2003 Post-purchase advice (ECU replacement)

Hi everyone -- this is my first post, so I hope it's not a dumb one! I've been reading the forums here for quite some time and am grateful for all of the information that is available.

So, on to the problem...

I just purchased a 2003 Prius with 86k miles on it. I am in Massachusetts, where all used vehicles must be inspected within 7 days of purchase. At such inspection, the Prius in question wouldn't communicate with the computer used by the inspection station. Thereafter, the check engine light came on, and the vehicle wouldn't start. After a few minutes of waiting and a couple of retries, the car did start up but would still not communicate with the computer.

The car was taken into a local Totyota dealer where they advised that a new ECU would be required to fix the problem. They also said that other than the ECU, the car was fine. Of course, the used dealer we bought the car from wants to order a used part and have his mechanic install it, rather than having to pay the Toyota dealership for repair of a new unit. I gather from what I've read here that the installation of an ECU can be complicated and I'm wondering if I even want to get into a potential hornet's nest of problems if a non-prius specialist tries to install this component. As you'd expect, the place we bought the car from is claiming that it's a simple plug-n-play fix and would take fifteen minutes.

Under the law in Massachusetts, the failure to pass inspection means I could just return the car for a full refund. I'm wondering if I should just do that, since the dealer we bought from won't pay for a Toyota dealer to fix the problem.

My questions are:

(1) What are the risks of having an average joe mechanic try and install an ECU on a Prius? Could they cause damage that will not show up until later, when I no longer have the right to return the car?

(2) Is there any special equipment that the average joe mechanic is not going to have, that would be required for this installation? I see that there is a "Toyota laptop" computer that is mentioned in some threads here -- is that something that only Toyota dealer mechanics have?

(3) Given the information above, and knowing that I'm not really inclined to do a lot of self-repair on this vehicle, would you suggest returning the car or going ahead with having it fixed by a non Toyota dealership mechanic?

Thank you very much for any advice!
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Brian and Don: thank you so much for your very helpful advice, and for responding so quickly! I truly appreciate it.

It sounds like I should probably be OK with having a used ECU put in the vehicle by a non-Toyota dealer, so I'm going to give it a shot.

Brian, the list of maintenance suggestions was wonderful. I am going to look into having these tasks done. This makes me wonder if there are any other Boston-area folks who would recommend a service shop that is good with Prius vehicles. I suspect if I walked into a Toyota dealer with the list of these maintenance tasks, I would get a very hefty bill, so having a recommended non-dealer would be very valuable.

Thanks again, everyone!

 

Patrick, many thanks for your advice. I had been assuming that it was the engine ECU that the Toyota dealership was recommending be replaced, but I was unable to confirm that today before I got cut off at 4:30 and they apparently turned the phones off for the day. The mechanic I spoke to vaguely thought it was the HV ECU, but he didn't know for sure and had to transfer me off to someone, which is when I got disconnected. Certainly that will be my first phone call in the morning.

Regarding possible flooding or accident, there was certainly no evidence of such events in the Carfax or when I took the vehicle in to a local mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection. The only thing that might be worth mentioning is that the seller told me that when a previous potential buyer took it in for a pre-purchase inspection, the 12 VDC battery was apparently near dead, so the seller replaced it with a new battery. I know I've read in these forums that replacing the battery in the G1 Prius can be tricky if not done properly, so I wonder if that might have lead to the problem I'm seeing now.

At this point, I think that if the HV ECU is what needs replacing, I might just return the vehicle. If it's the engine ECU, then I'm willing to let the seller replace it and see if it solves the problem.

 

An update and a question.

A replacement engine ECU was installed. I was told by the seller that they took the car to an inspection station and it still wasn't communicating with the computer, but that it needed to be driven 150 miles for the ECU to reset and for communication to begin working. Does this sound accurate? Because if I didn't know better, I'd say it's a stall tactic to get pass the lemon law return date. I guess I'll try to drive it 150 miles as quickly as possible, but I was interested to hear from the experts here on this issue.

Thanks!

 

Very helpful, as always. Thanks you so much, Patrick! I'll try to find a nice place to see in New England around Christmas time!