1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

BRAKE, ABS & VSC Lights after brake job and dead battery

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by bab01824, May 22, 2011.

  1. bab01824

    bab01824 New Member

    Joined:
    May 13, 2007
    3
    0
    0
    2007 Prius with 88K miles.

    Today I performed the first brake job, replacing the front pads and rotors. Very easy job, no different from many other of my cars. While working in my driveway, I kept the car an ACC mode to listen to the radio and unlock the steering wheel. When replacing the tire I snapped one of the lug bolts, so had to complete the job and drive to the auto parts place to get a new lug. Pulled the driver's side tire, caliper, caliper holder, rotor - then removed old lug BUT, I had to put the car in Neutral in order to rotate the wheel to get the new lug in, and I hit the brake pedal to start the car (reminder - caliper is connected but not attached to wheel). I re-compressed the caliper piston, put everything back together but now the 12V battery is too dead (radio on, car in ACC mode for an hour) to start the car - I get the warning triangle with exclamation point. Charged the battery for 20 minutes then started it. Now the BRAKE, ABS and VSC lights come on and remain on and the power-assist/ABS is not working.

    Help! Was it the dead battery, stepping on the brake pedal when the caliper wasn't connected to the pads/rotor, or did I break something?
     
    #1 bab01824, May 22, 2011
  2. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2005
    3,873
    1,871
    1
    Location:
    Trumbull, CT
    Vehicle:
    2020 Prius
    Model:
    LE AWD-e
    You at least added some air into the hydraulic system which will require a bleeding (needs Toyota tools so your dealer is required). It is possible that the seals on the caliper that popped out are toast requiring a new caliper.

    JeffD
     
    #2 jdenenberg, May 22, 2011
  3. bab01824

    bab01824 New Member

    Joined:
    May 13, 2007
    3
    0
    0
    I did not pop the caliper seals, and no air could have entered because it didn't pop. I just tried the solution posted about shorting out pins 4 & 13 on the OBD connector and pressing the brake pedal 8x within a few seconds Worked like a charm, and saved me an expensive trip t the dealer.
     
    #3 bab01824, May 22, 2011
  4. firepa63

    firepa63 Former Prius Owner

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2005
    1,761
    208
    0
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    It's your 12v battery. Charging for 20 minutes won't do the trick. It takes several hours to charge the 12v battery. The age of the battery is also getting near it's useful life. It may be better to just replace the battery.
     
    #4 firepa63, May 22, 2011
  5. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2010
    3,326
    1,513
    38
    Location:
    Santa Fe, NM
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    You are not supposed to compress the calipers without first turning off the car and removing the ABS relays. Otherwise there is a pressure sensor that gets unhappy and sets the code. That probably caused the error lights. Glad the OBD reset worked for you.
     
    #5 seilerts, May 22, 2011
  6. Barrett Partington

    Barrett Partington New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2021
    2
    0
    0
    Location:
    Maryland
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    I have a similar situation in that my battery is dead after replacing a front brake and rotor. I did disconnect the battery though. However, I also popped the calipers to check them for lube. How did you short out the pins on the obd connector exactly? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
     
    #6 Barrett Partington, Nov 3, 2021
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)