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Why do my dash lights randomly stop working?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by skittle021, Apr 22, 2021.

  1. skittle021

    skittle021 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2021
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    Location:
    Mississippi
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    So I bought this 2005 Prius in pretty rough shape a couple weeks ago. From the beginning the touch screen wasn’t working quite right and now it will not detect the air condition at all. I plan on replacing the MFD soon to fix this. However, in addition to this, my dash lights will randomly not light up?

    Does anyone know what may cause this, or if it could be related to the broken touch screen?

    My blinker lights work fine (see photo), but nothing else lights up. Also, sometimes the car won’t want to turn off after I park. I have to hold the power button for 5 seconds or more to get it to shut off, but sometimes it won’t shut off at all and I have to unplug the battery. Yet, the car still runs and drives flawlessly. As a side not, when this happens, my reverse beeper does not sound off either. It's super strange. It's like everything regarding the dash has suddenly just... stopped.

    I only have 133,000 miles on the car and it has a completely service history since day one. It was cosmetically pretty rough, but mechanically solid when I got it.

    any help would be majorly appreciated, I’ve been stumped about this for a week now.
     

    Attached Files:

    #1 skittle021, Apr 22, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2021
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    110,156
    50,059
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    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    check all the fuse boxes for corrosion. any chance it was a flood car?
     
    #2 bisco, Apr 22, 2021
  3. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2016
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    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    Search "combination meter"

    It's a very common problem with the Gen 2. It's just some capacitors in the display circuit that have become weak, causing the display to blank out.
     
    #3 TMR-JWAP, Apr 22, 2021
    Ted Diamond likes this.
  4. skittle021

    skittle021 New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2021
    16
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    0
    Location:
    Mississippi
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Thank you so much. I had heard about this but wasn’t sure if that’d be the issue or not. Guess I start ripping the dash out today!
     
    #4 skittle021, Apr 23, 2021
  5. Ted Diamond

    Ted Diamond New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2021
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    Location:
    Chicago, Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    Reset the 12v battery or check the level of your twelve volt battery from inside the car. There’s a YouTube video on it
     
    #5 Ted Diamond, Apr 23, 2021
  6. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2012
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    Location:
    Wellington, New Zealand
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Check the level of your 12V battery with a voltmeter at the front jump point. This much easier if you have a voltmeter. If you don't have a voltmeter or a multimeter (i. e. will do Volts, Amperes, and Ohms) get a multimeter. Once you have one, you will use it all the time around the car and home. An adequate one can be had for $20 - @30 or a better one (more accurate) for ~$100+.
     
    #6 dolj, Apr 24, 2021
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