At times, it will go as high as 250 which brings on the red triangle and gong sound. If I start out cold (don't shut off the car during the trip), it will run perfectly for the entire time. Doesn't matter what the outside temp or whether running AC.
If I stop for a couple mins and turn off the engine, then restart, it will misbehave and run all over the temp spectrum. I took it on a 1000 mi drive to Seattle in July. On the way there, I didn't notice any problems but it was rainy, cool and didn't run the AC much.
Coming back was a different story. If I let it sit (powered off) for 15-20 mins or so, it will hold the correct temp. It's just when it sits (powered off) for brief periods (less than 10 mins) that it will act up. Another clue is that it cools going up hill and gets hotter going down. That seems contrary to the usual and only does that when acting up.
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When i was driving my 2005 Toyota Prius the Red Triangle, the ((!)) light, the vsc light, and the check engine light came on. I let it sit for sixteen hours without driving it and everything went back to normal. Three days later i was driving and the same lights came on. I let it sit again for sixteen hours without driving and it was still there.
When i was driving i recognized there was a terrible lag, and if i was driving for awhile it took me about one minute to get up to 45 miles an hour. It felt like i was driving in first gear or something.
I also noticed if i had the Heating and air conditioning off that hot air would pump from my back right, which is the seat behind the passenger, that vent was blasting out hot air.
I took it in to toyota and they said the water pump was bad So they replaced it, after replacing it more codes came up and one of them told them to replace the Hybrid Battery Pack which is 3,419 dollars.
I Drove it out of there today thinking that some of the problem was fixed with the lagging of the acceleration and the heating coming from the vents but it was not. I was reading online and everything pointed to the inverter pump where the engine is not being properly cooled, which would explain the excessive heat and the lagging. They claim it still is the battery, but i was watching the battery on the dashboard navigation system and it seems to be driving and recharging fine.
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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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