A quick question for all those that have had their Prius for a while: Does the maintenance light come on at 5000 mile increments (5k,10k,15k...) regardless of when it was reset? Or, does it come on 5000 miles since it was last reset? Thanks, Shawn
My light came on tonight at 195,900. I did routine maintenance last month. Does the maintenance light stop working after a certain distance, like a car manual stops giving a maintenance schedule?
No. It's likely that the maintenance light is just out of sequence due to not being reset. The light will start blinking 4500 miles after the last time the reset procedure was performed using the dash buttons. The light will be solid 5000 miles after the last time the reset procedure was performed using the dash buttons. If, after the last time the light was reset, you changed the oil PRIOR to the warning light blinking or going solid, it's likely the reset procedure was not performed. Let's say you had 4200 miles on that oil and then changed it. The light didn't get reset because it's not lit and nobody thinks about it. Since it's still looking at the milage since the last time it was reset, and even though it's new oil, your warning light would start blinking 300 miles after the new oil change and go solid 800 miles after the new oil change. The car doesn't EVER know it was serviced, unless the reset procedure is performed. It's just a mile counter and can be reset any time you want, even if the warning light is not on.
