AC not working, also ABS VSC, E BRAKE lights on

Hey priuschat,

I've been a lurker here for a couple weeks now and a lot of the advice I've pulled off the website has really helped me fix up my car. Thank you for that!

So the AC isn't working in my car. I tried to charge it myself a while back and it seemed like it was taking too much pressure in the low side too quickly. Now I didn't do a proper charge or vaccum the system or anything. Anyway the pressure in the low side is zero at the moment.

Now I figured out how the compressor works finally and I noticed it doesn't kick on when the ac button is turned on. I managed to find another guy with a prius and listened to his compressor kick and I couldnt hear mine do the same. I dont remember hearing it when I was trying to recharge the system weeks ago either.

Now will the compressor kick on when the A/C button is turned on regardless of whether or not there is freon in the system? Is there any other reason my compressor might not be kicking on other that that it might be bad? Is there fuses or something I should double check that could be causing this issue? Should I try a proper charge with a vaccum and all before I assume its the compressor?

The reason I ask all this is because as you guys know compressors are expensive and I'd like to avoid that charge if possible. In the event I do have to replace my compressor is there any other parts I should replace with it?

Lets segway into the lights issue.

So my ebrake, vsc, abs, and the warning exclamation light next to vsc are all on. I checked my battery with a multimeter with the cables off and it read between 12.72, and 12.78 volts. Now I was reading on the forum that 8/10 times it is your battery, but the battery also is fine with the car on. It reads at about 14.1 volts (I think that's good). I'm probably gonna run it up to autozone to do a double check on the battery, but if it's not the battery what else could be causing this issue? I did a visual inspection of some of the bigger fuses under the hood and they looked OK from what I could tell, but I'm not exactly sure how those look when they're fried.

I look forward to hearing you guys.

 

So I initially tried to buy the cable you recommended, but with the shipping it would have gotten here somewhere between 06 September and 20 October or some crap. Instead I picked up the Fotga one on Amazon instead (doesn't let me add links yet). I'm assuming I can use this to read all my error codes, including what's going on with my A/C?

Anyway I'm gonna try to sort it out Friday and hopefully have an error code post that Friday or Saturday.

 

Thanks dude I will try reading the battery tomorrow morning, if I wake up early enough.

 

Hey Kevin,

Thanks for keeping up on my post. I managed to get my cable today and set up the software and got everything working. I ran every ECU in the system and got a few codes. So when I initially ran my ABS/VSC/TRAC ECU I got 2 codes... however I accidentally cleared them and didn't save them. So I drove my car around for a second the the lights popped back on. This time when I ran my software I only got one code for that particular ECU. In total I have 2 codes available to show you that popped, and here they are:

C1391- Abnormal Leak of ACC Press
B1423- Open in Pressure Sensor Circuit / Abnormal Refrigerant pressure (this makes sense because the pressure is reading only 1psi at the moment, so i think it's likely the ECU is working properly)

I am guessing this one could be from when I vented the pressure on the low side. The software allows you to do active tests of the vehicle, but I'm a bit apprehensive because I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing. As of right now I've got an appointment with the dealer on Tuesday to diagnose the car for $116. I'm trying to avoid paying that if I can get the AC diagnosed before then, but it's kind of a last resort as I want to get the system working before next weekend. I figure worst case scenario I could get a diagnosis and attempt to knock the work out myself. It kinda seems to be going along the lines of a leak like you were saying.

I also got B1421 Solar Sensor, but I'm doing this in my garage and it's not in the sun so like you said it should probably be ignored.

I also believe my tire pressure sensor to be malfunctioning, because the light pops up despite having 40 PSI in my tires. When I try to run the codes from my laptop it doesn't even work in the software.

Anyway thanks for your help and hope to hear back from you or the community soon.

 

So I took Stevewoods advice and checked the 12v after it sat all night. It still looks good 12.68-12.69, although I didn't remove the battery cables. I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference?

Anyway I've been doing my research on the C1391 code and found out it could potentially be a brake actuator. Now I did have my car tested at AAMCO for a free brake check and they did not mention any sort of brake dragging or obvious fluid leaks. I'm not even sure what brake dragging feels like so I'm assuming I don't have it. Maybe all it needs is a simple bleed? I'm not sure. I was looking too at the possibility of it just needing the skid control ECU replaced too, because one time when I was messing with the center console the warning lights went off. Just need to get further on the diagnosis here. I've been loosely going off this document..

Prices for actuators seem to be ranging in the 200-1755(brand new) range.

I'll try the fluorescent AC fluid to find the leak, just need to find a blacklight. Maybe I can find the fix to that.

 

Update:

I scoured the forum and google a little more. I found similar threads with this problem and decided to test my battery on load. The instructions from the other thread stated: turn your car on xx mode(I forgot) one push of the power button, then turn your headlights on for 15-30 seconds as you test the battery. I did this except I left my headlights on a couple mins. Testing the battery on load I came up with 12.27 volts, which I think is ok, but I'm not sure.

I also checked out my techstream stuff. I had some new codes pop up from the skid control ECU. Now I have 3 total and they are:

C1252: Hydro-booster pump motor
C1256: ACCumlator Low pressure
C1391: Abnormal Leak of ACC Press

Through my research of the forum posts it looks like my brake actuator is probably going bad. I think I've more or less ruled out the 12v, so maybe at this point a trip to the dealer for a full diagnosis is warranted, then maybe I can buy the parts and just do it myself.

If anyone has any ideas, comments, or questions please reply! I'm also gonna post some live data feeds here of my braking system. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at, but if you guys know, please let me know.

 

So I knocked out step 2. The absolute lowest I saw it go was 2.88 and that was before I was pumping the brakes. Otherwise the voltage kinda hovered between 3.11-3.84 volts. There doesn't seem to be too much of a difference between me hitting the brakes or not. I saw it drop slightly when I hit the brakes but not enough that it was super atypical from what it was doing normally.

Wish I had a basis for comparison.

Thanks a bunch for all your help Kevin.