Oh crap I have the red triangle with exclamation point!

we had it on our loaded '04. talk about adding uneccesary expense to a car that needs to come down in price, not go up.

 

No need to bother with the DIY fix anymore as far as I'm concerned.

You can get the part aftermarket rather than through the dealer.
Under $100 for the part.
Under an hour of time if you replace it yourself.

 

Yes, held on by a few 10 mm (socket size) bolts, it spans between the rear the cross beam and body. You should raise the rear of the car, say 6" min, and put in safety stands at the rear jacking points, or on something strong and unsprung, immediately adjacent (my pref).

For anyone, even if your's is fine: it's worth having a look for this. Loosen the 10 mm bolts, squirt a small amount of lube into the thread zone, make sure the linkage on the thing is loose, squirt a bit more lube into it's knuckles, tighten back up the 10 mm bolts.

Do that and you'll maybe never have a failure, since it'll likely be the linkage seizing. And even if you do have a failure, internal to the mechanism, it'll be easier to remove with the lubed 10 mm bolts, and you'll know what/where it is.

 

Yeah, but then you don't get to take apart a couple of ballpoint pens, find some wire, tie a hangman's noose in the wire. Spray contact cleaner all around....

I have to admit, I thought the guy in the video got pretty creative. He reminded of all the guys of my father's generation, who could take apart just about any home appliance and fix it with some baling wire and epoxy!

 

A lot of things can be laid low by a simple malfunction. Our microwave had a tricky button push to release the door. The cheap plastic lever doing the release failed, so you're looking at your plate of food trapped in there. I forget exactly how, but I managed to open it up, replaced the broken plastic lever with something cobbled outa wood and plumbers hanger strap. Otherwise the whole thing would be hooped. It's still working ok, knock on wood.

 

So, all seriousness aside -- if Tracy -- or myself, want to find this gadget, I am "seeing" that it is on the rear left (driver side), just forward of the strut?

Kinda of tucked in a tough to access -- somewhat -- spot....so something I should put off looking at until June, July, August, or maybe never if the thing is not really important anyway?

 

Kind of poked around looking at this -- Dorman makes an Aftermarket sensor ONLY for around $60-90 or so....but what about the rest of the assembly. Looks to me that it is just as likely the steel arm/beam thing is going to be broken/corroded and need replacing -- so how much for the whole package?

From what I am seeing, Airtex and Wells and Autozone Duralast run between $320 to $440 for the entire thing -- sensor, bracket, arms.
Genuine Toyota Prius Height Control Sensor Rear LH 89408 47010 | eBay

So, doing it yourself, isn't cheap, unless the local wrecking yard has something...

 

I had the link snap on my gen2 headlamps adjuster due to it seizing onto one of the balls. The pot was ok.
I made a new link from an old tailgate gas strut that has plastic screw on ball cups at both ends. These were removed and a piece of threaded rod (or a suitable bolt with the head sawn off) was used to re join them at the correct length. The plastic cups will not seize on the steel balls causing the same problem again.

John (Britprius)

 

my '04 failed within a year, was repaired under warranty. the funny thing is, the headlights seem fine, it's just the stupid idiot lights.

 

I think it's only used on the cars with either HID or LED headlights, right? The ones that are so effin' bright it's more than an inconvenience to oncoming drivers if they're badly aimed.

I'd like to see a video like the one Steve posted, except where instead of twisting a coat hanger, the guy models and 3D-prints a replacement link arm....

-Chap

 

I think I heard Tracy expressing a preference for "option 2" in her latest post, which would be the ScanGauge. Doesn't get talked about as much in these Mini VCI days because it doesn't do all the singing and dancing TechStream does, but it's still a solid option that makes the difference between being blind to what your computers are trying to tell you, and being able to find out.

When faced with that kind of a truism, my usual advice is to change it into a compared-to-what question. In this case: when you're on notice that your car's computers have trouble information to give you, and your choice is between reading that information or doing without it, which is the choice that will usually shorten the path to a correct understanding of the problem?

Being not-blind to the information your car's trying to give you can be advantageous even if you're not planning to turn all wrenches yourself. If you get a trouble light in the middle of a long trip, you can get some idea what it's about. You could post it to PriusChat from your phone and get some informed opinions as to how much it should disrupt your trip or could be handled later. It can serve as a sanity check on what you get told by a repair shop. (It can be very useful information to an independent repair shop, if they don't have a tool that can read your codes, but you do.) Depending on how well you understand the code, you can do the sanity checking yourself, or let PriusChat have your back ("codes are xxx yyy, mechanic says bla bla bla, how's that sound?"). If you happen to belong to the gender that really often gets told weird stuff by mechanics, that might be especially helpful.

Of course, it's also really handy whenever you feel like doing some work yourself.

-Chap

 

Depends on the failure I suppose.

The failures I have seen most times are the corroded sensor, not a broken/corroded bracket or steel arm/beam thing.

 

My question, and probably Tracy's too....is this something that really needs fixing....esp. if it is not throwing a "dash light?"

 

if no dash light, i don't think so, unless you think you can't see well at night, or you're getting a lot of peeps flashing their lights at you, even though you're on low. but she is getting the dash light, which is problematic.

 

that would be cool! maybe bill the engineer will tune in, he has access to one.

 

she was getting a dash light, but that might have been because of the 12v...tracy??

 

see post #57.

 

Yes, I did read that...but, Bisco, I do get the feeling you are a bit over 35 or so in years....so do you believe everything the Toy Tech tells you.

 

60 to be exact. i don't believe anything those guys say. i just don't know enough to contradict them sometimes.

 

My gen2 has halogen lamps as OEM and is fitted with the self adjuster mechanism. Alongside that is also a height adjustment control on the dash.

John (Britprius)