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ABS Light, Traction Control, and Brake Indicator lights

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Rupert B Puppenstein, Nov 6, 2013.

  1. Rupert B Puppenstein

    Rupert B Puppenstein Active Member

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    I had not driven the Prius in a few weeks, and even then, that was for less than five miles, and had the low tire pressure indicator come on late last week when the temperatures cooled down, which I fully expected given my opportunities with the Toyota Dealer properly inflating tires. We were away for another week and returned today and I decided to check the tires and add air, and in addition to the tire pressure indicator, the ABS, Traction Control, and Brake Indicator lights were on. As soon as I filled all the tires to the specified PSI, that indicator disappeared but the brake related ones all stayed on.

    Any ideas what may be going on? Could this be because I haven't driven the car? I backed out of the driveway and parked and the brakes didn't feel different, I looked under the car to make sure that fluids weren't leaking. I have 62,000 miles on the car and I assume that brakes shouldn't be an issue.

    Is my car having a temper tantrum because I am not driving it as often as I used to?
     
    #1 Rupert B Puppenstein, Nov 6, 2013
  2. xpcman

    xpcman Senior Member

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    It might be a failing 12 volt battery. low battery voltage has been known to cause strange error codes.
     
    #2 xpcman, Nov 6, 2013
  3. Rupert B Puppenstein

    Rupert B Puppenstein Active Member

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    I think you are right. I just drove the car around for about 45 minutes on the hilly terrain around my house. It usually takes one lap and the battery indicator is fully charged. When braking, that bar that grows when the battery is charging really didn't work, and I was never able to get the battery charge indicator to reach to the top. So, is this something that is urgent? I imagine the only thing I can do is get it replaced at the dealer. How much can I expect to have to pay to get that replacement? It is very disappointing that this would happen before I have had my car for two years. :( I had read about people having issues when they left their cars parked for a month, but I would drive it at least a day every weekend, or two.
     
    #3 Rupert B Puppenstein, Nov 6, 2013
  4. xpcman

    xpcman Senior Member

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    The battery indicator you see is for the HV (also called Traction) battery and not the 12 Volt in the trunk. The 12v battery boots the cars electronics but does not crank the engine when you start it. That's done by the HV battery. So, a weak 12v will not warn you by sounding weak when cranking the engine. If you drive a lot of very short trips or don't drive it often and/or have needed to jump start the car after leaving a door open or light on. Then, you might have a battery problem. Four to five years is about when you need to replace a battery that has not been abused in this way.

    It's over $200 for the dealer to replace the battery. It's not a standard battery type that you can replace at Sears. Historically, the dealers have not been good a diagnosing a bad battery.

    I suggest you read some of the posts about about reading battery voltage on this forum. Good Luck
     
    #4 xpcman, Nov 6, 2013
    Rupert B Puppenstein likes this.
  5. Rupert B Puppenstein

    Rupert B Puppenstein Active Member

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    Thank you. If the 12 volt is not related to the charging indicator, this really makes me worried. I will search for some threads about batteries.
     
    #5 Rupert B Puppenstein, Nov 6, 2013
  6. jdk2

    jdk2 Active Member

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    You could try a trickle charger/battery tender on the battery overnight and see if that helps. Hopefully, the battery is just weak and needs a little boost.

    I was going to leave my car parked for a couple of weeks and bought this: Amazon.com: Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger: Automotive
    It's very simple to use, will not overcharge the battery and is gives some peace of mind when leaving the car unused for a period of time.
     
    #6 jdk2, Nov 6, 2013
    Rupert B Puppenstein likes this.
  7. Rupert B Puppenstein

    Rupert B Puppenstein Active Member

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    I don't have one of those, but will certainly look into it. I think the safest thing is to go wait around the dealership for a good three hours tomorrow morning and hope for the best. I guess my real test will be if the car actually starts tomorrow. :) I have had too many problems with such a young car even though I won't debate the mileage is high. It is actually pretty disappointing. I have never had the car on without the motor, never left any lights on, so this is incredibly odd.
     
    #7 Rupert B Puppenstein, Nov 6, 2013
  8. jdk2

    jdk2 Active Member

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    It really sounds like the battery has become weak from the lack of use. (Sounds like my tired body) Hopefully, the dealer will check it and find it's OK. I'd still look into a battery minder or such if you have a facility where you can plug it in (garage).
     
    #8 jdk2, Nov 6, 2013
  9. jdk2

    jdk2 Active Member

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    And I'd even add if the car starts normally in the morning, you may not have a problem at all.
     
    #9 jdk2, Nov 6, 2013
    Rupert B Puppenstein likes this.
  10. The Critic

    The Critic Resident Critic

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    I seriously doubt the battery is a problem for a 2011. A quick test with a Midtronics tester (or equivalent) at an auto parts store will confirm the battery health. Mine still tests near-perfect with a full charge after almost 77,000 miles.

    If the battery test does not show a bad battery, then it's time for a trip to the dealer or an independent to scan with the vehicle with Techstream.
     
    #10 The Critic, Nov 7, 2013
  11. Rupert B Puppenstein

    Rupert B Puppenstein Active Member

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    It ended up being something completely different, and keeping up with my lucky track record, a pink ribbon wrapped around the inside of the tire and damaged the front left sensor. They had hoped to just unthread it, but that wasn't the case. I am going to have them check the battery just in case, but a stupid pink ribbon that I have no idea how it was picked up is costing me over $400 as of now. Guess it could be worse, but I am ready to get a different car to stop this streak of incredibly bad luck.
     
    #11 Rupert B Puppenstein, Nov 7, 2013
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  12. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    I had these lights come on intermittently. I wiggled and tightened the rear wheel speed sensor connectors and cleaned the front speed sensors and put them back in. That seems to have fixed the problem.
     
    #12 robomoto, Jan 10, 2022
  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    It is easy to get the trouble codes when these three lights come on, which is how you find out why the brake ECU has put those three lights on. It's approximately useless to base anything on just "had the same 3 lights" because those are the only 3 lights the brake ECU has to alert you to problems with, and it uses them for pretty much all one or two hundred reportable issues.

    If you don't have a scan tool, you can still get the trouble codes using nothing more than a short piece of wire, and counting the blinks of the lights. There are a lot of posts here on PriusChat on how to do that.

    If you retrieve the trouble codes and the ones you get are about wheel speed sensors, then that would give you a good reason to at those sensors, as robomoto has done here.

    If you retrieve the codes and the ones you get are about something else, then you would probably skip fiddling with the wheel sensors so you could spend your time checking out whatever issue is really being reported.
     
    #13 ChapmanF, Jan 10, 2022
    jerrymildred likes this.
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