Check Hybrid System with code P261B

Just got this code tonight on my way home and that "Check your Hybrid system" on the screen.. About 97K miles on the car. Was really scary though as I was going about 75 on the highway and I swear it seemed like there was a very brief drop of power. Scared the S outa me. Got off the highway and put oil in the engine just to be sure cause it's been burning though oil every 6 months. Thought it could have been the engine seizing or something. Got home fine. I do hear a noise when the car is shut off for a log time though. Like a winding noise but it's on the other drivers side. Still it's there even after I got home. do not know if that's related. Anyways I'm so broke with covid and loosing work. This sucks lol. Can it be driven for a bit till I can replace it?? I made it home fine like 20 miles after. I have reset the code and it drives ok right now. But I'm looking to buy the part and gonna try to ride the motorcycle for a bit.

Reset the codes, not more lights. I drove the car to the doctor today and back the car seemed to be struggling to move forward at times. pausing in power to accelerate then it's fine. Ugh..... I can buy the pump for about $200. I guess I better get on it asap.

 

It's scary how your story resembles mine, only it happened to me yesterday!

Did you look into warranty? I'm thinking since this is part of the "Engine/Hybrid System," it might be covered by CA's PZEV warranty. Not sure though.

 

So this code is pretty much the coolant pump for engine only. And will shut car down period . Well 9 have extra here . So will change . I cannot get the car to run long enough to get it to operating temperature

 

Got the 'check hybrid system' banner today... The car already had ABS issues (codes) and I am sure it is long overdue for a brake pad reline. but the timeline is interesting, so I'll elaborate.

I stopped and checked the fluids and noticed the brake fluid at min as well as the inverter coolant level at min. (Right!, what good are these bandits that charge $79 for a complete oil/filter change and fluids top-up) So ran by Advance (as my TechStream won't read this car) and got the P261B code....but oddly no ABS code.

I bought some pink coolant and brake fluid and topped those up.

No change in the water pump code....but ... for whatever reason, all the ABS dash indicators (many) went away.
the ABS codes earlier indicated problems with the ABS accumulator and of course, the pump should always be replaced at the same time

Now at this point. it may be that low brake fluid triggered the ABS Kaos and is now happy (fingers crossed) but is clear the water pump will need to be replaced (per other posts in this chat). It is still possible the ABS is still an issue, we'll see I am sure.
Got one on the way from Amazon everyone seemed to be happy with and the diy seems quite easy enough so I'll post more when it arrives and I get it put in.

 

got the P261B on a 2013 prius C. Can't find any threads in the prius C forum on this so I'll post new one there and crosslink, but this seems close to what I'm trying to solve. took the car to body shop for rear quarter damage (bought it that way, drove it 4000 miles, now getting it spruced up). Went to hget it and it wouldn't start the ICE. has a P261B fault which some folks say shuts you down.

If it is the engine water pump, I don't know how it would know it doesn't have pressure if the engine doesn't start or maybe that is just a tangential reality of the engine not starting, but i would think it would set some other code explaining why engine didn't start
(also showing a P0453 evaporative emission sensor code but most crowd sourcing says that will not shut the car down or stop engine from starting).

when I turn the key to Start (the equivalent of pushing the start button on standard prius, I believe, I hear a relay pull in the relay and fuse panel on the passengers side near fire wall. other than that nothing. dash is lit (battery went dead while the thing was sitting at body shop but put another battery in and dash is fully lit. shift the car to D or R and the indicator on Dash shows the change but engine doesn't start and there is a message to shift back to park and check hybrid system.

anyone in the hive mind got any ideas? thanks, brian

 

"Battery went dead while sitting at body shop"
Have you checked the Traction Pack Battery Orange Safety Grip Plug to make sure it's all the way inserted and pushed down ?
When a shop does any body work on a Prius they are instructed to remove that Safety Grip from the Traction Pack. And often that safety grip is not fully engaged because many forget it needs to be pushed down as the last step.

 

@vvillovv i went with this existing thread because there were none in the prius C forum I could find and wanted to connect the info between the two. but didn't mean to bifurcate crowdsource resourses. i've got a thread going under prius C because the location and nature of plug could likely be different and i will ask over there since that is appropriate place to discuss C specific stuff vs. troubleshooting this fault generally.

thanks,

brian

 

If you'd like to link to a specific post somewhere else at priuschat, find the post #5 at the bottom right corner of the post ( I'm linking to your post #5 in the other thread ) than copy / paste the resutting URL link, like so
P261B code on 2013 prius C that drove to body shop w no faults but won't start month later to leave | PriusChat

depending on how a link is pasted in a post, when using the Link feature in the menu above the post it can be handled with mouse clicks or keyboard shortcut keys.
But when copy / pasting directly into a past, that will work only using shortcut keys for both cut / copy and paste.

Phones and priuschat app probably have their own rules about these features.