Changing the Actuator

yes -- the cheap harbor freight meter (couldnt find a go-to better meter with a good battery) -- did ring about 1.5 ohms for lead to lead direct cx -- so i was able to get something close to what it should be taking that amount out of the reading ...

 

well i just ohmed out some pins (as much as on the replacement unit) .. and the replacement has better numbers ..
The first measurements page for the easy BIG pins .. -- for the original equipment of the car I got infinite ohms whereas they are in speck for the 'replacement' --
The 3rd measure was above 1ohm (about 5 something where it should have been less than 1)
4th: was good
5th and 6th infinite (open) where as on the replacement i was getting the ~500 as the author of the pdf procedure file noted ...

I started on the 2nd page measurements (fine pins (small)) and also got open readings for the 1st 2 .. at that point i decided the replacement is already reading better and at least worth a try since i've gone this far in the very painful, solo driveway extraction ......

 

As luck would have it, while I'm sitting here researching threads on actuator replacement, my son just called me to let me know he just got the dreaded ABS, VSC, BRAKE, and brake system warning lights on his way home from work. Told him to bring the car to my house tomorrow and trade it for the back-up 2005. Looks like the actuator job will be arriving a bit earlier than I thought. Knew it was coming since the pump was cycling quite often (3 seconds run, 6 seconds off) for the last handful of months. At least I had some time to get ready for it.

Glad this thread got me reading up on it again.

 

yeah - toy dealer programmed into computer memory bank 'abs fail in february ' - a flurry of failures -- ha
(they prob. could put event trigger for a given mileage with all the computer systems in the car)

yeah u see brake or abs or the exclamation point inside the drum symbols coming on the dash and hear that dreaded 'what is that pump noise ' .. 'it's not the thermos bottle' .. happening more and more and then when u least expect it ' SURPRISE ' -- continuous tone and pedal gets spongy... meaning get back to safety as softly as possible.. it is no small task pulling invertor and this 20#(with bracket and stabilizer weight) block buried against firewall... I am still in for the surprise of installation and bleed (i'm at half way point ?) - i would say i'm not quite half way because pulling out is usu. easier than putting back ..

welcome to the club ...

 

Here you see the big black weight (oval shaped thing) -- which with the bracket (Y-shaped 'cradle') weight about 5# - bringing total weight of assembly w/bracket+weight to ~20 #

There are two round rubber 'sockets ' that fit into the opposite sides of the accumulator .. they then nut down to the Y-shaped bracket to get the 'cradle'. It's a very nice method of allowing for minimal movements of such a heavy device -- kind of like miniature motor mounts ...

 

You can see the full Y-shapidness of the bracket and a better perspective of that 'counter weight' on that bolts to the bottom of the accumulator - U cannot remove the y-shaped bracket without first removing the weight .. it would be easier to put the thing in without the weight but I'm not sure if access is acceptable from beneath the car (someone will have the curiosity to check hopefully)
-- of the videos i've watched many have not taken the wiper and cowling off .. please do .. it's not much extra time with a electric impact driver/drill to take them off (mabye 25 min total and it will be worth it esp if this is 1st time doing this job) - the 2 farthest bolts on the invertor cover are under and using a universal socket adapter is not great if avoidable.

 

Here you can see the top of the bracket and one side of the cradle -- there is a large rubber washer that forms a socket that sits in a recess of the accumulator - one on the opposite side also (unseen here) - this is the original car part before transferring bracket to replacement.

PS -- seen guys do 'safety' with a 'high voltage rubber gloves' and so on because the invertor must have seemed 'intimidating' -- (it is the 1st time the cover is off) -- I have had invertor out before so I only put a rubber glove on when i was taking the brake lines off to avoid getting hydraulic fluid on my hands ... (helped ) -- of course by the point of the invertor cover you will have already discon. the 12v battery as well as removed the disconnect from the HV battery .. MUST MUST MUST !

BTW: my fluid was sorta yellowish .. seems like in new fluid is clear so .. age /water/ movement in the system has colored it and it's prob. not a bad idea to once a year suck out from max to min and replace with fresh ...... I'm note sure if synthetic brake fluid is needed / recommended/ or worth it ...

 

The assembly showing the brake line connects ... - one is empty - I think someone took one out /fell out This is how a boneyard pull will look .. someone just cuts the brake lines to extract the part ... car gets 4(or 5?) lines on this side with the 33 pin connector and there is 1 more line going to the adjacent side 'top?' --
- You also see this the 'other side' that you couldn't see in the previous picture showing the other cradle socket...(round black thing next to the brake line input (white nozzle).
One of the many utubes viewed multiple times ..

. In this guys video .. his cowling is full of leaves .. u may be able to get away with that in a garage but not in the driveway with the wind kicking --- use a leaf blower BEFORE you begin this job and clean it out !!!

 

what a pita putting the 'assembly' with bracket and counterweight in there .. stepping on stools trying to pry shoving pushing pulling wrenching turning twisting . i had a little celebration after it got in .. that was a major crapshoot .. mostly downhill after that was setting in position .. then .. stupid nut holding down wires on side bracket of assembly also pita .. like the guy in the vid i put fluid in and then tightened the side brake connections leaving top one loose and when fluid came out top then tightened it .. took much of a small break fluid bottle to fill and reseoivor is at min .... electric connections .. inv. pump and then bring the brick inv back into place .. make all its connections then i am at that point to tighten 3 hold down bolts in after cover is on ...and tightened ...
the fun part of bleeding awaits ...
PS -- i'm watching a new vid of module change and the guy mentions magnet .. YES u will drop stuff through engine area that doesnt make it to floor .. a expansion magnet wand will save you ..
also a few rare earth magnets to put on side of sockets to hold bolts/nuts as u have extensions and u insert them but cant get a 2nd hand to hold bolt in socket ... get your magnets .. and whilst talking about magnetism .. one of those $3 /4 harbor freight magnetic bolt dishes is another super handy item to have .. also a rolling cart to place all your tools on !
I got family friend mech. down to $350 to do the job but he wanted me to wait till monday. .. thats when i started on it a few days ago and once i got the replacement module is was in all the way ..
This guy has a very thorough -- for almost step-by step ... operation in 2 vids (wish i'd found it before starting this ) ..

 

As an aside : I figured out an old 'engine light' problem the car had for years : the cat o2 sensor had never been working since the engine was replaced (2015) .. today i saw the pin connection .. one of the 4 was sticking out .. wes able to pull in with needle nose and get it connected .. so I think I can operate emmisions in closed loop now ...

back to Brakes : .... *** hooked up hybrid bat and aux .. (order is important .. plz hook up hybrid bat first then aux !!

The c1256 was cleaned off I hear the replacement pump running strong with pedal depression ... got the c1356 'pressure low at wheel cylinder' -- (of course i havent blead them yet)

I have V13 of techstream .. i was so hoping to use it to bleed with .. esp for abs ..
alas when i attempt the RR break procedure action .. the program crashes ... ;(
Guess it will be a manual deal and I might try a newer version? of TS that might be more stable ...
I hear the ABS lasts alot longer when the ABS itself has it's own bleed through TS ...

 

What dongle are you using? I had a Mini-VCI that gave me fits in brake bleed procedures. It would usually flake out like 80% of the way through the final step, and of course the Techstream procedure would have to be restarted from the beginning. I did the same procedure with an Openport and none of that nonsense.

 

its a silvery clear thing with a red LED light in the center which stays on even with the car off ...
the software is flaky .. it wants to get a internet verification .. it wants a certain levela fo windows .net software .. it wont run 64 bit because thats prob. what they flagship market and check to the hilt ... for what i got out of it from the online order was worth it but it could be so much more .. I see so many more sub-systems available on newer versions (and prob Gen3) -
we cant ask for much with the kind of hacked version ... I dont know what openport is ....

 

It's another type of J2534 cable.

Tactrix Openport 2.0

 

Is there a label on it anywhere, maybe saying something like Mini VCI? Mine is kind of a silvery clear thing.

If it is missing a label, you can go into Techstream's "VIM Select" menu and see what driver is selected. Maybe it looks something like this?



The Mini VCI dongle I have is the one that has given me fits with the brake bleeds. I simply bought an Openport and installed its driver on the system, and then the already installed Techstream software showed it as another option on the VIM Select menu, and when I chose that and used it for the brake bleed, it worked fine. Didn't seem to be any issue with the Techstream software itself.

By the way, a while back I reviewed the Openport on PriusChat.

It costs appreciably more than the Mini VCI clones. Should be in the neighborhood of $169. You can find internet listings for way less money, but they are counterfeit. Please don't buy them; that's exactly how the Mini VCI disaster happened. Mini VCI was once a real product by a real company, XHorse, but when the counterfeits of their product all started showing up on the internet for $30, $20, $15 they couldn't succeed making the real one any more. Now every "XHorse Mini VCI" you can buy is a flaky fake one, and some work and some don't.

Tactrix is still a real company in San Francisco and Openport is still their real product. If you buy one, please buy a real one from them. If its real price is more than you want to spend, please buy some less expensive different dongle, not a counterfeit of theirs. We don't need them to get killed the same way XHorse with the Mini VCI did.

 

yes pretty sure 'mini-VCI' was the dongle ...
I prob won't be getting the $170 X-Horse .. the most expensive diag/monitor for code use is prob. the 'Scan-guage' and scan guage 2 units -- of course they wont' do what I need but valuable tools over they years for easy driver monitoring and may have more than payed for themselves in gas savings (~$125 ? or less at the time)

 

There is no such thing as a $170 X-Horse. You can't buy a real XHorse dongle any more, only the fake ones are out there.

$170 is about right for a real Tactrix Openport. And yes, if $170 is more than you want to spend, I praise your decision not to buy a fake Openport, but just to buy something else instead.

You might also consider the VxDiag VCX Nano, others on here report it works pretty well. Around half the price of the Openport.

As long as a dongle supports the J2534 standard, it should work with Techstream.

Somebody has reported buying ELM327-based dongles that did not advertise J2534 compatibility, and getting them to work in Techstream using the XHorse Mini VCI driver. An interesting thing to try; I certainly hadn't.

 

as luck would have it and murphy .. Right as I was geting ready to plug power into the car yesterday.. interruption -- with lunch invite .. ( and a bunch of free brake fluid to get) so that sounded like a good repreave from the back grunting and finger wrenching that had been going on about the last 2 days ...
Apparently .. I had left the brake connections to the accumulator .. slightly loose so i could monitor fluid fill .. I did tighten them but not enough .. the pressure is enough that they need to be 'really tight' -- was hard to see anything as it rained all morning .. also important here: if u have it out in the driveway and any possibility of rain make sure to tarp up that cowling .. I didnt hthink it because of the dry weather for the past many weeks ... much of the engine compartment got wet because of it ... So i've tightened the lines on the accumulator manifold and am not seeing much fluid come out of the rear brakes ..
-- i'm trying the 'secret' of car off .. stick apipe between pedal and steering wheel to hold pedal down inch or 2 .. u hear the pump come on and I thought it was supposed to perioidically power up every so many seconds for a few seconds .. might need another inch of pedal pressure ...

I saw a huge amount of air go into the bottle while bleeding rear brake (before manifold cons were tightened all the way .. i wonder if that was the system sucking in air and the last bit of fluid left in that longest line to RR . ... will continue to try again as the sun is out and the driveway is near dried up.

 

Yes, please be very careful with that. The pressure is also high enough that any fluid escaping there may come out in a jet that can directly enter skin and make a high-pressure injection injury. Those can seem like no big deal when they happen, and turn out grisly later, sometimes to the point of amputation.

 

wow .. i didnt know there was that much pressure - I do have a clear plastic bottle with my tube going through a hole drilled in the bottle cap 5/16 or 3/8 ID clear plastic tube ... - u leave it a little loose for air pressure to escape or drill a small hole in the cap ...

I probably shouldnt have turned the car to 'on' but :I did want to hear the pump working (as that was an unknown) -- and I through 3 errors (C codes) -- still have C1256 ..

 

Had a truck once with a rusty brake line to the rear that had a split. The split acted like a pressure relief, never opened except under very high pressure. The brakes would work fine unless you stomped really hard, and then the pedal would go to the floor.

There was a damp area on the frame across from the brake line, and I managed to catch the escaping jet of fluid with a video camera, remotely. Definitely want no body parts around that.