Red Triangle, check engine, yellow brake system light

[miniracer]

I have a 2004 Prius, faultless for 31000 miles. Yesterday, I stopped at a red light and I got the red triangle, check engine, and yellow brake system light. I think there was a buzzer in there somewhere. ICE goes dead. I make it about a mile back toward home before the Big Battery dies. I pull to the side of the road, power down, then power up and the engine comes on. I'm able to charge another mile to home. This morning I check that gas cap is tight, and oil is not overfilled. All OK. I turn on ignition, still get red triangle and chech engine, but not brake system light. Recycle again and now I get only the "check engine" Recycle again and now none of the bad lights are on. I drive around a little to charge up battery and all seems well.

I call the dealer and he says the systems seem to have corrected themselves, problem (whatever it was) has gone away and the computer has recognized this - thus no warning lights. I "should monitor the situation" in their words. Made appointment to have SSC 50P reflash done on Monday.

Don't flame me too bad. Yes, I've had the notice for months but I heard that, at least initially, some computers were being fried. I decided to wait a bit until the techs got up to speed. Then, I started to procrastinate. My experience with dealers is that I take a perfectly operating car in for service, then shortly after, something goes bad. If it ain't broke - don't fix it - and all that.

Question - is this stalling episode and the way it seems to have corrected itself indicative of the problem that the 50P reflash addresses?

Another deal is that my MPG over the last 250 miles has gone from my normal 43-44 (lots of hills and short trips) to 40-41. Could there have been computer issues that caused the crappy mileage, culminating in the stalling episode?

[Tideland Prius]

From the manual... gotta love Engrish

YELLOW WARNING LIGHT

When the regenerative brake system
is fails...

RED OR YELLOW WARNING LIGHT

When the hydraulic brake system
fails...

When the yellow warning light comes on,
it is no problem to continue driving. However,
if the red warning light comes on,
it indicates a serious problem and you can
continue driving no longer.

Cycling on and off will eventually cancel the warning lights but the codes should still be stored in memory. Have the Prius tech plug in the OBD-II scanner and retrieve those codes.

[brownne]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(miniracer @ Sep 7 2006, 02:11 AM) [snapback]315525[/snapback]</div>

I have a 2004 Prius, faultless for 31000 miles. Yesterday, I stopped at a red light and I got the red triangle, check engine, and yellow brake system light. I think there was a buzzer in there somewhere. ICE goes dead. I make it about a mile back toward home before the Big Battery dies. I pull to the side of the road, power down, then power up and the engine comes on. I'm able to charge another mile to home. This morning I check that gas cap is tight, and oil is not overfilled. All OK. I turn on ignition, still get red triangle and chech engine, but not brake system light. Recycle again and now I get only the "check engine" Recycle again and now none of the bad lights are on. I drive around a little to charge up battery and all seems well.

I call the dealer and he says the systems seem to have corrected themselves, problem (whatever it was) has gone away and the computer has recognized this - thus no warning lights. I "should monitor the situation" in their words. Made appointment to have SSC 50P reflash done on Monday.

Don't flame me too bad. Yes, I've had the notice for months but I heard that, at least initially, some computers were being fried. I decided to wait a bit until the techs got up to speed. Then, I started to procrastinate. My experience with dealers is that I take a perfectly operating car in for service, then shortly after, something goes bad. If it ain't broke - don't fix it - and all that.

Question - is this stalling episode and the way it seems to have corrected itself indicative of the problem that the 50P reflash addresses?

Another deal is that my MPG over the last 250 miles has gone from my normal 43-44 (lots of hills and short trips) to 40-41. Could there have been computer issues that caused the crappy mileage, culminating in the stalling episode?
[/b]

Very similar happened to me - took my car (31,000 miles also, 2005 prius T4) in for the steering recall, and when I came to pick it up I got the red warning triangle and the hybrid failure light on the MFD (orange car with exclamation sign in it). The tech at the dealer was able to reset the warning lights and said it seemed to be a communication failure between the hybrid components.

All was well on the drive home, but the next day it all happened again, but this time got the: VSC, ABS, Orange/Yellow brake system and red hand(foot)brake light (even with it off). On the MFD got 'PS' light and the Hydbrid system light as before. Major failure!. I was able to drive it 20miles to the dealer though (the electric motor wasn't boosting the engine it seeemed like).

Got the car back yesterday and all seems well (some talk of ECU fault by the dealer). But why & how - funny coincidence that it happened after the recall work me-thinks.

Miniracer - has it happened since ?

[eagle33199]

So if you picked up the car from the dealer after service and there were warning lights on, why drive it? it was clear they caused some sort of problem.... i would have demanded a loaner car and left it there until they fixed the problem.

[brownne]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Oct 11 2006, 02:24 PM) [snapback]331082[/snapback]</div>

So if you picked up the car from the dealer after service and there were warning lights on, why drive it? it was clear they caused some sort of problem.... i would have demanded a loaner car and left it there until they fixed the problem.
[/b]

They were able to reset the error messages with the plug in unit and they speculated that this was an old error message from something they disconnected when they did the steeting column work.
To be fair, the car was acting normally after the reset and the old error message theory seemed plausible.

It seems now that they spent a lot of time on the car trying to get rid of the error messages (that appeared the day after), and one thing that had gone faulty was the 'skid control relay' which had gone open circuit and needed replacing. This perhaps explains the ABS, VSC, etc lights which were on. But was the fault related to the steering column work? Apparently not I'm told.

[miniracer]

Well, I had the SSC 50P reflash and the steering column thing done a few days after my original post. I had the work done at Toyota of Berkeley and the car has been fine since then. They said the problem was indicative of the stalling problem that prompted the recall in the first place. MPG has been down 3-4 MPG since then. Driving style and routes haven't changed and I haven't figured that one out yet. And, yes, the steering wheel ended up dead centered. In at 10, out by 2. Good experience.

[DoctorL]

Where is the skid control relay located? Is there only one, or are there 4--one for each wheel. I have an ABS light, Red "Brake" light and ((!)) light on continuously and no braking on the right rear wheel. The hydraulic brakes work on the other 3 wheels.

[richard schumacher]

Brake work on a Prius is not a DIY job. A Toyota proprietary tool is needed to bleed the brake lines correctly. Get thee and thine to a dealer.