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2010 MAP sensor Mystery - P0108

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Bookkeepper, Jul 23, 2018.

  1. Bookkeepper

    Bookkeepper Junior Member

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    So. After a few days of searching for answers on here I figured I'd just make an account and ask.
    About two months ago, I got a used 2010 base model, 125k miles, for quite cheap from a used car lot which seemed to be in good condition. I must say I've been very pleased so far, getting a consistent 52 mpg, and the distance on a single tank is outrageous!
    The first issue that cropped up is the passenger side headlight kinda...melted. I saw at least one other thread about that issue and I solved the problem with minimal fuss and a secondhand parts store. Not sure when it happened, it may have been existing damage or may have happened soon after purchase, but that's a story for another time.

    The check engine (or OBD?) light came on shortly after a 600-mile road trip. I figured it was something related to emissions systems because the car drove (and still drives) normally. No knocking, rough idle, no sudden drop in mpg, etc. Got a code reader and came up with P0108 - Mass Absolute Pressure sensor circuit high input. Like a fool with a bachelors degree in engineering who does not understand car maintenance, I assumed the sensor was the problem. The local toyota dealer confirmed the code and offered to replace the sensor for something like $377.

    I decided to replace it myself and tracked down a Denso pressure sensor that I am pretty sure is equivalent to the OEM part for $200. Looked up how to get at the sensor and replace it, and...P0108. I decided to unplug the sensor entirely. P0108. Poked at both sensors with a multimeter - I cannot seem to find the pinout but I checked resistance across the pins and they are identical. Logically, I should assume that both sensors are functional and there is either a wiring problem or an actual anomalous pressure in the intake. And the car continues to run smoothly, getting 52 mpg. What is going on??
     
    #1 Bookkeepper, Jul 23, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2018
  2. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    There is a recall for the headlamp wires.
    You should have cleaned it first. Several people have reported it was dirty, and it worked after cleaning.
     
  3. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    mmm? I believe I miswrote. :) I was thinking the flow sensor...
     
  4. Bookkeepper

    Bookkeepper Junior Member

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    Well, I edited out the day of troubleshooting with my uncle for brevity. We did in fact clean the sensor with 90% isopropyl, no difference. I also tried to read voltage from the car-side connector but I heard that I could really mess up some stuff so I was very scared about poking the connector with the probes. Found one wire was 5V, one was 4.9V, and the third was (probably?) ground. 4th pin is unused, which seems odd to me...
     
  5. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Welcome to Prius Chat (y).

    Some questions:

    • Did you look for wiring damage when replacing the MAP sensor?
    • Where was the sensor you were replacing located (the MAP is located by the throttle body)?
    • Any accident damage or recent work performed?
    • How long have you owned your Prius?
    • Does your car consume oil?
    • Any blockage around the inlet of the sensor to the manifold?
    Good luck and keep us posted (y).
     
  6. Bookkeepper

    Bookkeepper Junior Member

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    Hmmm...
    • Didn’t really look for wiring damage. Not sure where to start with that.
    • MAP is definitely on the throttle body. Noticed some oil down in there and a recent post said it’s to be expected, so I guess the oil isn’t the cause (though I gather I should clean it)
    • No accidents on the record. The toyota service history shows proper oil changes, recalls fixed, etc. My own inspection shows small rodent damage near the cabin air filter. At some point the front left tire had a blowout, inferred from the missing wheel well cover and the spare tire being used (and the toolkit was not repacked properly, c’mon guys).
    • About 2 months, though my dad has a 2011 he uses to commute for years now, so I have a reference point for what ‘normal’ is.
    • Unsure. It got an oil change when it came to the seller’s lot, and so far I see two dots worth of oil.
    • No idea, didn’t occur to me to have a look, though that sounds like a challenge getting a light down in the throttle body.
    I’m actually on a road trip right now, and despite my sister’s less-than-eco driving I see 53 mpg as the check engine light shines on.
    My current theory is something EGR related (I might want to look at that anyways, I hear) though the inlet blockage sounds plausible as well.
     
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  7. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    One way to check for sensor output is Techstream.

    When you inserted the new sensor, did you disconnect the 12v battery to reset the codes, or reset them with a code reader?

    To check the wiring, look at where the sensor connects to the wiring harness and follow it back as far as you can. Also check the fuse box and ensure alll fuses are good.

    To gain access to the inlet area, pull the MAP sensor out and woth a small screwdriver, poke around a bit into the opening and see if there is some restriction.

    Good luck and keep us posted (y).
     
    m.wynn likes this.
  8. Bookkeepper

    Bookkeepper Junior Member

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    Weather is lovely today! Went poking a bit more and found some interesting results.

    First off, I took a paper clip and bent it to poke around many places. No clogging in the sensor, or the throttle body where it attaches. Still some oil down in there, but that's a project for another day.

    It got interesting with the multimeter. I combed through the wiring diagram and found the pins on the sensor connector, and the corresponding pins on the very big ECU box thingy. The pins labeled 'VC' and 'PIM' have continuity, but 'E2' does not. Uh oh. Further research reveals that 'E2' is sensor ground, and it should have continuity with ground. It does not.
    To be sure, I checked 'E2' on the MAF cause that was also unplugged, and it's definitely got continuity with ground.

    So seems like the sensor has a bad ground, which (as I understand) means the sensor is probably working correctly but it has no reference, hence it is returning garbage data.

    Any possibility that leaving it alone for a while could cause damage? If it's some kind of short there's not enough current to fry the sensor, right? And would the bad MAP reading cause any problems for the rest of the engine?
     
  9. Bookkeepper

    Bookkeepper Junior Member

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    Final update if anyone comes here with a similar problem.

    The fault has been located! Some small furry creature chewed on the wire in a very hard-to-reach spot, breaking only the ground wire. (Shame it wasn't a live wire, would have liked for it to get a shock)
    The bad sensor reading has caused no additional problems in the months since it first started, so it will probably remain broken for a while. Did I mention it's broken in a very hard to reach spot?
     
  10. bowcoastie

    bowcoastie Junior Member

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    How did you find the break? Thanks for sharing. My 2010 is doing the same thing.
     
  11. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    I don’t want to make anybody feel put down, please understand that I only want to help. But...

    These error codes frequently report that the MAF, MAP or O2 sensor is reporting bad data, but that doesn’t mean the sensor is bad! In this thread, it was the wiring leading to the sensor, but often, it’s another condition, such as a vacuum leak, which causes the sensors to report out-of-range data.

    If someone has the same code as you, and doing X fixes the problem, that doesn’t mean it will fix it in your car.

    The purpose of these sensors is to measure air and fuel flow, not to report whether they’re working or not.
     
    #11 Rebound, Dec 29, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2019
  12. jimolson

    jimolson Member

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    @Bookkeeper, could you elaborate where you found the chewed open ground lead to the sensor? I have the same problem on my 2010. I get P0108 on my OBDII tester after replacing the sensor with a new one.

    There's a bit of oil in the sump below the sensor, but not enough to interfere with its operation. About 2k miles ago I cleared out the EGR loop including replacing the blasted water-cooled EGR heat exchanger. What a job!

    Can anyone post information that identifies the sensor's pin-out, showing the ground lead?

    Thanks in advance from Indianapolis.
     
  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    While you're looking for the right resources (the wiring diagram and the troubleshooting steps in the repair manual, both available as described here), I would recommend using them in a broader way.

    Focusing on where Bookkeeper found a chewed ground lead would be prematurely narrowing your search to the exact wire that got chewed on in Bookkeeper's car in Pennsylvania 3½ years ago.

    You'd be better off to simply start with what P0108 means ("The output voltage from the manifold absolute pressure sensor more than 4.5 V for 0.5 seconds. (1 trip detection logic)"), and use the wiring diagram and your multimeter and problem-tracing skills to pin down why that happened in your car.

    D3.png

    That way, if you won the weird-coincidence lottery and your problem is exactly the same wire damage as Bookkeeper had, then you find it, and in the more likely case that something a little different is what happened in your car, you still find it anyway.
     
  14. jimolson

    jimolson Member

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    F5F28D24-84CD-4CBC-A9A0-07CC5BFB2722.jpeg Thanks for the help, Chapman. Nice clear wiring diagram as if you drew it your yourself using Altium Designer or OrCAD schematic capture.

    By the time I posted this question earlier today I had searched the internet for the MAP sensor's pin-out. A set of really nice color schematics kept popping up (likely pirated from Toyota's electrical manual) but I could not find the MAP sensor in its 600 pages. Then I realized that the manual refers to this sensor as a fuel vacuum sensor rather than MAP.

    But it turns out that the schematic was unnecessary, though I'm very grateful for yours. The culprit was indeed a rodent shortening his teeth on my MAP sensor's wiring harness. I did a nice mid-span splice in the black ground wire using a soldering iron and heat shrink tubing, and the CEL is now off.

    The chewed spot was about 6" upstream from the sensor's plug.

    Thanks again to both of you for your help.
     
  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Thanks; I didn't draw that, I screen-grabbed it straight out of the Repair Manual.

    When you're troubleshooting such things, you get to decide whether you're going to look in the Repair Manual first, or the Electrical Wiring Diagram (EWD) manual first.

    The Repair Manual will usually have a little schematic of the circuit in question, like what I copied above. It will show you the connector callouts and the pin numbers, but usually not the wire colors. It is mostly for getting a high-level understanding of what circuit you're looking at.

    [​IMG]

    If instead you head for the EWD first, in there you find the rest of the details, including the wire colors, any intermediate connectors and junctions (in this case there aren't any) and so on. That can all be helpful when you are ready to start poking at things.

    D3.png

    But the Repair Manual is usually my first visit, because the diagram there is going to be part of several pages of troubleshooting information headed under the trouble code you got, which will tell you exactly what the code means, what the system does, and ideas for troubleshooting it.

    Sometimes it can slow you down a little if you think you are looking for "MAP sensor" and the EWD happens to translate it as "E.F.I. Vacuum Sensor". Here is a post with some tips on finding your way around in the EWD more easily.

    I notice in passing that if the black wire is the one you repaired, that wasn't the ground, that was PIM (the sensor signal).
     
  16. M A azim

    M A azim Junior Member

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    i have the same problem but my code is P0107 couldn’t put the finger on the problem if you have any idea it would help
     
  17. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Another thread might have been better; a discussion of your P0107 problem won't be that useful to other readers looking at a thread about P0108.

    But there is some basic advice that would apply just as well to a different code. There are explanations and troubleshooting steps for each trouble code in the repair manual:

    Toyota Service Information and Where To Find It | PriusChat

    You can see examples in this thread of how that information was helpful to find the problem. You would troubleshoot the same way, except of course you would turn to the section for the different code that you have.