P1780 Intermittent Body Work

You mention P1780 in your post subject, but not in the text. Is that a trouble code that was read out for you by the dealer, or by somebody else? Was any other information provided?

You mention that the wiring diagrams are Greek to you. Does that mean you have access to them (either by subscribing to techinfo.toyota.com or buying the bound edition)? That helps me know what we can talk about and how easily we can talk about it. Also, do you have the diagnostic information (volume 1 of the service manual)? Have you looked up the P1780? (I can't at the moment because my book isn't here.)

Things that aren't coincidence aren't coincidence. Things that are coincidence are. Either assumption can get in the way of a good diagnosis if held too strongly in advance of the evidence. We'll have to see.

-Chap

 

Having experience a similar problem after the Dealer "monkeys" serviced my 2002 prius, I found that they had disconnected the aux battery and later had run it down to the piont (they admit) to have to jump start it, I first found the neg. battery cable loose and second, the original OEM aux battery has been taking a long time to return to full charge.
My point, the body shop might have disconnected the aux battery. I would check the aux battery connections and verify the state of charge with a battery load tester.

My opinion(s) FWIW

Steve

 

What happens if you cycle the ignition (ie: turn the key off then on)?

Does this happen every time you drive or did it only happen once last week and not since?

Did you put the car in "D" after you turned the key but b4 the engine started?

 

Did you have these problems before the rear end collision. there can be a possibility that during the collision a connector could have come loose and now has a bad connection, face it any collision is a jolt to any system of a car. whether hybrid or not. non hybrid cars have had mechanical , electrical problems after a collision. my truck was one of them. but if you were rear ended and now the car is having problems, i would be on the horn with their insurance and have them cover any and all costs regarding this issue.

 

Good point ... I was rear-ended in a 1979 Dodge Colt years ago and it knocked the wire-harness plug right off the fuel-level sender. (I think that was easier back then; the connector pins were exposed, and got corroded because of the DC potential on them, and snapped right off. Makers seem to have learned a lot about making secure, sealed electrical connectors since then.)

-Chap

 

My question is, why should you have to put the money out to fix a problem caused by someone rear ending you. Their insurance company should be footing that bill. Not you.

 

I will check and get back to you on that.

 

As I have noticed, the "Ring around the 'R' " also blinks. As I recall, it was when I had just started to back out of my cold winter carport. Maybe it is because the engine hasn't warmed up yet.

Steve

 

The Hybrid Vehicle (HV) ECU is located under the passenger (North American) carpet on the slanted part, and has five connectors. One suggestion is to reseat the connectors at both the HV ECU and the shift position sensor.

The shifter position indicator has:

• P - on/off
• N - on/off
• D - on/off
• B - on/off
• R - on/off
• VSFT/SFT/FST - three paired signals likely to be a potentiometer but could be a set of series resistances with a selector switch

The TDC code, P1780, has four sub-codes (should be readable if you have a ScanGauge II with the XGAUGE definition and/or AutoEnginuity and/or TechStream Lite):

• 118 - more than 2 main signals are ON
• 119 - no main signals even though VSFT/SFT/FST indicates in operation
• 120 - open or short in VSFT/SFT/FST
• 121 - the P/N/D/B/R disagrees with VSFT/SFT/FST

Notice three entail VSFT/SFT/FST, the potentiometer and we already know the accelerator, a dual-pot device, is subject to debris and/or 'tin whiskers.' So what I'm going to suggest is somewhat experimental to confirm and/or clear the 'tin whisker' hypothesis:

1. Configure the car with the parking brake set and the sifter movable with the ignition off (key will probably not be removable.) You want the car 'off' but the sifter capable of moving between the different postions
2. Access the HV ECU and find connector H13 (E), 3-rows, 24 pins.
   1. pin 21 GSFT located on the bottom row next to keyed slot, 17,18,19,20,21, the other side is 22,23,24.
   2. pin 12 VSFT located on the middle row above GSFT
   3. pin 11 SFT located on the middle row away from the bottom row keyed slot
3. Measure the resistance between the three pins:
   1. highest pair - these connect to ground and a +V, probably 5V in normal operation.
   2. the other, the wiper, should measure the variable resistance between the other two.
   3. PLEASE SHARE WHAT VALUES YOU FIND WITH EACH PAIR.
4. Look for 'drifting' of the variable resistance when sifting. As you shift to the different positions, watch the resistance and see if it stays on one value or seems to wander or vary, this is the signature of debris or 'tin whiskers' in the potentiometer.
5. Check the five, ON/OFF position switches and also look for drift:
   1. pin 15 - P vs pin 5
   2. pin 13 - N vs pin 5
   3. pin 23 - D vs pin 5
   4. pin 22 - B vs pin 5
   5. pin 14 - R vs pin 5
   6. pin 5 - EOM (source voltage from HV ECU), top row from keyed slot, 3,4,5,6,7

So based upon the ambiguity group:

• VSFT/SFT/FST - may have 'drift' consistent with worn-out OR 'tin whisker' OR debris
• P/N/D/B/R - may have 'crap in the gap' OR 'tin whisker' or debris

REPAIR OPTIONS

Reseat connectors, works some very low, random number of times in older electronic equipment. Murphy's law says reseating will give the illusion of solving the intermittent problem . . . until you are on some 'not NOW!' trip.​

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Park the car; hold it with the brake, and; rapidly shift between all gears many times to 'knock the crap in the gap' out. Then for the rest of the trip, calculate the potential cost of an unreliable shift encoder.​

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Replace shifter position encoder, what Toyota has offered for $1,300.​

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Rebuild shifter position encoder: remove encoder cover using a Dremel tool; wipe and clean all moving parts; re-tension the fingers, and; reassemble using quality epoxy (JB Weld is very good.)​

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Burn out 'tin whiskers' and/or debris: ONLY if there is evidence of wandering resistance after changing positions. Using either a known, fresh 9V battery or 9-12V 'wall wart', briefly (just a second or less) apply the voltage for the five position ON/OFF pins and the VSFT/SFT/FST pins. Cycle each position and re-apply the battery/'wall wart'. Test to see if the resistances have stopped 'wandering.' This can be done in the car at the HV ECU connector H13.​

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

If you have a ScanGauge II or other scanner capable of reading the sub codes Bob mentioned, it's also capable of reading the five shift position signals and the voltage of the redundant signal, which can save you fussing with the carpet and sticking pins into things (at least until the scanned readings show you what you need to explore in more depth).

For ScanGauge II you just need the proper XGAUGE definitions.

-Chap

 

My car was warmed up, and the ring around reverse blinked also

 

Let us know if the car moves smoothly or if it shudders.

 

There's a project to keep an up-to-date NHW11 diagnostic PID database here.

Also there are two "exporters" listed here. Each exporter is a small program you can feed the database into,
and one of them will give you all the magic numbers to plug into a ScanGauge II, and the other will
give you files you can load into the Torque smartphone app.

Right now, you have to download the exporter you want, and you need to download Java on your machine
if you don't have it already. You don't need to enable Java-plugin or Web Start (the two features that have been of recent security concern). (One of these days I mean to reimplement the exporters to be just a click in your browser, possibly not in Java, but haven't yet.)

-Chap