Double flash gas gauge on combo meter?

Did you ever figure this out? I did the same thing...

 

defective?

 

We've had the blinking fuel gauge on a couple of DIY installs in the past and it's always been caused by a disconnected inclination sensor. The six pin plug (circled in red) feeds into two sensors that are under the white plastic cover (boxed in yellow). If during the disassembly/assembly that wire gets pulled on it can come unhooked from one of the sensors under the cover. Because that cover doesn't get removed during the meter install the disconnection will normally go un-noticed.

Take the dash out and check that the inclination sensor connection to the meter is firmly seated and then remove the cover from the sensors and make sure that they are both plugged in. Once it's back together park the car on a level surface and do a zero calibration on the sensors and that should get it fixed. I've uploaded the calibration directions in case you don't have them.



Matt

 

For anyone else facing such a three-year ordeal, there is a repair manual (more info) that includes a section on the different gas gauge blink patterns and what they would be telling you.

 

I don't know how you figured this out, but I am going to try it! Thank you very much. I've searched far and wide, and this is the first answer that addresses the situation directly.

 

LOL.

 

Sure enough, the issue is solved. Those two connectors under the cover don't have tabs and pull out easy. I took a picture, enjoy.

PS: Do not forget to reinstall the two 12mm airbag bolts.

 

I've checked the Repair Manual for the 2008 Prius on the Chilton Library site, but the repair manual never refers to "the different gas gauge blink patterns". Are you referring to a different year for the Prius?

 

Well ... apparently I was. I was familiar with the Gen 1 repair manual, where on page DI-661-1 (in the 2001 edition), the whole page is about fuel gauge blinks.

In that generation, there were two choices for blink pattern (a steady, 1.2 second period even blink, and a double blink that repeats every 2.4 seconds), and two choices for which segments do it (all the segments, or the display segments plus E), leading to four possible combinations.

If it's the steady even blink and all segments are doing it, there's a communication problem between the meter and the ECM or the body ECU. If it's the double-blink and all segments are doing it, it's a fuel sender issue.

If it's the even blink and display segments plus E are doing it, it's a fuel temperature sensor issue, and if it's the double-blink and display segments plus E are doing it, it's an inclination sensor issue.

So it seems like the Gen 2 speaks pretty much the same language (in the video in post 1, it's the double-blink pattern, and looks like all the fuel segments plus E and F and even the MI indicator for miles on the odometer), and it did seem to be an inclination sensor issue.

So it kind of surprises me that a Gen 2 repair manual would be missing that information that was in the Gen 1 book. But I looked in an old 2006 edition and you got me, I didn't find it there either.

In the 2001 Gen 1 book, the strange page number DI-661-1 looks like a page that was inserted at the last minute (between 661 and 662). Maybe they also lost track of it when preparing the Gen 2 editions. (Or maybe it got moved somewhere else in later editions. @Elektroingenieur might know. On the techinfo site, I once used the comment feature to report a missing bit in a manual and they did respond to me, so they do watch for that kind of comment.)

Oh, that page also describes one more blink pattern that isn't a problem. If it is just the bottom fuel segment blinking and it's the steady even blink, the car has just been powered on after battery power was out for a while, and that segment will blink until the gauge has figured out what the fuel level is.

 

Mine was not unplugged; it just wanted me to redo the job, and magically worked. Thanks for pictures

 

Isn't this a wonderful forum . . .
You could go a lifetime and never find that out.
Keep up the great work guys.

 

Just polished the heads up lens on a used gen II I bought which required removing combination board and had this problem after reinstalling. Sure enough that hidden connector had come off. Thanks to this thread it was an easy fix