Anybody speak challenge priced Prius?

The story goes a lady took it to a mechanic friend who couldn't get it running, it was sold at a charity auction to a friend of my fathers, who never messed with it, and for the sum of 450 bucks I have an interesting challenge.   Just had to push an MG C and a Europa out of the way to get it on the trailer....

2007 Prius

It won't go into ready mode..   With the brake pedal firmly pressed and the power button pushed to start the squares around the shift indicator start flashing along with the fuel indicator.   Nothing else happens.   It won't go into neutral...   nothing.     all the radio/ climate controls windows and other stuff seems to work as expected.

It also doesn't seem like it powers off correctly.   the green light on the power button seems to stay lit.

12V battery checks out good. 12.6v  both at battery and fuse block under the hood.  Battery is dated June 2018...   Assuming it was replaced as an attempted solution.

Inverter pump seems to be humming along just fine.

Someone had taken everything apart to access the Hybrid battery...   so I pulled it and took it apart.   All 28 cells measure b/t 7.29 and 7.48 volts with the vast majority hitting 7.38v.  The cooper in the buss bars was a bit of a mess, so cleaning that is in process..

Once that is cleaned up and reassembled the plan is to reinstall and check for codes...   (assuming it doesn't spring to life) then do a master reset...  and again try starting and check again for codes...

Anyone speak prius have good/better plan for troubling shooting one of these things?

I speak the Prius... 

Start with the $5 Android app as detailed in the middle of this page. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/today-i-bought-a-used-prius/123642/page5/

Look for this posting with images like this. 

To make things easier, you should probably sell me the Europa. 

In reply to ronholm :

You posted a picture but that picture is not coming up on any device for me.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Its just a green Prius.  Looks just like yours. Other than a couple scratches on the drivers side and curb rash on wheels a clean car.

Thanks for the tip on torque.  I had no idea one could import displays.  Have you messed around with the cheap versions of techstream? It must be just knocked off software but people seem to be having pretty good luck with it?

Europa is not mine and clearly had pretty serious drivers door problem it is pretty rough car but I can ask about it even get some pictures next week if you wanted.  I'm sure it was for sale.  

Woody said:

To make things easier, you should probably sell me the Europa. 

I’m not sure you’d fit in a Europa. Have you ever tried one on?

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I dunno about Woody, but I am 6'5" and would have to do some work to daily drive one..  

In reply to ronholm :

I was naot familiar with TechStream.  I'll have to look into that further.  

Did you load test the battery? Both my leaf and my wife’s volt exhibited very strange symptoms like that when the 12v batteries failed. 

Do you have a second car battery available? Any car battery. 

With Jumper cables hook up a second battery to the Prius battery. Now trying running the car. You can even drive the car with the jumpers hooked up. 

Also, with that second battery attached, try clearing codes. Even if no codes are showing, try clearing codes. That attempt to clear seems to reset the ecu. 

Pete Gossett said:

Woody said:

To make things easier, you should probably sell me the Europa. 

I’m not sure you’d fit in a Europa. Have you ever tried one on?

Just once, back in 1989.

I got inside back then, but it wasn't graceful. I think I was more concerned about the width of the pedal box than ease of entry though. It seemed like it would be hard to push the accellerator without pushing on the brakes too. I figured that you would have to drive it without shoes.

That car had been rolled at Lime Rock. It needed paint on the roof and a rear window, but I still regret not buying it.

I remember the guy who was selling it saying, "If you're gonna own a Lotus, you have to be ready to spend a lot of money to keep it running."

In reply to John Welsh :

And every troubleshooting thread I've seen they said check that 12 volt battery.  I've hooked it to a trickle charger and it all seems to check out but I'll hook it to another good 12 volt battery and give that a try this afternoon.

My dad is an auto body Tech for a large Toyota dealership so I'm going to see if I can't get access to the TIS site to download service manuals.  I understand by jumping a couple of pins on the OBD2 port one can send the car into some diagnostic mode which will flash various lights to test all of the computers in the car.  

I couldn't get my Bluetooth OBD2 dongle to connect to the vehicle computer late last night... but I didn't have time to test for voltage at the OBD2 port to make sure that it wasn't just something with my dongle that was messing up.

I also saw a procedure which was supposed to be a master reset which involved pushing the button for the valet key and then holding the power button for 30 seconds..  following those directions didn't net anything obviously happening.  

Techstream is Toyota's software and apparently it's been very well hacked and cheap cables exist Which seem to allow people to have full diagnostic capability,  as well as feature options,  and nearly all dealer programming functions.  The downside is that hacked versions only seem to work on 32 bit Windows systems which requires some computer literacy to make work properly.   I may be able to get access to an authentic version of techstream but the problem I'm having as I'm not sure it will work with a cheap cable the approved cable I see is something like five hundred bucks instead of $27.  Maybe if I can find a used one I can just resell it..  

In reply to Woody :

Apparently a lot of people struggle getting in and out of europa's gracefully..  this one had the driver's door pretty much torn off,  It seems this was a common problem because it's the easiest thing to grab and wasn't designed for it.

I think a scanner will get you there on this one. I'm suspecting a transmission range sensor / position sensor problem. If you're waiting for scanner stuff to show up try fiddling with the physical linkage going into the trans and see what happens. The Prius will put it self in park when you turn it off but it probably won't turn completely off if it cant get to park. 

Aside from the issue at hand here, from what I've read (I've been studying Prius' extensively lately) you're on a good path with cleaning the bus bars on the battery. Apparently a whole lot of problems get solved simply by doing that, and replacing the nuts that hold them in place. 

Apparently the taxi companies have these figured out, because I got a ride from LAX in one that had 465,000 on it.  It was on at least the second home-brewed reupholster job, which was looking pretty shabby again.  

Maybe there's a taxi-garage forum out there somewhere?  "Prius" may be the common language that unites all of the Eastern European cultures in the cabbie world.

In reply to Vigo :

it seems to turn all the way off if i put the key in the slot, but with it just in the car the power light seems to stay lit green.

To be honest until your post I had not given the Park button a thought.   I haven't seen it light up or do anything even when pressing on it.

Try a new battery in the fob.  Google search to see how it comes apart

Pete Gossett said:

Woody said:

To make things easier, you should probably sell me the Europa. 

I’m not sure you’d fit in a Europa. Have you ever tried one on?

Has to take of his hat, and boots don’t work well in the pedal box

Perhaps donating some body parts that you don't need, after a few lopped  off, you just might fit in the Europa 

A neighbor of mine picked up a salveage Prius, and grafted a morris minor convertible onto it.  Not to a high spec, but pretty damned cool.

In reply to John Welsh :

John, I was behind this one today & thought of you. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

HA!   The lady already told me i couldn't slap a "REDNECK" sticker on the windshield and devise a method to make it "roll coal".

chandler said:

Pete Gossett said:

Woody said:

To make things easier, you should probably sell me the Europa. 

I’m not sure you’d fit in a Europa. Have you ever tried one on?

Has to take of his hat, and boots don’t work well in the pedal box

Especially when there's a snake in his boot.

Thanks Pete. Ha. 

I appreciate the subtle visual humor from this local CL ad