Turning off the reverse beep on a 2012 Prius v

Did you try the dealer you bought the car from? I am not in that area but my dealer tried to charge me and I spoke to my salesperson to set it up so I wouldn't be.

 

I always back my Pri into a parking spot because I'm terrified of hitting a pedestrian when I back out. Twice in the past year, I've had someone walk THROUGH the parking spot I'm backing into, completely ignoring my car, so, while I thought a back up alarm would be annoying, I recognized the need for it.

Picked up my new Prius V tonight and was in the garage as my dh back it in (to make sure he didn't hit the tire stand if he parked at the marker for the 2007 Prius.) Was surprised the car is silent on the outside.

Now I'm flummoxed to find out the alarm isn't to warn people outside the car but to remind the driver, who has just selected reverse using the gear selector, that the car is in reverse. Hmmmmmmm....

(My dealer already knows we'll be having it reprogrammed when we go in for the first oil change unless my son's scangauge will do it for me.)

 

This topic has been covered many times but I'll save you the trouble to look it up. Dealers should do if for free. If your dealer will not then find another dealer (talk to the service rep as your salesman might not know anything about it). Some have had it done at purchase with most waiting for the first 5000 mile checkup. They'll usually say they'll do it once for free then charge afterwards. Though some will try to charge even for that first time.

Another solution is to use a Scangauge II (which is about $160 currently on amazon) but it's has a small screen and limited interface and confusing commands (if you're new to it). The advantage is that it's a self contained unit and connects directly to the OBDII port on your car and has a reputation of being very reliable.

If you'll check the other parts of this forum you'll see threads dealing with bluetooth OBDII scanners that you control with a PC, tablet or smartphone. There are a lot of different compatible devices with some of the better one's hovering around $90-100, or you could get one of the knock-offs for about $20. I bought a highly reviewed unit off amazon for about $23 and it works brilliantly. I interface with it through my Android phone using the Torque app that I paid about $5 for. The advantage of this is that it's wireless, and you have very nice visual interfaces of lots and lots of data coming from your vehicle.

This thread in particular: GenIII Prius Custom PIDs for Torque app | PriusChat has ton's of custom PID's to use in the Torque application - basically means they made custom commands that can give you easy access to a ton of information and some commands to change things like the reverse beep.

All you need to do is connect the Bluetooth scanner to the OBDII port that is fully exposed and just below the steering wheel - takes just a few seconds.

Then download the Torque app (if you have an android device - iphone doesn't do as much as the android) to your phone and install it.
Download the zip file in the link above with the PID's. You want to unzip it and move the files to your .torque/extendedpids folder within your android device. If you use an app like ES File Explorer you it can view, move and even unzip the file.

Turn on your engine, and turn on the bluetooth on your phone. You can connect from within the app, but I prefer to use the phone's bluetooth settings. The device should show up, and you can try to pair to it. My device's password was "1234" use whatever was in your instructions.

Now on your phone start the Torque app (should already be connected to the scanner), hit menu and set up the vehicle profile. (before you do that you can go into settings>Units and adjust the unit to your region so that the next step makes more sense)
These were recommended:
Engine Displacement: 1.8
Weight:3275 US lbs
Fuel: Petrol
Fuel tank: 11.9 USG
Max RPM: 5200
Volumetric Efficiency: can't find this information, though it's supposedly a calculation of the volume of actual air being pumped vs theoretical - I just left it at the recommended 85 but others put in different numbers.
Remember to save everything.

Under menu>"settings">"Manage extra PIDs/Sensors" screen hit your menu button again then >"add predefined set" you should see a list of vehicles and the profiles you had just unzipped to your device. Choose "GenIII Prius 4-24-12 (US)" or if you like there is another option for (metric)

Then the screen will show a list of a ton of custom PIDs. Most of these are commands to access information that you can set up as a gauge to view in the Realtime Information desktop view.

But there are a few commands that you can send to the car one time (through a test function of the Torque app) to adjust settings like the reverse beep:

Scroll down all the way to the bottom. You'll see a PID for "Reverse Beep Disable". Choose it then from the pop up choose >edit. From there just scroll down all the way down and you'll see a button called Test. After clicking the test button a status/confirmation popup will show. After that is done the reverse beep is now disabled. Try to put your car into reverse to confirm. You can also adjust a few other things, like seatbelt alarms. Scroll through list to see them all. To just send the command one time, you need to do a test.

Most of the other PID's are to check realtime status of the engine. You can also check error codes and reset them. Great device to have and I much prefer being able to set alarms and beeps myself.

 

Good day all.
I joined this forum today expressly to thank mandasol for the excellent post above.
I purchased my Prius v (luxury option package) last week I'm very happy with it.
There are a few things that I'm discovering as I drive it that are annoyances and the reverse beeping was one of them (along with weak rear speakers & awkwardly placed seat warmer buttons).
I have a bluetooth OBDII scanner and Torque Pro and mandasol's well written post has given me the confidence to try and disable the reverse beep on my own.
I'll post back afterward with my results.
Thanks to all who contribute on this great forum!

UPDATE: I performed this upgrade last night while I was sitting in the parking lot of the arena waiting for my kids hockey game! Worked like a charm and literally took under 2 minutes. Thanks again mandasol for the thorough and detailed step-by-step instructions.

 

Is there a way to program the PID command to work on buttons? I would like to put buttons on one of the other destop screens in Torque Pro to Turn On/Off Reverse Beeping, Seatbelt Beeping, as well as see the current status. Is there a way to do this without always having to go into setup, edit the PID and do a test?

- TP

 

I believe if you create a dial display on the realtime information display screens it will send an assignable PID command whenever you scroll to that screen, however I assume it's sending the command constantly while you're on that screen. As far as other options, the push button option seems like it will only work if you want to send a single command string that you have to store for each button you create. The On/Off display option might work if you assign the reverse beep PID to one, though I haven't tried it.

 

I purchased my wife's Prius V new from Toyota of the Black Hills in January by email while deployed. They then had the audacity to tell her it was $75 to disable the reverse beep, plus another charge to make all the doors unlock by touching the drivers handle. Turned out, the door lock thing was a lie (hold down lock and unlock on the fob). Followed the directions above from mandasol using a cheap ($20 on Amazon shipped) ELM 327 mini and the Torque Pro app ($5). Worked perfectly. Thanks!

 

Wanted to post a quick Thank You to mandasol for the post above. I purchased a cheap bluetooth OBDII scanner from amazon.com ($16.99) and the torque pro app ($4.95). I had no prior experience working on the Prius, but the step by step instructions noted in mandasol's post (as well as the information in the post he linked to) were easy to follow and got this noob the results I wanted (disabled seatbelt warnings and reverse beep)! Note, in case you're curious, the free torque lite app does note work for disabling the reverse beep (at least while following the instructions noted above).

Now, a request. In the "Customization" section of the Prius v owner's manual (section 6.2) where the settings of disabling the seatbelt warning and reverse beep are listed, there is a line stating that the panic button on the key fob can be disabled. It states that the default is turned on and the customized setting is turned off. It's listed as something that can be "changed by your Toyota dealer." I'm assuming that this is something that can also be changed via Torque via a custom PID, but I didn't see one listed. Anybody have any ideas on this? For what it's worth, I'd like to disable it on my genII Prius as well.

 

Can somebody link the Amazon bluetooth scanner so I can be sure I get one that is known to work well?

 

This is the one that I purchased (the price has come down $1.50 since I bought it on Sunday). It didn't work the first time I plugged it in, but worked the second time without a problem. Take that for what it's worth.

Soliport ELM 327 Bluetooth OBDII OBD2 Diagnostic Scanner : Amazon.com : Automotive

 

Is it possible to change the thermo outside and A/C units to degrees in Celsius instead of F with the help of these OBD2 adapters?

 

Hi suland,

I don't think there is a customize options for that setting. However, you can use Torque to display the units in metric on your H/P, tablet, etc.

thermo outside = Ambient Temp Sensor
A/C setting = Set Temperature (D side)

Vincent

 

Following mandasol's excellent instructions I was able to disable the reverse beep on my Prius v Two. The beep didn't bothered me at all (I might activate it later) but just wanted to confirm the Bluetooth OBD2 module I got worked with this procedure. Thanks! This is the module I used: BAFX Products (TM) - ELM 327 Bluetooth OBD2 scan tool - For check engine light and other diagnostics - Android compatible : Amazon.com : Automotive

 

Thanks for the links, Cristino and DerekNIU!

 

This worked great. The backup alarm was so distracting. I just wanted to backup faster to get it over (not safe).
Used it as an on/off button.

 

Just turned off the reverse beep and the seatbelt beeps with the instructions above. Thanks!!

 

Question.....the Tourqe App everyone refers to is being used with the Android.....what if I want to use a Lap Top with Windows 7, or possibly a I-Pad?

 

I just purchased a 2013 Prius V. Is this the only method you can turn off the reverse beeping (buy the product and do it yourself or have the dealer do it)? You can't do a combination of button pushes (with the odometer button) to disable it on these newer cars like you could on the Gen II Prius?

After 200k miles on an old Prius and never understanding why it was there other than to tell the driver "hey you're in reverse" figured I would actually get it disabled on the new car...

 

You could try using Run Mobile Apps on Windows PC or Mac with BlueStacks | Android App Player to emulate the Android operating system on your PC. I'm not sure the USB communication would work, but it could be fun to tinker around with.