I did the following on my 04 today: Unplugged the MFD Unplugged the factory radio Unplugged the Combination meter Removed steering wheel Installed new steering wheel Installed new CM Installed new stereo with radiopro4 and steering wheel controls Plugged MFD back in Everything seemed to work okay, until I started driving. The slip indicator lit up at 10pmh and the car will only go up to about 15mph before it tops out. The engine will rev, but it doesn't seem to engage in drive. The slip indicator will stop only when I come to a complete stop. I've switched back to the old steering wheel, old CM, and old radio, all with the same result. A scan gauge is next on my list of purchases, but what can I check in the meantime?
Car isn't throwing any codes with scanguage, so next up is techstream. Bought one on ebay for $22 with the mini vci cable.
If you haven't already, the first thing you should try is disconnecting the 12V battery for a couple of minutes and then reconnecting it. Also check its voltage when the car is off and when in IG-ON (with foot off brake, press press power button once) are as expected (many threads on how to determine if the 12V battery is bad here on PC, search if needed). Weird electronics issues on the Prius are fairly often just the result of a bad battery. If that doesn't work - As switching back to the old equipment didn't cure the problem, I tend to think it's a wiring issue. I would inspect every connector that you plugged/unplugged during the process, especially the combination meter connections. Can try some jiggling and pushing and making sure everything is very secure. Take at other wiring in your dash as well and make sure you didn't accidentally dislodge something, especially connecting to the skid control ECU. You might even access the skid control ECU specifically and confirm everything is connected as expected. The symptoms sound like the car thinks that one of the wheels isn't moving, so the skid control system won't allow the computer to put power to the wheels. If you can, I'd see if Techstream can see the wheel speed sensors and if they're giving the right values. It also wouldn't surprise me if you see an error code specific to this ECU in Techstream that you can't see from a Scanguage.
Thanks. I'll disconnect the battery to see if that clears things up. I bought a copy of techstream yesterday on ebay. Hopefully the mini VCI cable will be here in another day or so and I will read the information to determine the issue. I appreciate the ideas. I read in another post where switching out the steering wheel may cause some sensor to get messed up as well. Scanguage definitely isn't reporting any codes.
Goodness! I have the same symptom and haven't been able to isolate the issue. After swapping out my front right axle for a CV issue to correct a clanking noise when accelerating and accelerating, and replacing the rack and pinion steering (dropped the front end) as well as the front sway bar with a corolla swaybar and connecting rods, I took my car for a spin to find that the slip light came on with beeping and the maximum speed I could get to was 15 mph. I removed the wheel speed sensor and cleaned it. Additionally, I pulled the hub off the replaced axle to ensure grease didn't get on the sensing teeth. Sensor alignment seemed correct in the channel. Cleaned everything and put it back together with no change. I also checked the driver side sensor as well because I wanted to compare this sensor to the passenger side to ensure passenger side wasn't damaged. They looked the same. New sensor runs $150. Is there any way to defeat the slide protection so I can drive the car to the shop to get it professionally looked at? By the way, the steering wheel is about 5-10 degrees of from the center when driving straight. Where I was careful to count the treads on the tie rods, it looks like I was off by one spline when reconnecting the steering to the rack and pinion. Would this cause the slip issue?
The spline being off may cause it. What ultimately caused it for me was the clockspring. It's the plastic piece that is clipped into the steering column. I think it has a maximum of 5 turns (at least that what I thought mine said). When I unclipped it and turned in manually, it turned about 12 times before it finally offered resistance. I pulled it apart to see if there was anything I could see that was wrong and it became immediately apparent what happened - I had put my steering wheel back on, but the clockspring was rotated all the way one direction, and the cable that connecTed everything in the steering wheel to the rest of the car electrically was pulled out of the base. I picked another one out of a junker and it's been fine ever since.
Great news. I was guessing this was the issue after pulling my steering wheel off. The other symptom was the airbag light and some of the controls on the steering wheel (AC, defrost, etc.) won't work but only from the steering wheel. I ordered one on Amazon for $16. With your comment above, I am certainly more confident. Thanks for the response.
I pulled one from a wreck. Probably not a good sign, but the airbag wasn't deployed, and the steering wheel had radio controls. I'm going to the wreckers this weekend in search of some nice door cards. I'll pull off some steering wheels to look for some clocksprings also.
