OBD2 SCANNER FOR AUTO REPAIR

I may be way off the mark with this comment and if I am it's because I'm a backyard mechanic reaching a bit beyond my experience and tools set with respect to our car.

I'd say for $10 worth of DOT3, Dot4 or (it may take more than a quart to bleed all 4 lines and the accumulator pump) Good idea to check the spec.

If you're like me and want to know more about what you're actually looking at when tackling a job like a new pump, I want to have some previous knowledge about it, hands on. I'd think, since I don't know, that doing a full bleed for $10 - 20 will at least give you a head start on the bigger job that as others are suggesting you're likely to see soon-ish. Doesn't really matter as much to get it absolutely dead on balls accurate with the easier job the first time, as I believe it is with the more complex replacement.

I'd even go so far as to recommend getting your first 2 day subscription to techstream for just the documentation of the proper procedures for you year and model brake bleed. You should have time to take a look at the the booster replacement data at the same time. recommended

 

Only maybe steer clear of DOT 5 for this application, as discussed above, as you probably don't want your $10 investment to buy you ≫$10 liabilities.

 

Thanks Chap. I think I edited out Dot 5 while adding a few tidbits and reading the other posts I
'd only skimmed, around the same time you posted above.

 

Sometimes there are some similar names starting with tech- that get confused around here.

techinfo.toyota.com, also known as TIS, Toyota's Technical Information Service, is an online site where you can find the repair manuals and lots and lots of other documentation and service information about the car. Again, that's "techinfo", ends in "-info", or "TIS". It's described here (along with a variety of alternative ways you can get the information):

Toyota Service Information and Where To Find It | PriusChat

"Techstream" is the name of a piece of software you can run on a Windows laptop to be able to interact with the computers in the car for diagnosis and special repair tasks. Again, that's "Techstream", ends in "-stream".

I think vvillovv was mostly talking about subscribing to "techinfo"—TIS—the documentation literature site—so you could bone up on how the repairs you're thinking about are done. You can get that kind of TIS subscription for $20 for two days of access to all of the repair literature that is there.

Now, there might come a point where "Techstream" also comes into the picture. If you're going to do brake bleeding, you need some scan tool you can plug into the car and tell it to go through the bleed process. The Techstream software is the go-to way of doing that (though some other scan tools exist that have that function too).

And there is one way, too, where "techinfo"/TIS and "Techstream" intertwine: if you have an official download of Techstream, it will only work while you give it a valid activation key. And you get those keys by subscribing to techinfo/TIS. For that, you spend $65 instead of $20 for two days' access, and in addition to all of the online documentation access, you also get an activation key for the Techstream software that will work for two days.

 

Also, keep in mind, when you get a mini vci passthrough accompanied by a pirated version -
(which ever version is sold with the mini vci from china for $40 - 75 at ebay, amazon or the vendors page in china) if you look close enough at description some will even state that the mini vci will not function correctly with the official techstream lite software from techinfo.toyota ....

For many, especially with older Prii the cheaper price is hard to resist, and most reports I've seen here are decent. It can be a challenge to get it setup with the activation key for some. After activation most reviews I've read say it works well for them even with it's sometimes limited documentation, like the blue links to more info in the repair manual.
You can get a feel for what those limitations might look like in the cheap copies if you get a a 2 day subscription especially for a job like brake bleeding and or accumulator pump replacement.
'

 

"Techstream Lite" is not the name of the software (that's just Techstream). "Techstream Lite" is the name of one 'bundle' you can buy from Toyota (which includes a $495 Opus (formerly Drew Technologies) dongle, a download of the software, and a $1295 real activation key to use it one year).

If a knockoff Mini VCI is coming with a hacked version of Techstream so it doesn't need a real Toyota activation key, or so it will work with a hacked key from the vendor that doesn't expire, and the vendor says "this won't work with an official download of Techstream", what they probably mean is that their hacks to get around the activation won't work in the official software.

The dongle itself, to the extent it conforms to the J2534 standard, ought to work ok with official Techstream, where "ok" means able to do whichever things the dongle supports, which might not be all the things the officially-supported Opus dongle does.

Unless they built their hacks against Techstream right into their J2534 DLL file. Which might be possible, I suppose, I just haven't seen reports of it.

 

I learn something new here almost everyday. I'll sure stop referring to techstream software as techstream lite, which I've always thought of as the official software package from techinfo.toyota.... that's available for anyone and not just those who have access to one.tis.toyota....