Automotive panic attack and a happy cat reunion

After a month away, I have returned.

I got home yesterday a bit before noon. I walked in to find that not only had my neighbor taken fine care of my kitties, but he also cleaned up my place to a degree that I probably never have myself. Big thanks to Josh. Truly above and beyond the call of duty. I'll have to come up with something nice to do in return.

The drive from Palm Springs to Shoreline was largely uneventful save for one thing that caused some stress and minor delay. Somewhere along US 395 where it's a two-laner and far from civilization, my dashboard lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree with a sort of "red alert" beep and my engine lost a bit of oomph, slowing me down considerably. Had to keep going until I came to a point where I could pull over, then I shut everything down and consulted the manual. Not much help there, so I let it sit for a few minutes, then started it up again to see what was still lit up. Master Warning Light, Check Engine Light, and Hybrid System Warning were all on, plus the low fuel indicator. Nothing else. So I drove on for an hour or so, then lost the oomph again with a warning light for Vehicle Stability Control System. Same routine, parked and shut down for a few minutes, restarted, and the VSC light was dark. Drove on until I got to the rest stop in tiny Walker, CA, at around 7:00am, where I'd intended to stop for a nap anyway; on the approach to the parking area, the VSC light popped on again and the engine oomph cut out again.

Fortunately, Walker has cell service, so after getting out and stretching and using the rest room, I got online and looked for a mechanic that worked on Sundays in Carson City, which was the next place on my route with a decent size population. There was one. He had other appointments until the afternoon, but would be happy to help around 4:00. That was a long time to wait, really, but if that's what had to happen, so be it. I napped for a while, then around noon drove on after putting a little over a gallon of gas in the tank at the one Walker station at $7+ to guarantee me enough to get to Carson (I probably had enough as it was, but with the low fuel indicator on and the weirdness going on I wasn't chancing it).

Master Warning, Check Engine, and Hybrid System lights remained on, but no VSC or engine performance issues the rest of the way into Carson. I found a gas station near a downtown area I could hang out in if I had to wait and filled the tank. Then, after restarting, all warnings cleared.

What the hell?

I'd used up my remaining cell data allotment back at Walker, so I had to find some WiFi to do any research. Found a Starbucks I could log in from, found that a couple of other people on message boards had run into similar occurrences with their ’07 Prii, and started to relax when their issues turned out to be computer glitches. I texted the mechanic, updated him on the new lack of warnings and proper car function, and ultimately canceled our meeting so I wasn't just waiting around for 3-4 hours when there seemed to be no reason to.

My conclusion after reading the other reports online is that due to the unlikely coincidence of the low-fuel warning triggering at the same time that the hybrid battery was nearing depletion, the car had a panic attack. Parking for a few hours allowed everything to cool down and some idling while parked charged up the hybrid battery some, then when the tank was full and triggered the reset of the low-fuel warning, it cleared all warnings because in reality nothing was wrong.

No problems at all the rest of the way. Took another nap stop, reached Portland before the morning rush hour, one more nap stop north of Vancouver, WA, and cruised on home via Interstates.

I'll have someone check out the car just in case sometime at my leisure, but first order of business after checking in with Josh was a shower and kitty reunion time, followed by a long sleep. Much better rest here, surrounded by three purring cats and an ambient temperature under 80 degrees, and I was out for about 12 hours. Gave the cats another meal and kicked back with a book for a while until zonking out again and I'm back in full working order. Found lots of expired food in the fridge, did a grocery run ($100! Goddamn Trump), and am now enjoying baseball playoffs and welcome cat attention.

Despite all the sleep, I'm still feeling a bit wiped out from everything over the past month. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be ready to resume normalcy.

It's good to be home and nice to hear the rain outside complimenting the sound of purrs.