Combination meter how to get to turn on

nope. make sure your 12v is healthy. other than that, you need a new meter.

 

i believe it. you're likely right, all the best!

 

And there's the conundrum of owning an old car. Want it to work reliably? Get it repaired/replaced. Sorry, there is no magic, free hack for this.

GOOD LUCK!

 

Prius Speedometer Replacement

Could you justify 150, and self install?

 

Is there any foolproof way of gettiing it to turn on?

Yes, replace it.

At any rate, I had multiple times it wouldn't come on at all and now at least 10 times in a row it has come on which leads me to believe that there is a way to get it on.

If your washing machine starts acting funny, is there a secret combination of light switches and cabinet doors that you can operate that will make the washing machine work correctly?

That's basically what you're asking. The capacitors on the circuit board are failing. Contrary to this:

"Believe it or not, not everything is about the 12v battery. "

believe it or not, a new 12v battery MAY temporarily solve this, since a new battery will most likely have a higher voltage available when first starting the car and that extra voltage may be enough to help those caps act a little better. Kind of like what you're attempting to do by using 42 different combinations of electrical sequences.

 

Unless something changes, in the near future the vehicle will no longer start, it could be tomorrow or next year.

Please report back with status updates, newly learned tricks, or magic combinations that will start the vehicle.

 

i'm surprised by all the negativity here. there has to be a way to get it to come on, since it comes on sometimes.

 

excellent!

 

Yeah, there's a capacitor in the display that gives out and it's often progressive. There are threads and YouTube videos showing how to replace it. If you're comfortable with some disassembly and soldering, it's not really hard and would only cost a couple bucks.

 

While I take your point, the example you chose isn't ideal, because for old dial controlled washing machines there often is a free workaround for at least one failure mode. Our old Kenmore has 3 different "programs" on one dial, with varying lengths of wash and number of rinse cycles. This was very common for machines of that era. The one we always used stopped working reliably because the contacts wore out (after 22 years). Rather than replace the switch (and good luck finding an exact replacement at that age) we just started using another program. Sure, it runs the wash cycle a couple of minutes longer, but the clothes still come out clean. At the observed failure rate on that switch we expect to be on the trash heap ourselves before we have "used up" the last of the 3 three "programs"!

The problem with the combination meter isn't so much that they used the wrong capacitor, but that they entombed the board deep in the dash. This requires a ridiculous amount of disassembly and reassembly just to reach the problem component.

 

What I found with those is that the 'programs' were notches cut into flat discs that rotated with the timer shaft, and different switch contacts (motor, spin, fill, etc.) rode on the different discs, and dropped into the notches at the right times in the program.

At some point they started making the discs from plastic. Then they could just have the bare metal electrical contact be what rode on the disc. The contact could get warm during operation (especially if old and not super clean), and the heat would reach the part that rode on the disc, soften the plastic, and sort of mold the sharp-edged program notches into more rampy things. Of course that makes the contact even worse, increasing the heat, so the condition is progressive.

It's hard finding an exact replacement at that age, but I did once just clean up all the contacts again, build out the carved places in the discs with epoxy, and once it was cured, file them back to the original shape with a nail file. Not sure why I ever thought I had time for that, but it was GF's washer at the time, and it did work like new afterward.

Edit: no wait, I remember it now ... it wasn't so much about carving the existing edges into rampy things. The timer wheel in this particular control didn't move continuously like a clock hand: there was a clock motor involved, but it would just bump the control wheel ahead by a small amount, once every minute or so. In between bumps, the control discs weren't moving at all. Which meant, if the electrical contact was hot enough from a part of the program that had just ended, it would now be sitting still for a minute on one part of the plastic disc and melt its way down in, adding a very narrow new program notch. It had ended up making a sequence of those new little notches a minute apart. It was easy to just fill those in with epoxy and make them go away.

 

Some people find it kind of exciting to have the thrill of playing "will it work?" every time you go to use the car.

The real question is whether or not you need it to be reliable?

At some point it will definitely fail and leave you stranded.
Sometimes it fails by not turning on.
Sometimes it fails by not turning off.
Both situations make for some interesting situations.

It is pretty random about how to make it turn on. Clap you hands three times and spin around clockwise... it turns on.
Jump three times in the air in 3 seconds... can also sometimes make it turn on.
Seriously though, it will continue to work fine... until it doesn't.
Sometimes people go many months in limbo, not knowing if this will be the time of complete failure.

If you need reliability you will need to either try fixing it yourself or find someone else to fix it for you..

 

All of the tips are here, but you will have to use the 'advanced search' feature to find them. They haven't gone sticky yet.

Most likely you'll be fine, until it doesn't start

Just tell employers about the potential for being late to work because of a failing capacitor, then they have no reason to lay you off

 

The search function on the forum is worthless. Go to google and search for "priuschat combo meter." It's one of the most talked about topics on this forum. Here are a few of the hits I got:
combination meter repair - DIY | PriusChat
Combination meter NOT NECESSARY AT ALL | PriusChat
Combination meter replacement | PriusChat
Combination Meter Out After 12v Battery Replacement | PriusChat
Does Combo Meter REALLY need replacing? | PriusChat
2008 Prius Combination Meter | PriusChat
New (to us) Prius- Combo Meter issue! | PriusChat
Combination Meter for sure. Fuse as well? | PriusChat
2005 Prius combo meter (dash) not lighting up | PriusChat
Combination Meter or 12V Battery? | PriusChat