So I was driving around as usual. 04 Base model Prius with 75k. The red triangle master caution light, (!), and VSC light all came on. I replaced the 12v. The codes pulled from the car before resetting them were as follows: - C1378 - C1241 Does the water inverter pump need replacing? Toyota quoted me $188 just to look at the car? Advice? I'm really lost on what to do. Thanks!
Auto zone used a choice reader thing. The 12v was the original, and was bad anyways. I did pick up the car with a salvage title. Drives great. Could the skid ECU need replacing?
C1378 pertains to two circuits between your brake fallback power supply (the capacitor box in the back) and your skid ECU. Pulling the 3-digit INF code will tell you which of those two circuits to look at. Your steps to pin down the problem are on pages 05-1098 to 05-1101 in your repair manual. C1241 can be about four distinct issues related to supply voltage for the skid ECU and brake actuator; again, there will be an INF code (81, 82, 83, or 84) to specify which of those 4 cases to chase down. That procedure's on pages 05-1018 to 05-1025. How much do you know about the salvage title? Could be somebody had to do a bunch of work on the car, didn't get the wiring back together perfectly ... that could be a relatively painless possibility. You just won't know till you put in the legwork to find out, though. -Chap
techinfo.toyota.com. They run it as a subscription service ... all the reading you can do in two days (or Friday to Monday) for $15, or a month for $75. Come to think of it, maybe it should be standard practice for anybody buying a salvage-titled Prius to just talk the seller down $75 to cover the month of techinfo access you might end up using. -Chap
I think I'll just take it to Toyota. I honestly have no idea how to diagnose or fix something like this.
Okay...so apparently overfilling the oil causes this. Seriously. I recently did an oil change. Since this is my first car (ever), a friend showed me how to do it. It ran great, but sat around after bringing it back from his house. Then driving it caused the warning. Total cost to fix: $0. Cancelling my appointment with Toyota! I'm glad I checked my oil level and found that it was higher than the max! Also, no more error codes, no more warning lights. So +1 for that! I successfully drove it today with no warnings or anything. I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens, but hopefully it was just the oil.
Yes, it is known to cause issues. Yes, seriously. What made you check your oil level and presumably remove enough to take the oil level to be at or below the top mark on the dip-stick?
Eh, when the codes were C1241 and C1378? Sounds like post hoc, ergo propter hoc. Either those codes were never cleared after some earlier issue, and finally were judged resolved after enough trouble-free trips, or, you bumped or leaned on the right thing while you were adjusting the oil level. Anyway, enjoy the car! If the codes ever come back, you can cross that bridge then. -Chap
Reading back my response, it was perhaps a bit muted in that my meaning could have been misconstrued. I was having the same thought (post hoc, ergo propter hoc), hence my question, "What made you check your oil level and presumably remove enough to take the oil level to be at or below the top mark on the dip-stick?". As far as I could tell, with the information in the thread, these two thing are not co-related. I guess I should have more fully stated, Yes, it is known to cause issues (but not those issues). Yes, seriously.
Ha no worries. It's just learning those first time things. I checked the oil again, because I read this post, and since I had JUST replaced the oil, I had a lightbulb moment. Yeah, so I'm guessing the codes weren't cleared after the wreck it was in before I picked it up. That is definitely a huge possibility, thanks for pointing that out.
Well, my transaxle and power inverter are toast. It's a $8k repair they say. So looks like I've learned not to pick up a salvage car.
Both of those things can be replaced for a lot cheaper (15-20% of what you were quoted) if you pick up used parts. Both can be replaced DIY; there are threads here (use the search function) which can give you guidance. If you pick up a transaxle from a salvage yard, make sure they haven't cut the orange cable that connects to the inverter. It complicates the transaxle swap to the nth degree if you have to open up the transaxle to reuse your existing (good) cable. I wouldn't give up hope, just yet.
