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2010 Prius Brake, ABS, Traction Control Lights On

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017.

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  1. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    My wife's 2010 Prius with 143K miles had the ABS, Traction Control and Brake light all come on at once today when she was pulling in to the house. We bought it with about 135K miles and it's been running great after I did some basic maintenance on it (spark plugs, filters, oil etc).

    The car feels like it has no regenerative braking at all anymore and is just using the mechanical brakes now. If I coast the battery still charges, the car stops ok with more brake effort to engage the mechanical brakes. The pads are a bit low but still have maybe 2-3mm of material on all corners. Would the low pad wear sensor cause this fault? What else could I check?

    I plugged in a cheap obd2 handheld scanner and it had 0 engine fault codes stored. There are no other warning lights on besides Brake, TC, and ABS.
     
    #1 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2017
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you need a prius aware scanner like mini vci. how is the 12v health?
     
    #2 bisco, Nov 28, 2017
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  3. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Check and see if there's an outstanding recall on your car, the brakes were one of the recall items
     
    #3 JC91006, Nov 28, 2017
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  4. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    Is there a site to check? Which particular part of the brakes were under recall? I'd appreciate a link or recall # if you have it. Thanks
     
    #4 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
  5. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    #5 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
  6. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    Unfortunately I have not invested in one yet. Not sure on 12V health, I should get that tested. Is that a common problem when these 3 lights pop up? Car is getting 44mpg since we've had it so not sure if the 12V is bad.
     
    #6 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
  7. tankyuong

    tankyuong Senior Member

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    i say wheel bearing
     
    #7 tankyuong, Nov 28, 2017
  8. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Log into Toyota.com owners portal, enter you vin there and you can look up the car's history and see outstanding recalls
     
    #8 JC91006, Nov 28, 2017
  9. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    I ran to the auto parts store and they tested the 12V battery, 450CCA Optima Yellow top and the battery is in good condition. I guess I'll need to get a system that can scan the brake system since there are no faults with the engine obd2 scanner.
     
    #9 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
  10. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    Thanks, that site says no open recalls either
     
    #10 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
  11. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    Can you elaborate? Did you have the same lights come on and the culprit was the wheel bearing? What's the action to fix this? Cheap or expensive part? DIY or leave it to a pro?
     
    #11 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
  12. tankyuong

    tankyuong Senior Member

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    50 dollar part but hard to take off plus find out which wheel bearing withan abs scanner
     
    #12 tankyuong, Nov 28, 2017
  13. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    Is it the ABS sensor that's integrated in the wheel bearing assembly/hub that fails? Is it not possible just to change the sensor?
     
    #13 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
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  14. tankyuong

    tankyuong Senior Member

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    built in
     
    #14 tankyuong, Nov 28, 2017
  15. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    So the entire hub/sensor is only 50 bucks at the dealer? Looks like it's 138 for a Timken on rockauto. Front sensor is 100-145 for aftermarket.

    Is it common for these things to fail? Car has 143k miles.
     
    #15 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2017
  16. tankyuong

    tankyuong Senior Member

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    common repair especially if you hit a curb
     
    #16 tankyuong, Nov 28, 2017
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  17. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    No curbs were hit to my knowledge. She was just driving home and said they popped on as she turned on to our street. Which is more common, front or rear?
     
    #17 Jkan2001, Nov 28, 2017
  18. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    Was there a pothole or gravel on the road, or snow, any kind of situation where the wheel might have lost traction or slipped momentarily? If so, then it's common for the stated dashboard lights to come on.

    You can try to reset all the ECU modules by disconnecting the 12v auxiliary battery negative cable connection in the trunk and wait 30 seconds or so, then reconnect. If the error indicators persist after the reset, then your problem is real and needs to be resolved.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #18 xliderider, Nov 28, 2017
  19. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Nobody seems to have mentioned yet that you can retrieve the trouble codes from the brake computer by using a short length of wire and counting light blinks. You'll get two-digit codes instead of the five-character ones you see on a scantool, but the manual shows how to match them up. Lots of threads here have the details.

    All the other speculation in this thread about whether it might be a wheel speed sensor, or which one, or something else, etc., will typically be settled straight away when you have the codes, which will tell you, for example, if you have a speed sensor problem and, if so, which one.

    -Chap
     
    #19 ChapmanF, Nov 29, 2017
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  20. Jkan2001

    Jkan2001 Member

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    That's a good point. I did not know about jumpering the brake computer to get the light blinks. I'll search and see if I can find a thread on that procedure and what all the codes mean. You're right it's much better than speculation.

    EDIT: did a quick search and it seems like most the wire/counting the blink trick info is on Gen 2's is it the same for gen 3?
     
    #20 Jkan2001, Nov 29, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2017
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