Unfortunately, a mouse (or several meeces) chewed a small hole at the top of the plastic brake fluid canister on our 2017 Prime. I duct taped the hole until I was able to find a replacement canister. Side Note: Toyota only sells the canister along with the entire master cylinder control unit, MSRP $2008.76. I found a used unit for $130 and was able to swap the canisters using gunsmithing roll pin punches, and not even have to unbolt the main unit. I was careful to try to not let air into any of the lines, but wasn't successful. Of course codes were thrown when I started the car and the pedal is soft. Now I need to bleed the system. Question 1: is it possible to bleed the entire Prime brake system without a TechStream? If so, what is the procedure? Question 2: if I do need TechStream, will the software work with either the OBDLink EX (USB cable) or OBDLink LX (Bluetooth) that I already have? The supplied software seems to only retrieve and clear codes, not command the modules. Thanks! PriusPostus
According to Toyota, it’s not: the caution mentioned in my posting about fourth-generation Prius cars also appears in the Repair Manual (more info) for Prius Prime models. I suppose there could be some third-party diagnostic tool with equivalent capability, but I haven’t looked for one—and even if there were, I’m not sure I’d trust a reverse-engineered product with a task that’s so important to safety. Techstream requires a vehicle interface module that provides an SAE J2534 library; see the last pages of Toyota’s FAQ (PDF). I haven’t used OBDLink’s products, and their website doesn’t mention J2534. You could ask them, or check for yourself: on a PC with Microsoft Windows, with the OBDLink software installed, is there a registry key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\PassThruSupport.04.04 for their device? That location is defined (without WOW6432Node—it was a gentler time, with fewer bits) in SAE J2534-1 DEC2004, and on my computer with Techstream and MongoosePro MFC2 software, the J2534 libraries are registered there.
