Immobilizer, Keyless Lock, Instrument Cluster Help

This is a known problem with an underpowered capacitor in the Gen2 Prius combination meter, aka: speedometer. As the meter gets old the capacitor intermittently goes bad causing all these symptoms.

There's loads of threads on here about how to remove it from your dash and solder on a new more powerful capacitor. It's an easy job compared to other circuit board soldering jobs.

There's also lots of people that specialize in this service because its so common. Such as: Prius Speedometer Replacement

 

Regardless of whether or not you understand the relationship between the combination meter (CM) and the other systems, the failure of the capacitor to allow the CM to start up properly does cause these symptoms and a few others you haven't mentioned, like being unable to open the rear hatch.

Follow PriusCampers advice above.

 

You have the CM monitor problem You need three capacitors for placed on the motherboard see Texas hybrids in Texas they have some pictures and videos I have pictures of the board I ordered from them this is all normal stuff I have four of these cars two have had the problem blah blah blah once you fix the CM monitor display with the capacitors or whatever most of your problems are going to vanish the holding the power button and all that many people have been there and done this already but you can overthink it all you want Go right ahead if you want to do the soldering you can pull the mess out and you can see pictures on Texas hybrid site that show the three capacitors they replace A lot of people here replacing one or two or something It looks like there's three that get done when it's done consistently etc etc You can do whatever you want because it's your car.

 

Look at the Texas hybrids post He has a shop in Texas I guess he invented this repair or whatever been doing it a long time look at the pictures of his boards they show them on the site and you can see it looks like they're replacing three capacitors generally speaking they're the silver can looking things soldered onto the green circuit board they show an old one and a new one I have an old one and a new one here from them it's 175 It's guaranteed you send your old one back and they credit your account with something It's a pretty good lick so I just paid I'm same age as you same nonsense taking the dash top off is no contorting other than when you have the lower glove box open to undo the 10 mm that hold the airbag frame to the chassis and I don't even bend over to do that I'm sitting in the seat. This is an easy repair The shop in Texas is going to program in your mileage that you give them along with your VIN number so that when you receive your new display it's ready to go with your mileage on it. You can bypass this I've just snatched them out of parts cars here on the property and stuffed them in another car and then that mileage is displayed that was in the display that I'm putting in the car so if it's a low mileage car like 85,000 mi or something and I'm putting it in one of my 200,000 mi cars my cars are never for sale so it really doesn't matter I put a little sticker inside the glove box door that tells me I need to add $200,000 to the display etc and I go with it. But those are getting few and far between now so I just bought the one from Texas it's all done it's good to go once I put it in it's all done anything you want to do under the dash top while it's off is the time to do it vents are very fragile you may break one or two Don't panic you can buy aftermarket ones now that fit very nicely with the same paint for about $99 for the whole set seriously I have a set in one of the cars here they're not brittle they're more pliable and they look like they belong there your factory vent pieces clip right in to these new shells slots and squares and holes are accurate no problem steering wheel stays on upper glove box is a problem You got to be careful getting the little plastic plugs out and taking the screws loose more units than not the spring is broken on the right hand side of the upper glove box You can buy these on amyama.com I wouldn't want to quote the price I can't remember like 80 bucks but if you're real picky you know. Other than that I can think of nothing that's a real bother just be careful with your solar sensor Make sure all that stuff is intact when you put the dash pad back down and if it behooves you I took some quarter inch thick foam sheet I believe and trimmed it and laid it about 4 in in front of my power button and the strip is about 5 in wide and that stopped any and all inclination for anything to be rattling wires or otherwise I did the same over on the glove box side so far so good everything's working perfectly as will be the same with your car Good luck.

 

If you watch some youtube videos on taking apart the dash I bet you'll realize it won't be that hard... Or maybe ask a friend or family member if they would assist so your car is only down for a few hours.

As for this problem making you stranded, I've never heard about anyone having that problem. The biggest challenge I've had with my 2007 is that it gets this problem like once a year, so when it happens I start making plans to take my dash apart and then next time I drive the car the problem is gone again for a year. If it was more consistently messed up it'd of been fixed by now!

PS: I hear you on doubting the combination meter could cause all those symptoms, but there's some components of the car that depend on that meter in ways that seem a bit illogical...

 

Why are you saying 3 capacitors? I've never once seen anyone replace more than the one? You got a reference / proof for your claim?

 

Yeah I think I took a picture of the one I was sent and then I have a picture of a bunch of other ones sitting side by side let me find it for you and now you'll tell me where to send it and then if you look on Texas hybrid site and look at the pictures that they're using for their I guess advertisement or their website you can see three there's a cluster of them sitting there three metal cans that look like they're brand new on the board right there where those I think they're three or four of them or something that sit right there I know I'm not going crazy. But I did take a picture of what I sent out and what I received from TH and it looks to me like on what I received there was that cluster I'm not mistaken it's more or less right in the middle or along the edge but in the middle of the rectangle so but yeah I'll get you a picture and you can take a look I thought that was pretty standard or something I really not seen the repair done live.

 

And mine 09 does the same thing as yours Prius camper once a year or something I'll come out push the start button I won't see the check engine light and the zero on the speedometer and I immediately push the car back off and literally restart the cycle and the dash lights right up on a unit I had in the same car before it would go out sometimes and be out for two or three days then come back etc then I got this other one out of this other car low mileage old lady 90,000 something miles was working beautiful in her car and pretty much it's worked beautiful in this like I say sometimes if I jump in the car too fast and start pushing the button too quick to get the car going I have a habit of always looking at the dash when I push the button and I've looked at this thousands and thousands of times and that's what I noticed.

 

Yeah that's the place and he posts here too I just don't know what is handle is or whatever but that's his place he does this I bought one from him no problems working great I'm not even anything I think about it just works and the video where the guy replaced the three is very similar to what looks like we'll see on the board you get from these guys or something similar I took pictures of mine too when it came and what I took out and it's noticeable whatever it is so there you go and I don't solder that well either so I don't want to burn up something I don't have all the heat sinks the soldering station none of that I know a lot of these guys do that on the fly and they've done it with computer work whatever I have not done much soldering and have no interest

 

The only service I would recommend is the service offered by Texas Hydrid Batteries as already mentioned. They do a thorough repair and offer a lifetime warranty. They can repair yours or send you a repaired CM with the mileage set to your current odometer. You can then remove your CM and replace it with the remanned one. You then can send the old CM back to Texas Hybrid Batteries for a $75 core refund.

No, it isn't, it is programmed into the CM itself.

Yes, you would end up with the mileage of the replacement CM.

If you want to read up on it there is a thread pinned to the top of the "Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting" forum called Combination Meter Repair - DIY that contains all the info you need to do the repair yourself. You can decide if you want to go that route after reading the thread. I'd recommend reading the first two pages and then skip to the last five or six pages first. There is a lot of chatter in the middle,

I hope that helps.

 

There are several different capacitors in that area of the board. Some people just replace the 100 uf cap, others do all 3 or 4 "since they are in there".

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Could someone take advantage of “Programmed to match your cars current odometer reading”, to do a roll-back? Or there’s safeguards against this? The places doing this are licensed, bonded?

 

Yes all I had to do was send Texas hybrid my VIN and the mileage and I could have put down whatever I wanted I don't know if you can just Google a VIN number and see the last known recorded mileage or what have you I don't have a clue. But I could have said whatever I wanted within reason you know I would think. But I'm trying to keep the car original as possible mileage wise for sale is not even an option not with us so I even guesstimated travel time in the mileage I would put on the car while waiting for the thing to come and then it took me about 4 or 5 days to have the time to install it that all of that equaled about another thousand miles maybe a tad over