179,975 Miles & Warning Lights Today?

I doubt that the ScanGauge will help the OP since skid control ECU DTC need to be identified.

 

Patrick,

If that is the case, will Techstream identify the problem, or what does the OP need to properly diagnose it?

Ron (dorunron)

 

Techstream Lite is the most comprehensive tool available to DIYers but is priced into four-digits so the OP might be better off calling his local dealers to determine which charges the least to retrieve DTC.

 

As per Patrick Wong, I stand corrected and do respect that. He is much more knowledgeable than myself. With that said, I would suggest you do what Patrick said. Call around and see if you can find a more reasonable price. $120 diagnostic seems high to me, but I am in Texas and you are in Baltimore. Tejas Toyota in Humble, TX charges $85 for their diagnostics. That is the stealer I use when I am forced to rely on Toyota.

I do apologize for any bad information on my part.

Ron (dorunron)

 

Thank you all for your help. I will shop around and see what happends. All the dealers appear so busy its insane. It's almost like a Doctor's office.. book a week in advance and wait an hour to be seen.
Would trying to clear the codes with the jumper technique be a waste of time at this point?

 

No, it is not a waste of time. If the fault persists, the DTC will soon be logged again.

 

I did the jumper on 4-13. All said and done they didn't go away after applying the breaks rapidly on Ready mode.
I got some codes but i don't know if i read them correctly: They went like this
(!) = 3,6,4,1
ABS = 3, 2
VSC = 4,3
Look like valid codes?

I found dealer here that's $105. They said it can take up to two hours for the diagnostic to determine which parts are bad (or what else to charge me for that's not broken).

 

It turns out it was a front left speed sensor. They asked for $467 to fix it initially, i got them down to $350. Considering i had to pay the diagnostic fee anyway and the part alone (brand new) i could find online was the at least $150. It seemed like the right move. It should be ready at the end of the day and hopefully working 100%.
Thanks for you help!

 

Hmmmm, I seem to remember someone mentioning that around post 33 or so Hmmmmmm (lol). I'd be willing to bet Firestone messed it up. Was it a defective speed sensor? They rarely go bad (without help). Or was it a connector? Anyway, I'm glad you got it fixed.

 

They said it was an open circuit in sensor. So the whole thing is getting replaced. They said it happens sometimes due to climate changes (hot to cold, cold to hot). Can anyone say for sure what the cause was?
When i called firestone they denied ever having to mess with that component.

 

I do not understand your question. If the wheel sensor is replaced and the DTC goes away, then that would appear to be the root cause.

Normally a wheel alignment does not require the wheel sensors to be disturbed. Usually, all that will happen is that the alignment technician will adjust front wheel toe-in. If you are lucky the technician may also adjust front wheel camber. That's it.

 

An open in the wheel speed sensor sounds like a disconnected/damaged cable, connector. By no means should the technician who performed a wheel alignment should have to mess with a speed sensor but that doesn't mean they didn't. The fact that this occurred after an alignment leads me to suspect the technician accidentally damaged the sensor or its associated wiring. Wheel speed sensors are inherently reliable despite being exposed to extreme temps (due to heat generated by braking). When mounted in a Prius, they are less likely to be exposed to extreme temps due to regenerative braking. This is not to say they never go bad but, it is rare. I would liken it to how often a transformer/inductor goes bad in an electronic circuit (very rare as well).
Most of the time a wheel speed sensor goes bad it is due to someone helping it. Even then it is usually a damaged connector or wiring and the actual sensor itself is in working order but it is unable to transfer the data because of damage to the wiring.
I doubt Firestone would ever admit to causing the damage (if they did). It would be interesting to see the old part and examine it for damage.

 

Hello guys , sorry for posting on such an old thread but I am need of help, I too am a victim of firestone, my 2006 Prius was none the better except for it chewed up my old tires and since I just bought new tires I wanted to get it done correctly for once. No lights were on the dash except for the "Brake" light which was there when I bought the prius, it was a broken E Brake switch which has now been replaced.

The lights appeared immediately after my lifetime alignment was done so from the sounds of things I am beginning to think that the young 20 year old tech damaged my speed sensor.
The great thing about this is that Firestone is taking full responibilty for the lights, they know and admit they were the ones that caused the problem and apologetically asked me to take it to the dealer to have the codes reset because "our OBD Tool cant reset those codes, only toyota can" and asked me to bring them the receipt and they would reimburse me for all costs

My Stealer wants $120-$160 just to hook it up , what do you guys suggest

 

It doesn't sound like you have a choice but to take it in.

 

Thanks for completely saving my nice person with this one today.

Last Saturday, I had an old tire delaminate, and it tore the HELL out of the fender well, tearing several harnesses apart as it blendered the wheelwell liner, the fender, the door sill, and the driver's door.

Today was the day to get in there and repair the harnesses, replace the door chirper (no longer there), harness plugs, and the ABS speed sensor, re-shape the fender into a fascimile of what it used to be, etc.

Got the wiring all done, booted it up, and had only one fault code, for the CHST pump. No great surprise, the tire had shattered the plug and it had come unplugged (I had plugged it in while putting the donut spare on). Cleared that, but still had the ABS/VSC lights on.

I thought I was going to have to pull out the laptop and VCI to see if I could pull other codes, but that would have taken a good half hour of cleanup (of me) before I could get to that point, but a quick search on my phone lead here.

I had a one foot ODB2 extension cable I had bought for another purpose, and figured that would make this jumpering easy, not having to lay on my back in the footwell, etc. Didn't work, jumpering it didn't clear the lights, so I had to get under the dash anyways.

Jumpering 4/13 worked great. I have NO idea what codes were stored, the lights were all flashing on and off in seemingly random patterns, and too rapid to comprehend, but I didn't really care, I knew what at least one of them was - failed or disconnect Hall sensor. Cleared the codes, and I think I'm good to go.

 

My 2005 has 360,000 km on her. My check engine, ! and red triangle popped up a few weeks ago, disappeared the next day and came on again last night. Any ideas??

 

probably the hybrid battery, but you really need to have the trouble codes read. could be as simple as a weak 12v.

 

If you have a smartphone, buy a Bluetooth ODB2 reader off Ebay (search for "Super Mini Bluetooth ELM327 With Switch OBD2/CAN"), download the free Torque Lite app, and see if you can get codes. If the reader properly interfaces with your phone/app, I highly recommend spending the $5 for Torque Pro. There is lots of info on PC on using Torque Pro, and a thread or two on custom Prius data that you can load to read a TON of Prius specific codes.

I bought an ELM327 reader for $10 from Newegg 3 years ago, after that one worked well, I risked buying a cheaper one off Ebay. It is often shown in a blue or black shell, and unlike the one from Newegg, has an on/off button on it, which is handy if you leave it plugged in all the time (the white one without a switch has a rather bright red LED in it). This looks like the one I bought - Super Mini Bluetooth ELM327 With Switch OBD2/CAN | eBay

Another advantage of the ones with an on/off button - if you plug one in without a switch, while the car is on, the car can freak out and throw codes. You need to shut the car down, plug it in, and start the car back up. If it was a transitory code, it may disappear in that on/off cycle. The one with the switch can just be left in the ODB2 plug all the time, and turned on when needed, without freaking out the car.

It obviously won't catch everything a mini-VCI and a laptop will, but it will let you read a LOT of the codes.

I have an intermittent red triangle that pops up a couple of times a year that reads to one of the O2 sensors being out of range, but if I clear it, it doesn't come back again for many, many months, so I'm not going to spend the cash on a new O2 sensor until the error repeats consistently.