Those darn codes

Did you bleed all the air out of the system?

 

You list the code as P1116 and that is not a valid code for the Prius.
If the code is P0116 that is a valid code.
If there are no obvious coolant leaks from the engine bay and thermos tank I would suggest clamping off the hoses to the cabin heater to see if the coolant loss ceases.

John (Britprius)

 

If P0116, then the engine coolant temperature sensor needs to be replaced.

If P1116 (which is a valid DTC for North American Prius) then the coolant sensor at the coolant heat recovery canister needs to be replaced or there might be air in the coolant system.

 

if the coolant is disappearing, you know its got to go somewhere. but these cars can be a little difficult to bleed; hopefully you just still had air in it.

the oil loss, well if the po didn't maintain it, probably used the cheapest oil on sale at jiffy spooge maybe every 15k.

 

Hey Patrick,

Might it be possible that a wonky coolant flow control valve, not yet throwing P1121, could cause false P1116? Been watching my 07' with a few random P1116's in recent months. Now most recently P1121 is pending. I've picked up both the valve and the sensor but am now thinking I may replace the valve first and see if the P1116's go away too.

Thanks, and no hijack intended Spaded.

Mike..

 

Possible. You could test the sensor by measuring resistance across its terminals and comparing to the new part. The sensor should show higher resistance at lower temperatures. A chart showing temperature vs resistance can be found in the factory repair manual, techinfo.toyota.com

You probably cannot return electrical parts like the valve and sensor.

 

I bought "cataclean" because the parts store guy said he'd seen it work. put it in the dragon lady's old corolla: still needed to replace the cat. frickin snake oil. some folks will try the o2 sensor 1st, but you end up needing a cat anyway.

unless of course you live in a redneck state which don't do emissions testing.

 

I've never heard of anyone ever doing that. usually when the cat is bad, if it isn't melted, clogged, or pulverized, you can still see through the core. if it was clogged, you would have no acceleration.

 

Cat doesn’t need to be blocked to cause it to not clean enough. Just a thin film of anything over the surface of internal cones will stop it from working. Cleaner may get it to work. But normally cats like that start working if you just warm them up for long and hot enough. Here that has always get them good enough to pass emission test but maybe not get good enough to not cause dtc. I just don’t know how you could really heat cat up in a Prius.

But your car consumes so much oil that it may just oil the new converter anyway. So maybe cleaning is best option for you.

 

what s gonna leave a thin film? the cat gets so hot it burns itself clean unless you have other issues. p0420 means that cat is done 99% of the time and it does have 200k +. might find one from a low mileage wrecked 2009 in the junk yard for a decent price.

 

I always have just thought that it is ash and oil residue. I have gotten many cars where they cats weren’t logged up but emissions looked like they had no cat at all to pass emissions by just heating cats up for long and hot enough. Many of those have had some problems that caused that in the first place. But after fixing the problem they still needed heating the cat to pass emissions. And all of them have been above 300tkm or 187t miles.

 

the problem with emissions testing here is that after clearing the cel, you got to drive it long enough to get all the monitors to reset or it still won't pass emissions. if the cat is weak, the damn cel will come back on before you can drive it long enough to reset the monitors. so really you have to replace the cat or its not gonna pass.

 

So I have a 2007 Prius that is throwing the P1121 and P1116 codes. I have a coolant control valve on order to address the P1121 code, but the P1116 code is more troublesome. I cannot find the part for the engine coolant temperature sensor for the coolant heat storage system. I assume this is a different part than the coolant temperature sensor for the engine control system.

I could just try replacing the coolant control valve and see if everything clears up, but if the temp sensor is easy I would like to do it at the same time.

Thanks