2005 Prius Dashboard Christmas tree

Approx. 15 months ago my '05 Prius dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree while my wife was driving it. She pulled into a parking lit and turned off the car. When she attempted to turn it on all the lights lit up again and there as no power to drive it. We had it towed to the dealer who put I to the computer. Two days later, they could not replicate it and the car was running. They didn’t know what was wrong. Flash forward to two weeks ago. I was dirt ing it and the large red exclamation point light came on while pulling into a lot. I called the dealer with the car running and made an appointment but on my way home to drop off my daughter the dashboard repeated its Christmas tree imitation from 15 months before. I had it towed to the dealer who this time said it was the transmission = $5000 but a used installed would be $3000. I decided to have it towed to an independent but when I got in to put it in neutral to back it out for the driver, it started. I had it towed and the independent said it might be the shift lever. It now runs. What is going on here?

Is the 12v engine battery good? I found on the Prius forum a guy with the same problem, but I’m not sure which plug he is talking about.

Thank You! You got me thinking about the ‘full’ operational positions of reinstalling the Traction Battery Service Plug.
I though the two small pins on the Service Plug “engage” when the lever is pushed 90 degrees down. I had simply forgotten the 3rd position, which is to slide the entire lever “Downward” as the final motion to engage the two small pins for the “Low-Voltage Interlock Loop”.
It took about 3 power-ON-cycles to get the car to “realize” that the Service Plug Interlock Loop was made, with each try, I heard more relays clicking-in, especially from within the Traction Battery. At this point, all the warning lights went out, the “READY” message appeared, the engine started and I was able to switch into Drive and Reverse.

Read more: http://priuschat.com/threads/big-red-triangle-and-other-warning-lights-wont-go-into-drive-reverse.116365/#ixzz3FC6SVVDs
Follow us: @PriusChat on Twitter | PriusChat on Facebook