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2008 Prius - bad catalytic converter but multiple lights are on

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by wafflehousel, Jul 31, 2015.

  1. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    Hoping the Prius community can get to the bottom of this because I have a feeling the dealership are lazy or inept.

    The check engine light came on a few times. Went to the old trusty repair shop and the codes pointed to an issue with the catalytic converter. When we started the car again, multiple warning dash lights came on: ABS, (!), Check Engine, and emergency brake light. The brakes also felt very stiff after this.

    The mechanic at the shop was taken aback. Said there was a glitch with the computer and that we needed to take it to a dealership to have them "perform initialization of linear solenoid valve and calibration." He said that would fix the issue with the lights.

    We were a little upset this happened but love this shop and only stopped going because we moved a few hours away. The mechanic has always been very honest and upfront through the years.

    I took the car to the local Toyota dealership today, told them what happened and what the mechanic said. All they did was charge me $100 for a diagnosis of bad catalytic converter pipe and tell me that all the lights came on because the catalytic converter is so far gone. They said they couldn't turn the other lights off until the catalytic converter was replaced.

    I don't understand why my brakes are affected when the issue with the car is the catalytic converter. I was also told by the guy at the shop where we first took the car that we would be able to drive with a faulty Catalytic converter with no problem.

    Any advice, guidance, insight is greatly appreciated! The dealership quoted me $2k to fix the issue, but I'm almost 9 months pregnant at the moment with my 1st child and we can't afford this problem right now.
     
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    what's the mileage on your car? What exactly did the first mechanic do to troubleshoot the car?
     
  3. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    It's got 149k on it. The first mechanic diagnosed the issue with a hand held scan tool.
     
  4. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    All the mechanic did was stick the handheld tool to diagnose the car? I can't see how you could have had all these weird things come up with a simple read of the codes.

    As for the catalytic converter, maybe you can find someone to weld a new one on for you. You can get the parts on Amazon for about $100.....assuming your state will allow you to get an aftermarket catalytic converter. You don't have to get the original one from the dealer at $2000 (unless your state mandates this)
     
  5. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    Yeah, that's why this whole thing is weird. All these issues happened with the handheld scanner...
     
  6. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Try to reset the car, disconnect your 12v battery negative cable for about 10 seconds and then reconnect it again. This will reset your car (along with radio presets and driver's side auto window down function).

    Whatever this mechanic did with this handheld scanner was not just to diagnose the car, he was performing another task on it and somehow a glitch came up that he couldn't fix. I would think twice about using him on a Prius....he may be a good mechanic but not everyone knows how to work on a Prius
     
  7. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    After reading older posts here on the forums, I was thinking resetting the 12v might help. Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a shot and report back.
     
  8. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    Ok, after battery reset, the check engine light is off. Brake, ABS, VSC (!) are still on though.
     
  9. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    well those lights are not related to your catalytic converter. You need to have the codes read (the dealer you paid should have them if you went in with those lights on).
     
  10. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    Yup. That's exactly why I felt the dealership didn't know what they were talking about.
     
  11. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    call them and get the codes......you did pay for them. if they don't have them, have them do it again. They can't charge you for no reason
     
  12. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    In my very naive understanding, what the first mechanic said is what needs to be fixed on the car. "perform initialization of linear solenoid valve and calibration."
    Problem is I have no idea how to do that and if the dealership might have done it if they weren't trying to get $2k from me.
     
  13. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    It might be a simple calibration that can be done with Techstream software. But if you get the codes, you won't have to guess.

    You can buy a MiniVCI cable with techstream yourself on Amazon. It'll allow you to diagnose your own car and do simple calibrations. The cost is around $25 and runs on a windows laptop.

    What I don't understand is how you went to your old mechanic with a check engine light and came out with this problem
     
  14. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    Old mechanic said the lights were due to an issue with the car's computer that was caused when he used the hand held device. There is no reason for the lights to be on at the moment except for the computer anomaly.
     
  15. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    computer anomaly? That would be a bad ECU and unless you source a used part on EBAY, it will also run you in the thousands to get at a dealer.

    best not to guess.....get the codes!
     
  16. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    Just came back from oreilly. They say the code is C1345 - ABS not learning linear valve offset abnormality.
     
  17. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    Just saw a similar issue on another thread. Seems like I'm going back to the dealership tomorrow... So angry.

    red BRAKE, (!), ABS and VCS are on, cannot find what codes mean | PriusChat

    "Back from Toyota with no more warning lights!

    They found code C1345 / 66 - Not learning Linear Valve offset abnormality.

    It was fixed by performing initialization of the linear solonoids through their scantool."

    Thanks for all your help!!
     
  18. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    all fixed? cool....I gotta say that's very fast service from a dealer!
     
  19. 69shovlhed

    69shovlhed Surly tree hugger

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    sounds like the dealer should have done what your old mechanic told you to have them do in the first place, instead of feeding you some lie about the converter affecting your brakes.
    I don't believe your old mechanic would have done anything to affect your brakes if he was scanning a p0420. the emissions codes are in a different control unit from any abs or brake electronics on most cars. perhaps prius is different; I've never had to deal with any brake problems, but I don't see why he would have been wasting his time digging around in the abs unit. he was probably looking at the oxygen sensor values if he did more than just read out the p0420 code.
    sounds like a very odd coincidence.
     
  20. wafflehousel

    wafflehousel Junior Member

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    Yeah, unfortunately I have to go back to the dealership again tomorrow with this info and ask why they didn't just do what I asked them to in the first place instead of lying to me. I'm honestly too damn pregnant to be dealing with this crap right now. I hate that I just gave this place $100 bucks to lie to me and tell me the diagnosis I was already aware of. Not to mention how unsafe it is for me to be driving around with impaired breaks.

    Ugh. such a headache.