P3006 & P3011 - what course of action should I take?

Yes and they would also verify there are no dead cells. Note, they may want to sell you a new battery but the original 12V battery has smaller terminal posts than standard batteries. If you decide to buy their battery, you will also need a 12V+ terminal and a ground cable. Given the weight of the battery, be careful and work slowly:

CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK POLARITY!!!​

Work smart as reversing the polarity effectively burns out many control computers and the 12V DC-to-DC inverter part of the car inverter. The cost of repair becomes much greater than the former, resale value.

Bob Wilson

 

The post size changed between the GS battery (the original official Toyota part) and the Panasonic (the since-2003 official Toyota part, which is probably what's there if the battery was ever replaced at the dealer). So if the GS to Panasonic upgrade was ever done, the retrofit terminal kit has already been installed.

If not, you can get the terminal retrofit kit from Toyota for not much ($30ish as I recall?) which may lead to a tidier installation than trying to cobble in some generic terminals from Autozone. (But all this applies only if you really need a battery, and not just to charge the one you've got. Then, of course, you can get the upgraded Panasonic from the dealer, which is a very good battery and a perfect fit for the car; Autozone might not have something comparable.)

Toyota part numbers for the terminal kit and the Panasonic battery are in several other posts here, if you need them.

-Chap

 

Well, the Panasonic is going to be a perfect fit only if the associated battery bracket is installed.

 

Right, the bracket that's included in the same retrofit kit with the terminals, 04003-23147. That will already be there if the 28800-21190 battery was ever previously installed at the dealer, or can be picked up for not much money if the battery in the car is still the original original GS.

-Chap

 

Just tell them to limit the charging rate to 2 amps (small battery limit).

JeffD

 

This is the sound a motor makes when it loses a bearing. It can also be something between a pad and the disk. There is hydraulic fluid pump in the power brakes. Let me suggest the following:

• power car "ignition on" but do not start engine - this will power the brake motor and the wheels won't be moving. Hit the brakes a couple of times and see if the noise comes back. If it does, I would suspect the brake assembly (~$1,000) has a problem.
• start engine but do not move from "P" - again, checking to see if the brake assembly is the problem versus something between the pads and disk.
• move car - if noise comes back, stop and see if noise goes away. If it does, move and try to find out which side. Park the car, pull off the wheel and inspect the brake pads.

I have not had to deal with a problem like this for a long, long time (older cars that would wear out the brake pads.) Hopefully some of our other Prius diagnosticians might offer more insights and better tests. Also, I haven't checked on XGAUGEs for the brake system.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

I suggest that you have the car towed to your Toyota dealer so that the DTC produced by the skid control ECU can be retrieved. The high pitch beep/screech is a warning to you not to drive the car because the brake system is significantly impaired.

 

What is your brake fluid level?

Does it have any 'strange' smells or look?

Bob Wilson

 

In the absence of a dealer or Prius-specific scanner, a wire jumper between terminals TC and CG (pins 13 and 4) at the DLC3 diagnostic connector (with the ignition on) will cause the braking system diagnostic codes to be blinked out on the ABS light in the cluster, and they can be looked up in the manual at techinfo.toyota.com.

-Chap

 

It would help if they might be able to share what they found. We are 'data driven' folks who work from observations and metrics. I'm about 900 miles south of Michigan and without Prius-aware, OBD scanner data, volt-ohm meter readings and other test results, I could not hazard a guess.

It would help if they could share the symptoms that led to this diagnosis. If they were unable to get the car to move, a brake problem would be difficult to diagnose.

The traction battery price sounds about right. As for labor, two of us without training or experience swapped a Re-Involt pack in four hours or 8 man-hours. They may be quoting a shop rate of $100/hr for 7 hours and that rate includes the shop overhead, taxes, fees, e.t.c. But you have a more difficult problem to solve.

Alabama does not have an annual safety and emissions inspection. I know of at least two Prius running around with 'warning lights' on. One has a 'dead' catalytic converter and had the power steering turned off. Another one has a latent 'interlock' problem we've never been able to clear but it starts, runs, and otherwise is a fine commuter car. But this is Alabama.

Other states have different policies towards vehicle safety and emissions inspections. I have no idea what Michigan requires and the shop may be able to give a better description of what will be needed.

The best way we can help is advice on tools, techniques, and experience for owner-operators who do their own maintenance. After all, we're all starting at a screen with squiggly marks . . . not a hand with with a wrench or other tool. But within the limits of what we can do, we're here to help.

Bob Wilson

 

Ok,

I would tell the shop 'make it run' and I'll handle the rest as time and budget allows. Of course make sure the mechanical brake parts work, you want a good master and backup working even if the rest is fubar. Let them know:

• mechanical brakes - OK
• mechanical steering - OK

This at least gets you to a point where you can budget and schedule the remaining work . . . or sell it with known defects.

You have a car that in North Alabama I get 52 MPG . . . a little less in the cold-dense air of winter and a little more in the thin, hot air of summer. So look at the money spent to keep it running as alternatives:

• car payments?
• equivalent mileage?

These kinds of value judgements are hard to make remotely as none of us knows your particular situation. Like I'd mentioned before, we're here to help and in my case . . . those who turn a wrench and want to 'self-maintenance.' But if you are stuck with having to hire a mechanic, well an older Prius is hard to justify.

Mechanics have to earn a living in addition to taxes and health costs, they need tools, a place to work, and often someone to answer the phone and handle the books. These costs rapidly run their rates up which is why 'self-maintenance' for older cars makes sense. But some folks don't have the resources, time, or attitude to be their own mechanic and this is not something some old fart, 900 miles away, at 1:00 AM can call.

Bob Wilson

 

In the absence of a dealer or Prius-specific scanner, a wire jumper between terminals TC and CG (pins 13 and 4) at the DLC3 diagnostic connector (with the ignition on) will cause any steering diagnostic codes to be blinked out so you can look them up in the manual. (Unlike the brake ECU which blinks a light you already have on the dash, you have to supply your own LED and resistor to see the blinks from the steering ECU. Details are in the manual and this post.)

If you have codes indicating the torque sensor (e.g. C1511, C1513) then you probably have a condition that is covered by a Toyota warranty extension through December 2013 with no mileage limit. So if your non-dealer shop is "checking into options" that exceed $0, they aren't going to beat the dealer on that one. If it's something else wrong with your rack, then the warranty doesn't apply and other options need to be explored. Cardone remanufactures the unit; I think it's their no. 1A-1000.

Has this shop not even said what your brake codes are yet?

-Chap

 

Unfortunately, those are not torque-sensor codes but motor-drive codes, not covered in the warranty extension as I understand it. They could be caused by a steering ECU problem, an open or short circuit anywhere in the wiring between the ECU and the rack motor, or in the rack motor itself (the last possibility is the only one that would call for replacing the expensive rack).

Unless you're sure the mechanic has already tested to distinguish all those possibilities, you might want to do so, following the procedure on pages DI-471 and 472. The winding resistance should be between 0.1 and 1 ohm on a good motor.

It actually might be possible to replace the motor on the rack. The frustrating part about the torque-sensor problem was that the sensor is hopelessly buried inside the rack, but I don't think that's true of the motor. It still isn't sold separately, as far as I know, but it might be possible to use a motor from a used rack (even one junked because of a flaky torque sensor).

Getting to the rack would still be no fun.

-Chap