my 07 prius is a money pit now brake warning light on

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

The latter part is scary. I've heard of this before. I wonder if anyone here has a definitive list of states where titles can be "cleaned" (salvage removed)? If I were buying used, I'd like to keep an eye for any cars that have been titled in those states.

 

Hi Amelia,

Since the battery is from WalMart, it is likely that the battery cables were modified. The original equipment battery has smaller-than-normal terminal posts and typically auto parts stores will not carry an exact replacement.

If you post three photos: one of the top of the battery, and closeups of the positive and negative battery terminals (lift up any cover on the positive terminal before taking that picture), that will help us to confirm that this is the case.

Can you make the car READY?

Besides the BRAKE warning light coming on, are there any driveability issues?

 

Sounds like you bought from a seriously unscrupulous person. Always a good idea to have a knowledgeable mechanic look over a used car, especially when purchased from someone you don't know, before you fork over the money. Any honest person would be happy to have you do this, they wouldn't want to sell you something that had problems THEY didn't know about.

The 12V battery cable terminals have most certainly been modified. Not necessarily something to worry about though, as long as it was done properly. Quite a number of people (me included) have replaced their dead 12V with an Optima Yellowtop which has standard sized posts. The instructions and replacement cable terminals came with the battery.

Sounds like a trip to a certified Prius tech should be your next step. You want to find out if there is anything ELSE not quite right.

I would ask that you (if possible) change the title of the thread. At first read, one (like me) would guess someone was having high maintenance costs with their 'never modified, never wrecked' Prius which is the exact opposite of what Prius owners have found to be the case.

 

Wouldn't carfax provide all the history of a car?

 

I can't make sense out of this story. It seems to say that the title had been "cleaned" before the buyer towed the car to be fixed. Or did you say the salvaged car was fixed, sold, and then had another accident?

 

For anyone not familiar with Amelia's case could you please review her original post here : http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-technical-discussion/75575-i-robbed-4.html , it could save a lot of unnecessary questions and speculation.

The short story is that she got a very bum deal on a Prius that she didn't know had been salvaged but with the help of from some members here (Jelloslug and Patrick Wong in particular) she eventually got it going. Now it appears that there is a concern about ongoing reliability issues due to the previous history of the car.

 

The OP should have continued on the same thread as opposed to starting a new one then.

 

Regarding the quality of vehicle hsitory reports: I wouldn't fully trust them. Honestly I've heard numerous stories like (recalled from memory, so not exact quotes) "I totalled my car, brought it to a body shop, and it didn't show up on carfax or autocheck" and "even though the front end was completely destroyed it still came up clean with the stupid green check mark"

FYI:
Carfax vs Autocheck - JeepForum.com
The Secret History of Cars | Marketplace
Carfax vs Autocheck - MX-5 Miata Forum
EBay Motors Offering Free Vehicle History Report - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

 

First, I'd like to thank the folks here at Priuschat. After reading the horror stories like this, I decided to stick with a Toyota Certified purchase.

All I want to do with a car is drive it.

 

Thanks for allowing us to repair your Prius.