Hybrid wont start? 2008 Toyota Highlander code P0AA6 DO NOT REPLACE YOUR BATTERY

This 2008-2013 Toyota Highlander Hybrid will not start. Has code AA006. This video will show how to save money repairing this issue and not just replacing the battery pack or the battery cells. I am not sure if the Prius has the same battery system or issue. This video shows how I am doing it and is not necessary a how to.
#toyota #hybrid #howto #how #car

[@JoeSmith-fr7jx]

Dude!!! Saved me thousands!! Found water (left windows open during a storm…doh!!) Was told hybrid battery needed replacement….Nooooo! Was about to get $1170 from one of these car buyers. Glad I found your video!!! A Big Thank you!!!!

[@CousinCleatus]

Glad it could help, that's awesome!!

[@adamkondeh8683]

Well Done Mate...... I'm currently working on 1 of these .... and I will try this tomorrow morning because it's late in west africa Sierra Leone

[@CousinCleatus]

Hopefully you get it taken care of.

[@adamkondeh8683]

@@CousinCleatus Sure

[@CousinCleatus]

Cool

[@franklinblunt69]

Thanks for documenting these issues & your efforts with safety measures, appears you fixed the cause of the DTC & provided some prevention recommendations, but unsure where applied except the suspect cargo door seal along with a clogged drain filter. Definitely possible areas requiring constant attention in high precipitation areas & conditions where debris accumulates. In my experience, Lexus hybrid has high integrity from intrusion & seals sometimes feels like a vacuum when opening the door. Then again, Imma motivated to access the battery area for look see, should be easier without the third row seats like your rig. Roll on brother,😁

[@CousinCleatus]

Thanks for watching and commenting. I will putting another video out soon. This particular vehicle, I found the tail light housing was letting the water.

[@timwindsor03]

Awesome video brother. Very interesting. Keep the content coming. Hope you have an incredible day. Much love and RESPECT brother

[@CousinCleatus]

Thank you for your continued support!

[@joewethington3183]

The tubes you were not sure of are the Sun Roof drainage assembly. That is the most common problem with these cars. The seals leak, the hoses clog with debri and tree snot. This will cause water to leak all over the inside of the car behind the interior plastics where you cant see it happening. Thank You for making this video

[@CousinCleatus]

After some research I see these were sunroof drains. They were not the problem with this particular vehicle though. It turned out to be the tail light seals. There will be a video soon. It was a nightmare finding the leak.

[@station3841]

First and foremost. Thank you so much for this video. Here are a few things I had to go thru with mine that had this problem. With mine as a dead give away symptom is at night when it cools down the inside of the windows would fog, get condensation on them (I dismissed this at first. Hindsight aye?). Also if you have a hydrometer you can put it in the car with the doors and windows closed, if it reads a lot (5%+) higher than when its outside chances are you have water collecting somewhere in the vehicle. Mine also had the same start ignition symptoms, But when I scanned for codes no codes were returning. Most people diagnose this as a vacuum leak which is common (gas cap, evap system broken hose etc), I had to get a better reader that could scan the hybrid management computer, not every scanner can do that. I used an ELM 327 WiFi adapter and EOBD-facil software on my iphone to pull the code of P0AA6, the free version of the software can pull the code. My Vehicle is a 2006 Highlander Hybrid.

[@CousinCleatus]

For sure. The fogged up windows was a dead giveaway. I dismissed it at first too.

[@marinasantana8102]

It is an excellent video and it is very similar to the problem my car has, in fact it gets very wet inside. ❤❤❤

[@CousinCleatus]

Found the issue on this one. It was coming in from the tail lights and the water was going forward. I tightened the taillights bolts and put silicone on the top of them.

[@carlmorton9160]

I cant imagine that youll read this a year later.. exact issue (cant read codes tho) my batterys ooff the floor drying.. wil i have to reset anything or will it just work after removal and drying?

[@CousinCleatus]

You can order a blue driver code reader on Amazon for less than $100. It probably won't reset on its own. Also, later I found the water was coming in from the taillights, it was rolling forward. I just put clear silicone on the seal for the taillights.

[@EYE_SPIDER]

Love the video brotha! “Christmas lights “ 🤣

[@CousinCleatus]

Lol

[@RichGT350r]

Nice find! Saved a ton of money!

[@CousinCleatus]

For sure. With 270k miles, it would have been sold for parts. It's a nice vehicle too.

[@BubbaAyers1969]

Great video, lot of work there.. you got it done 👍

[@CousinCleatus]

Thanks bud. I learned a lot messing with it.

[@alexl.swaray93]

Thanks so much, I have this same problem with my Toyota Highlander hybrid 2007.

[@CousinCleatus]

Make sure to check the seal around the tail lights. That's where I found it leaking finally.

[@meastwood274]

It’s leaking under your tail lights. There is a seam behind the plastic that you can caulk.

[@CousinCleatus]

Yep, the next video I did shows this.

[@meastwood274]

@@CousinCleatus I am doing mine now using flex seal tape. Works perfect.

[@CousinCleatus]

@meastwood274 I used silicone, flex tape is probably better.

[@Masonsautoclinic]

good vid but what was the problem? just cleaned water out?

[@CousinCleatus]

Yeah, the water was coming in from the tail lights. Just cleaned it out and luckily nothing was damaged.

[@budbertsch5540]

Great video! Very helpful! Did you find the source of water leak? If not, lmk... I can tell you where I discovered my leak... cheers

[@CousinCleatus]

Yes, the rear drains for the sunroof were leaking, had to replace the drain lines.

[@EYE_SPIDER]

Very interesting video brotha! Thank you for sharing!

[@CousinCleatus]

Yes sir. Thank you for your support

[@surtifamily9130]

We have 2006 Highlander hybrid 220 k miles, just doing spark plugs and coil replacements but anything to do hybrids battery side? Is there filter on hybrid battery vents?

[@CousinCleatus]

Yes, buts it's more of a screen. Can unscrew the plastic and blow them out.

[@yassereljabali7228]

Awesome video brother. PLEASE COULD YOU SEND ME THE ELECTRICAL WIRING DIAGRAM FOR THIS CAR I HAVE THE SAME ISSUE BUT I CAN'T SOLVE IT

[@CousinCleatus]

I just googled it. I do not have the diagram. If you're getting power to the orange cables, it will be on the battery side. Most likely the relay area in the battery. If you're not getting power to the orange cables, that is when you would need a wiring diagram.

[@ronswanson8563]

I saw this problem on the facebook Highlander group - there's some kind of what look like body plugs or something around the tailgate on the lower side, somehow these rubber plugs fall out and then water goes into the car making it to the 2nd passenger row usually.

[@CousinCleatus]

This particular one I found the tail light seal was leaking.

[@BuffsGarage]

Great video!

[@CousinCleatus]

Thank you!

[@rilo8496]

I just had the very same thing (same codes, warning lights and everything) happen to my 2008 Highlander Hybrid. A few days ago we had two days of rain with about 4-6" of rain and this was the first time using the car since the rain. I checked for water and sure enough everything was soaking wet. I will tear into it in a few days because tomorrow is another full day of deluge. I think I will put a tarp over the car for the rain. Same thing happened to me last year at the exact same time of year after a bunch of huge rain storms. I took about a month and replaced the timing belt, ignition coils, spark plugs, water pump, cam gaskets, crank gasket, and tensioner and when I got done it started right up and no codes. Looks like the hot and dry weather for that month might have dried out the water last year. I was grasping at straws trying to fix it last year and refused to replace the synergy drive. The car is only worth about $3k now after my rear door got smashed in by an 18 wheeler in a snow storm last winter. I have 240K miles on mine so those other things needed changing anyways. I will keep you informed on my progress. I was ready to call the junk yard to come pick it up.

[@CousinCleatus]

So there is some relays in inside the battery pack. It's where the orange wires connect. If you cannot clean the corrosion out of that, you will need to replace it. I just had to do it, I will be putting the video out soon. I found the brake lights housing were letting water in, and then it would roll forward.

[@rilo8496]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm sure I will find the battery compartment full of water and the drain clogged. It was almost identical this time like it was last year. Didn't get 1/2 mile down the road and right after a rain storm.

[@rilo8496]

@@CousinCleatus Cleatus, Sure enough, I had about 2" of water filling up the battery pack compartment. The water was almost touching the two main hot wire. The compartment was already rusted. I live on a 1 mile long dirt road with hills and that was why it would short out and trigger the relay and the codes so close to home. The main rubber drain in the battery compartment is a bad design and easily clogged. I snipped off the bottom part of the drain plug to make sure it drains easy now and does not clog up again. The drain is between the catalytic converter and the gas tank. You can actually stick a screwdriver from underneath into the rubber drain and see if the compartment is full of water before you tear into it. I dried it out with towels and I have fans blowing inside the vehicle now trying to dry everything out before I put it all back together. It was not as hard as I though it might be but you do have to be very careful with those high voltage batteries. I checked the connections on all of the battery relays and no corrosion. The water was just below that level. I will post again when I'm done. Pretty sure this will fix it unless there was some permanent damage done. I stopped the car right away.

[@CousinCleatus]

Good luck with it! It should be okay if it's didn't corrode the terminals on the relays or the box itself.

[@rilo8496]

All good. Works perfectly. I drilled a few extra holes to help drain in the low spots. No corrosion. You definitely want to remove that relay panel to Inspect it. I saw other videos with the same problem and the relay panels were in bad shape. Thanks again for the video.

[@anitawaddell6417]

Hello I am a woman who has a 2007 highlander could you fix it for me I’m not mechanical incline to do all that . I also don’t won’t to sell my car but have no mechanic pls help me I live in Detroit, Mi

[@CousinCleatus]

If I were close to Detroit I would for sure. I am in Central Arkansas. Follow half fast garage, he is in that area, he might be able to help.

[@omerece5011]

07 highlander hybrid(421000miles ) gave poa78 code and mechanic said the inverter(very expensive) may need to be replaced but later i found another youtube video which says it may be the grounding cable coming out the inverter that doesn't let it work properly. I checked it out it was rusted and cleaned the connection part of grounding cable by sanding them. I erased the code and made 300 miles the code has gone i even gained 0.1 mpg after this fix, let's see if the problem is really gone?

[@CousinCleatus]

Hope so. The connections having corrosion would definitely cause some codes.

[@marinasantana8102]

9:32 I have the hailander 2008 hybrid, suddenly it stops turning on, it is already doing it usually, please if you can help me, I am from the Dominican Republic and there are very few hybrid vehicles in the country itself.❤

[@CousinCleatus]

Check to make sure you don't have water around the batteries. Check the floor in front of the middle row seats, it it's wet you probably have water around the batteries.

[@ronswanson8563]

Missing two body plugs behind the rear bumper was the problem. They evidently dry out and fall out as the car ages.

[@CousinCleatus]

The plugs were old, but still okay on this one.

[@organicvids]

1455 that should b a scupper valve drain not a plug. 1735 nooooo water will suck in from holes drivin down road. Been there on vw.

[@CousinCleatus]

Gotcha

[@ashleyrae8302]

Got any info on a po8a6 code??

[@CousinCleatus]

No I am not familiar with that code. Sorry

[@topfti9663]

Why will my 2006 hybrid highlander not charging the traction battery until it reaches around 80km/hr?

[@CousinCleatus]

Make sure there is no corrosion around the connections. It may be time to take it apart and test the cells. You can replace a cell individually if it's bad, you don't have to replace the whole battery assembly.

[@topfti9663]

@@CousinCleatus Thanks. However, will that make the hv battery not to charge until im off pedal at around 80kmhr? Anything below that, it will never charge even though i am off pedal, decelerate or braking.

[@CousinCleatus]

I'm not sure. Sounds like it has some issues, sorry I couldn't be more help cousin.

[@EYE_SPIDER]

It’s so crazy where they put that sensor

[@CousinCleatus]

Yeah, I'm glad it didn't let the water in the battery itself though.

[@romaricherman9853]

Hello sir I hope you’re doing well please my Highlander hybrid 2008 is starting well but showing ( check your hybrid system ) please I need your help 🙏🙏🙏

[@CousinCleatus]

Check the floor in front if the middle row seats. If it's wet, your batteries may be getting water on the sensor.

[@romaricherman9853]

@@CousinCleatus thank I will check it and get back to you

[@CousinCleatus]

Okay!

[@romaricherman9853]

😊😊😊 hello sir i am happy your video really helped me thank a lot 🙏🙏🙏

[@CousinCleatus]

@romaricherman9853 that's awesome!😎

[@nesdi6653]

so your car had water in it?

[@CousinCleatus]

Yes. Sunroof rear drains and the roof rack seal was leaking.

[@LeonMulamba-wv4ks]

le mien est dcharge complement c un 2013 nous allons suivre la mm procedure

[@CousinCleatus]

Yes, if you pull the orange clip, it and wait 5 minutes.

[@RazakMohammed-yv7gy]

You number

[@CousinCleatus]

You letter