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Problems with 2006 pruis.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Whit1223, May 6, 2015.

  1. Whit1223

    Whit1223 New Member

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    I got my pruis back from the body shop. It had the ac condenser and raditior replaced. It come back with the vbc light, (!) a light like this, a BIG one like this !, and the on my display it has a car with and explanation mark on it. I replaced the battery thinking it was it. That didn't work. Any help would be helpful before I spend a arepm and a leg at Toyota.
     
  2. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    12v battery replacement? if so was good idea, as they often run those down.
    You want to first check that the new one if charged up well, as that is an issue because the Prius does not charge it up very fast by itself. Lots of posts about how to do that - just some tricks to getting diagnostic mode on your Prius display.
     
    #2 wjtracy, May 6, 2015
    Last edited: May 6, 2015
  3. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Hi Whit, welcome to PriusChat.

    First and foremost, if you are serious about doing your own repairs, you need to get some diagnostic tools so that you can interrogate the car's ECU's and then be informed about what your car is try to tell is wrong with it.

    As you have found out from firsthand experience, just guessing and throwing parts at your car is time consuming and can be very costly if you end up replacing a number of (good) parts before you find the one that is broke. Hopefully, the battery to which you refer was the 12 V auxiliary battery and not the HV traction battery!

    The most recommended diagnostic tools on this site are ScanGauge II and Mini VCI. The latter is cheaper and will give you the same diagnostic power as a Toyota Technician. The downside to this solution is that you will need a spare laptop that you will only use as a vehicle diagnostic tool. It does not need internet access to use, only when you are setting it up. Currently, more success has been had installing the software on a laptop that runs a 32-bit OS like Win XP or Win 7 32-bit. There are people with a bit of computer nous that have been able to get it up and running in 64-bit Windows. Rather than rehash what has already been written in other threads, this TundraTalk thread gives all the information you need to get you Mini VCI installed and working.

    BTW, how many miles on the clock?

    Hope that helps, all the best with you troubleshooting.
     
    #3 dolj, May 6, 2015
    Last edited: May 6, 2015
  4. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    I assume that other work was performed by the body shop besides replacing the air conditioner condenser and the radiator. Presumably the car was in a front-end accident?
    What prevents you from returning the car to the body shop and asking that they deliver a repaired car to you that actually operates and has no warning lights present?
    If you expect to figure out the problem on your own, then you need to have the diagnostic trouble codes read. Get Mini VCI for that purpose.
     
    wjtracy likes this.
  5. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Good point ...we had a little accident too and they should have replaced the 12v batt I thought about going back but that's a good point.
     
  6. Whit1223

    Whit1223 New Member

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    The body shop that did the work has had it hooked up to a code reader it threw one code but will not throw the code again. Let alone any code at all. It was the 12v battery that we changed bc it has been going bad all winter that's why we figured that was the problem. My plan is to take it back to the body shop. But was just seeing if anyone has had this happen before to them so maybe we could check something else out before taking it back.
     
  7. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Your original post had several typos in it. I assume that by "vbc" you mean the VSC light, and that the ((!)) light is also on, as well as the master warning red triangle light that has an ! inside. Further, I assume that the MFD has the red warning icon in the upper left corner which looks like an outline of a car with ! superimposed on the car. That warning means the hybrid system is impaired.

    If my assumptions are correct, I guarantee there are several DTC that have been logged by the skid control ECU and the hybrid vehicle ECU. If the body shop cannot retrieve those DTC (because they are using a generic OBD-II scanner) then they will be clueless about what to do next. It may be necessary for the body shop to rely upon your local Toyota dealer to diagnose the problems remaining with your car.
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    were you in an accident?