Engine? Battery? Something Else?

Discussion in 'Prius c Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by RobinLS, Jan 21, 2025.

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Engine? Battery? Something Else?

This poll will close on Jan 21, 2026 at 1:46 AM.

  1. Engine

    0 vote(s)
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  2. Battery

    1 vote(s)
    50.0%

  3. Something Else

    1 vote(s)
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  1. RobinLS

    RobinLS New Member

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    Hello. I have a 2013 Toyota Prius C One. It has 220,000 miles and was told that it's had it's hybrid battery replaced once but am unable to confirm (don't know how) but I ran checks on it with codes readers and it said battery and all cells in it are fine. It's in amazing shape with every gizmo and gadget working properly. It's stored in a heated garage at 50 degrees F (winter temps). The car has been starting to "sometimes" have worse gas mileage. It seems that it starts rougher at some starts than other times and a rough start and higher than normal throttle feeling accompanies the bad gas consumption. Good start can get anywhere from 45-60mpg and bad ones 25-35mpg. Stopping and re-starting car sometimes works. This has been happening for past few months mostly but showed some early signs of it since March. Now it's winter and the car is displaying check hybrid system after about an hour of driving in cold weather 10 degrees F. After getting it home and running some checks on it while idle it still says check hybrid system and will shut down after a bit. The 12V battery is new, and systems check says it's good. No codes of any kind or issues or bad lights. Code reader seems to think nothing is wrong all the way up til shutdown despite the hybrid warning. ALL recommended maintenance and care have been performed on this vehicle up to date with no known issues other than whats mentioned here. Although I suspect it was previously used as a Uber, I only use it for short trips once every few days.
     
    #1 RobinLS, Jan 21, 2025
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2025
  2. RobinLS

    RobinLS New Member

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    This morning I had to drive my dog to surgery (about a 2 minute drive from my home). On the way there car was great but still had the warning. On the way back, the warning went away and now only says maintenance required. It seems it only shuts down when running diagnostics with code reader in it while running it idle. Otherwise it just says maintenance required.
     
    #2 RobinLS, Jan 21, 2025
  3. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    What code reader is this?

    There are many on the market that do not know how to ask all of the ECUs in a Prius for status reports, so they just ask the main (fuel injection/ignition) ECU.

    Consequently if there are no fuel injection or ignition problems they report a clean bill of health- even if there are dire problems occurring in other parts of the car. The reader is just blind to them.

    The Autel AP200 has emerged as an excellent, affordable diagnostic reader that is completely Prius-aware. It's cousin, the AP2500 is similar but not identical, a few of us are still working out the differences between them.

    If you are getting 'check hybrid system' alerts on the dash, there are most certainly stored codes to retrieve, you just need something Prius-aware to extract the data.

    Start with a better code reader.
     
    #3 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Jan 22, 2025
    Brian1954 likes this.
  4. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Senior Member

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    ^+1
    You need a better scan tool. Read post #1 and then scroll down to post #37 in this thread, https://priuschat.com/index.php?posts/3246758

    The Autel AP200 is the best one for the money that can read all the trouble codes in the Prius. The price right now is $59 on Amazon.
     
    #4 Brian1954, Jan 22, 2025
  5. Starship_Enterprius

    Starship_Enterprius Active Member

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    You say 12v is new? If that is recent make sure the battery connection is good. I got a check hybrid system error once due to lose12v connection.
     
    #5 Starship_Enterprius, Jan 22, 2025
  6. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The "maintenance required" light, for what it's worth, only means it's been 5,000 miles since the last time somebody shut off the "maintenance required" light.
     
    #6 ChapmanF, Jan 22, 2025
  7. RobinLS

    RobinLS New Member

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    I will post a link to the reader I use.

    That's kinda what I figured too... so how would i shut it off? I think it's only doing it because I hit 220000 miles and it thinks it needs tune up but i did them already just to get them out of the way. (all the things it suggested and more). New tires, fluid flush, replace filters checks, brakes, alignment, new catalytic converter, and cleaned inside and out. This car is spoiled, and also a testament to how many miles/years prius cars can last given the proper care.
     
    #7 RobinLS, Jan 23, 2025
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 24, 2025
  8. RobinLS

    RobinLS New Member

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    This is the one I've been using and it's worked fine in it before the maint light came on.
    Hyper-Tough-HT500-Bluetooth-Scan-Tool-OBD2-Vehicles

     
    #8 RobinLS, Jan 23, 2025
  9. RobinLS

    RobinLS New Member

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    I'll check it again
     
    #9 RobinLS, Jan 23, 2025
  10. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    I found a web page- possibly from Hyper-Tough themselves? It's a bit hilarious; it starts listing the features of an OBD scanner and then seamlessly drifts to list the features of a 4" angle grinder. Hallucinating AI or just plain bad website? I don't know. Either way the specs as listed for this reader-slash-angle grinder do not suggest that it can read hybrid codes.

    Give the Autel (or other Prius-aware scanner) a shot and you'll see some results.
     
    #10 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Jan 24, 2025
    Prodigyplace likes this.
  11. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Senior Member

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    The Hyper Tough HT500 is made by Innova and is sold at Walmart. Hyper Tough tools are a Walmart brand name. Here is the Walmart web page, Hyper Tough HT500 Bluetooth Scan Tool, 1996 & Newer OBD2 Vehicles, Free Fix & Part Recommendations - Walmart.com
     
    #11 Brian1954, Jan 24, 2025
    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller likes this.
  12. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I couldn't remember if the answer to that was in my owners' manual, or if it was something they considered techie knowledge and put in the repair manual. But sure enough, it's in my owners' manual, under "Do-it-yourself maintenance", "Engine compartment", "Engine oil", "after changing the engine oil".

    So I don't know if that's where it would be in the c manual, or whether the steps to reset are the same, but that's where I'd look.
     
    #12 ChapmanF, Jan 24, 2025
  13. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    I am pretty sure your walmart scanner is just a bluetooth obd2 interface. Try downloading "Car Scanner" and try it with your obd2 device. It should read codes.
     
    #13 rjparker, Jan 24, 2025
  14. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    I don't know if the procedure has changed over the years so yours could be different from ours. If I remember right you would:

    1. Put the car in READY mode.
    2. Push the odo/trip button until the dash is displaying trip meter A.
    3. Turn the car off.
    4. Hold down the ↩ button on the steering wheel
    5. Put the car back into READY mode.
    6. As soon as the dash wakes up it will say "RESETTING MAINTENANCE DATA IN x SECONDS" and it begins a brief countdown.
    7. Keep holding ↩ until the countdown reaches zero, and it will clear the flag.
    I understand that you could use Toyota Techstream software to disable the thing altogether, or set the mileage interval to a custom value but I have not tried this.
     
    #14 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Jan 24, 2025
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