1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

ABS, (!), and BRAKE symbols on

Discussion in 'Prius v Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by darkleafar, Apr 11, 2020.

  1. darkleafar

    darkleafar Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2009
    232
    20
    0
    Location:
    Houston TX
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    I did some research and it seems like the most likely thing is the brake actuator needs replacement. However , the whole trick with the paper clip did not work for me. Neither did the pumping brake 8 times on Neutral and Parking back and forth.

    Questions:

    What is the best way to asses what is going on with the car if I cannot even safely drive it right now? (brakes are super hard )

    any other advice? What is my best course of action? Could something else be wrong with the car?

    Should I pay a tow truck to take it to toyota?

    Should I be looking for a local hybrid mechanic instead?

    Any chance there is a recall or something Toyota offers that will cover under a 10 year warranty? or at 135k miles im screwed?

    Anyone know any in Houston area?

    Thank you for your time
     

    Attached Files:

  2. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2008
    8,502
    5,065
    7
    Location:
    Texas Hill Country
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    24,913
    16,216
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    Often we can help with stuff that doesn't go as expected for some reason. But just as Simon Tatham described in the classic, we're at a disadvantage unless what you post has the key ingredients: 1. what you expected to happen, 2. what you did (in enough detail that we can follow your steps and compare to what we would have done), and 3. what did happen and how it was different from what you expected.

    In the case of the jumper Tc-to-CG business, it's especially important to know what you expected to happen, because there must be information sources out there giving people some strange ideas about what it even does.

    The same ingredients would be helpful there.

    Finding the trouble codes one way or another will help a lot, because those lights can be on for reasons that take five minutes and no money to fix, all the way up to reasons that take $1895 to fix.

    The hard braking isn't necessarily a tell-tale symptom, because it can also be a result of the brake ECU changing its behavior because of the codes it's reporting.

    Going to a shop and asking what to do, without having the codes, is a good way to be told oh yes, you need the $1895 job.

    Especially if you go there and say your research tells you so. The mechanic is likely to nod, compliment your research, and agree to the $1895 job.
     
  4. darkleafar

    darkleafar Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2009
    232
    20
    0
    Location:
    Houston TX
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    Good point. I will link the youtube tutorials i followed , which will describe that i attempted in detail.
    I did the first minute of this
    (this is the 8 times pumping thing)

    This is the paper clip jumper thing i followed
    (it is in spanish but just watching in mute is sufficient information)

    Expectations I had: My understanding is that the mode my car is currently stuck is because the car knows something is wrong. The methods attempted above, to my understanding, were supposed to remove the car from this mode so I could continue driving the car, since I heard stories of pinched sensors can trigger it and it does not automatically mean the brake actuator is broken.

    I THINK I successfully entered the all lights blinking mode using the paper clip method, but turning off the and back on after was supposed to reset the mode it is stuck in, but it did not.
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    24,913
    16,216
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    Haven't watched the videos yet, but yeah, that's an expectation problem that's out there. The jumper did what it's supposed to do: get the lights to blink out the trouble codes. It doesn't clear anything; turning the car back off afterward just makes it, well, stop blinking the codes. :)

    If you counted the blinks and wrote the codes down, we could be on our way to knowing what the trouble is.
     
  6. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    24,913
    16,216
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    Watched the videos. The first one just starts with showing how you put the brake system into "Invalid Mode" if you want to (it can be useful for doing work involving the hydraulics); nothing to do with finding out why the system is reporting problems or what to do about them.

    The second one does show a method for clearing codes, but of course if you "clear" a code and it's still there, that just means the system wasn't wrong about it to begin with. That's where finding out what the problem is and fixing it comes in.
     
  7. darkleafar

    darkleafar Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2009
    232
    20
    0
    Location:
    Houston TX
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    thanks! so i should do the the pin thing again and record a video of the blinking ? I dont know how to read the codes
     
  8. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    24,913
    16,216
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    Blinks give two-digit versions. blinky blinky blinky ... blinky blinky ... ... blinky blinky blinky blinky ... blinky ... ... would be 32 and 41. Pattern will keep repeating until you stop it. Different lights will be blinking codes. Keep track of which codes were on which lights, they're in different tables in the repair manual. Many threads on this site if you search.
     
  9. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2008
    8,502
    5,065
    7
    Location:
    Texas Hill Country
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    Invalid mode, among other things, allows you to bleed the brakes without Techstream assuming air is not in the actuator. As stated, you can not clear a brake actuator’s ecu code if the problem is still there. You can drive it in a degraded failsafe mode but without power brakes, abs or traction control. You will have very hard brakes and increased stopping distances. I have had an abs sensor problem throwing codes but it don’t cause hard brakes. You can get an OBD2 bluetooth module at an auto supply or online along with an app to read codes and clear them.

     
  10. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2008
    8,502
    5,065
    7
    Location:
    Texas Hill Country
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three