Check engine light on 2015 Prius

I have a 2015 Prius with 107,000 miles. It has been a reliable and trouble free car. Today (Sunday) the check engine light came on. I drove the car about 30 miles after the light came on, and everything seems fine. I will call the dealer Monday morning but my dilemma is that we are planning to take this car on a trip this week, leaving Tuesday morning and not returning until next weekend.

It is unlikely that I will be able to get the car checked out Monday. How much of a risk am I taking if we take this car on a long trip (800 miles) before getting the car checked?

 

Thanks for responses. Oil and coolant levels look perfect. Gas cap is tight. Car has been serviced every 5000 miles at Toyota dealer, so last oil change about 2000 miles ago.

It is the "malfunction indicator lamp" aka check engine light.

 

Last fillup was 9/15. It's getting pretty low now.

 

I drove the car another 35 miles tonight and again everything seems just fine. MPG is typical, no funny noises, etc. My hunch is that the car is fine but I would like to hear Toyota tell me that before I make my long trip. I like rjparker's idea of just showing up at the dealer first thing tomorrow morning. Maybe I can persuade them to at least check the code even though I don't have an appointment.

 

When I started the car this morning, the warning light was no longer lit. I went to the Toyota dealer anyway and explained the situation. The service advisor's opinion was that I have an intermittent condition and the light no longer being lit indicates that the condition is no longer present. He said the odds are in my favor that it is (was) a minor condition and that I should probably be OK to take the car on a long trip. He could not give any guarantees, however, and when I asked if they could take a quick look, he refused, saying they are booked solid today. He also said that with the condition not being present currently, diagnosis could be difficult. Had the warning light still been lit, I might have pushed harder, but now I felt that my situation really did not warrant such urgency.

I plan to take the car on the trip tomorrow.

Comments?

 

And now, for the rest of the story...

I was very busy the day before the trip and did not look for a code reader. We drove 400+ miles on 9/28. The check engine light did not return and the car seemed fine. So far so good. While driving around on 9/29, the light came back on, but then by the end of the day, it turned off again. The morning of 9/30, before checking out of the motel, I called the home dealer and made an appointment for this week to get the car checked. We got in the car and started for our next destination. Upon starting the car, the light came back on. We got on the interstate but only made it 3-4 miles before the high coolant temperature light came on also. Now I knew something serious was happening. I pulled over and shut the car off. There was a Toyota dealer in the town which we had just left. I called them and they said get the car towed in - they would take a look. I called AAA emergency road service and in an hour or so we and the car arrived at the dealer.

This dealership treated us like royalty. They were booked too, but they looked at my car right away. In less than an hour, they determined the problem to be a leaky water pump. The code was P261B, overheat code. The technician was amazed that I had driven the car as long as I had before I got the high coolant temperature light. Unfortunately, they did not have a water pump in stock and neither did any other Toyota dealer in the area. The best they could do was get the part shipped in overnight and they promised to do the repair the next morning. Before I even had a chance to ask, the service advisor offered us a loaner car and told us to check with them the next morning.

The morning of 10/1, the technician came to work an hour early to get a head start. By 11 AM, the car was repaired and we were on our way. The car has been fine ever since. To my surprise, the service advisor called me this week to make sure we got home safely. I was very impressed with the customer service at this dealership. Today I wrote them a nice letter and told them so.

This week, I called my home dealer to cancel the appointment I had made. I spoke to the service manager and told her the full story. I told her I thought that they had let me down. She was empathetic and thanked me for the feedback. I am not planning to use this dealership for my service needs any longer. I have other options slightly farther away. If they just would have read the code for me, that additional information would have been highly useful. I would have left the car there and used my wife's Corolla for the trip. At least they could have asked me to leave the car there for the day with a promise to check it later in the day. Or he could have told me to go to Auto Zone and get the code read there.

Today I stopped at the local Auto Zone. The gentleman was very helpful and explained to me how the code readers work. He showed me where I would plug it in to my car. However, they did not have any bluetooth readers and the ones they had were $60 minimum. He did remind me that I can stop at any Auto Zone anytime and get a code read for free.

I did some checking on Amazon and found this one:

Would this be a good choice?

 

The villain was indeed Krause. We live in Kutztown. I am retired but used to work in Reading, so I bought the car at Performance Toyota in Sinking Spring. The location was more convenient for service. Last year, I retired, and started using Krause for service since they are closer to where I live. Until this incident, I had no complaints with Krause. For that matter, I had no complaints with Performance but they are about an hour from where I live, depending on traffic. I plan to pay a visit to Kelly Toyota in Hamburg. I've never been there. I am planning to replace my Prius next year with a new one, and I think Krause is not in the running.

The good guys are in New Philadelphia, Ohio - over 400 miles away!