Should I use maintenance mode or not?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Kats_Pajamaz, Aug 28, 2023.

  1. Kats_Pajamaz

    Kats_Pajamaz Junior Member

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    My prius can go into READY mode, but when it tries to turn on the ICE, I get a crank no start condition. I have no error codes popping up on my OBD2 or techstream and I'm fairly certain I've ruled out the traction battery as a problem.

    It seems my next step is to check for spark, fuel, and pressure. I want to go ahead and use some starting fluid to check my fuel. My traction battery is at 2 bars already (I've had to charge it twice already during my troubleshooting because of my attempts to start it and diagnosing). So if I put it into READY mode, the engine should crank pretty quickly.

    My question is, would maintenance mode be more beneficial or even even practical at all for this type of trouble shooting? I'm not sure how maintenance mode would work for a car that the ICE won't actually start, or would I just be draining my traction battery faster because it is constantly trying to spin up the ICE?
     
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    This is thread #6 on the same issue? I went back to the first, where you reported you’ve got 250k miles, just recently cleaned the EGR, pressure when removing engine coolant reservoir cap, and had misfire codes.
     
    #2 Mendel Leisk, Aug 28, 2023
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2023
  3. Kats_Pajamaz

    Kats_Pajamaz Junior Member

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    No the EGR cleaning and cylinder misfires were a while ago. I had to change the head gasket. After I changed the head gasket, it worked perfectly for over a year. Now I am having another problem.

    This is related to the most recent issue that I haven't yet resolved, I just don't want to keep diluting the same thread with a bunch of different questions. I'm simply asking if maintenance mode is a good or bad idea, so I can try to go out and do the standard mechanical diagnostic checks.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Meh, 5 threads started since June, I'm not going to read through all of them again.
     
  5. Kats_Pajamaz

    Kats_Pajamaz Junior Member

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    I agree, which is why I'm just asking the one question. Is maintenance mode helpful during a crank no start condition, or is it pointless to use maintenance mode?

    Am I doing this forum thing wrong? I could post this question in the initial thread I created, but it seems that either the question gets ignored, or it becomes the complete focus of the thread, when this question seemed like a quick one off answer and it doesn't need to be continued past that.
     
  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I don't see that; new posts (in a new or existing thread) go to the forefront, just the same. It's much more efficient and easy on responders to just post within the previous thread, one stop shopping.
     
  7. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Maintenance mode doesn't do anything special, just keeps the car engine running (so you can bleed the coolant when needed)
     
  8. Kats_Pajamaz

    Kats_Pajamaz Junior Member

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    I didn't mean ignored as in nobody looks at the post. I meant, when they look at the post it shows the header of the post, so people see it and are likely to just attempt to reanswer the initial question or ask for details that have already been answered, possibly multiple times, because nobody likes to ready 3 pages of a thread. I don't mind having 30 peoples input, because it increases the chances of me figuring out what is wrong, but I figured if I have a specific question about something, it would be best to ask that as its own thread, rather than having a 3 page thread with 15 different questions hidden amongst the posts.

    But I honestly don't post on forums very often and maybe I just don't know the proper/most efficient way of doing it.
     
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  9. Kats_Pajamaz

    Kats_Pajamaz Junior Member

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    Thanks for the info.