transmission lock mechanism is abnormal after TRANSAXLE CHANGE

got a 2005 prius with 108k miles, that was traded in at a dealership. when i got it it was already sitting in the lot for 2 months or more. had to hook a jumpstarter in the front to get it to power up but would not shift into Drive or Revers and would show the warning : transmission P lock mechanism is abnormal. park your car on a flat surface and apply the handbrake. strange to show that warning since the front weels were locked reason why i had a hard time towing it to the dealer. i had to jacking up the prius, slide a tow dolly under it and let it down on the dolly. at the dealership they quote :HAD TO RESYNC COMPUTER, ECU, SMART KEY AND IMMOBILIZER FROM SITTING TOO LONG. REPLACED BATTERY.
RECOMMENDED SERVICE - TRANS AXLE ASSEMBLY REPLACEMENT
thats what the invoice i got from them says.
basicaly that it needs a transmission.
now the lock mechanism warning was gone and the prius gas engine would start up and the car could pe put in drive and reverse and would even move a bit on flat surface if u pushed the gas slowly. anything more like a small inclanation or push the gas pedal harder and it would slip and make a grinding noise. so i decided to get a transaxle from ebay and change it myself wich i did. will post pics soon. 3 weeks later everything was done. i pushed the start button and again the warning : transmission P lock mechanism is abnormal. park the car on a flat.... i tried everything: charged the 12 battery, than tried to start it with the charger on to make sure voltage is above 13v. numerous times disconnected and reconnected the HV battery service plug and 12v battery. hooked up an actron autoscanner cp9180 to look for DTC codes. no codes. even tried to drag the prius thinking the parking mechanism or parking paw is somehow locked and hoping it will unlock. even tested the P CON relay and fuse after reading through some threads. now i'm thinking to get it to the dealer again . maybe it needs that resync again. anyone ever heard of that resync thing ? if yes, how is it done? can i diy? anyother ideas are welkome. will post pics in a sec...

 

i took the car to toyota dealership in leesbourg, va. i just got back from the dealership and they told me that they have to take it apart, dig deeper into the car to find the problem. for which they quoted me 760$. they codes that they got from the basic 109$ diagnostic from the prius are: P3102, C1310, C2300. i suspect they might know whats wrong but just want to charge me for a biger diagnostic just because i dared to change the transaxle myself.... anyone has any idea toward what those codes might point to...

 

if i disconnec the 12v battery ground and take out the service plug, does that erase all the stored DTC s ? also the manual says that dtc c2300 can not be erased by the inteligent tester aka scaner and that one must unplug the P CON MAIN FUSE to erase it. my question: do i disconect the fuse with the car on or off?

ooo and thank you very much Wong for keeping an eye on this thread and replying to my questions in such a timely manner. 10x again

 

i am 90% sure it's the shift control actuator because when i got the new transaxle it came with a smashed up shift control actuator as you can see in the pics. so i called and emailed the store / guys and sent them pics with it and they sent me another shift control actuator. nut the new one had a small plastic stud on the lower leg and while i was tightening it up that leg cracked. so i stoped and took it off to see what's the problem and only then i saw the stud. so i shaved it off with a dramel and hoped it will still hold because it was just cracked at the surface. but while i was tightening it up again it broke off completely. i tried to glue it back with some stuff but it didn't hold as u can see in the pics. so i decided to put the old shift control actuator from the old bad transaxle that i took out. only problem was that while i took out the old transaxle it fell on the floor and it landed on the actuator itself because it broke the tree metal pillars that hold it to the transaxle. but otherwise it looked ok so i decided to put that one on because from all the tree it was the best choice since the other two one had a smashed up plug and a missing pin and the other had a broken leg. but now with the codes c2300 which automatically triggers code p3102 and knowing that the transaxle fell on the actuator i think it's 90% likely that it's the actuator. only code that remains is c1310. after i finished the change and the car would not start i pluged and unpluged the 12 and service plug numerous times hoping that would erase the" transmission lock mechanism is abnormal" adn would let the car start. could that have triggered the c1310 code?

 

also what do you think about the AutoEnginuity scanner. i was thinking getting it. is it able to erase codes or just to read them ?

 

ow does the shift control actuator change the transaxle between Park, Neutral, Drive,Reverse?
the manual says that the actuator is basicaly an electric motor and a rotation angle sensor coupled with a cycloidal reduction gear. i think its a rotation direction sensor and not rotation ANGLE sensor because there is nothing in the actuator that can or should tilt between any angles. i think the actuator just rotates the shaft that itcs installed on, and the rotation of that shaft actualy swiches the transaxle between Park,Drive,Reverse and Neutral. am i right?

 

how does the shift control actuator change the transaxle between Park, Neutral, Drive,Reverse?
the manual says that the actuator is basicaly an electric motor and a rotation angle sensor coupled with a cycloidal reduction gear. i think its a rotation direction sensor and not rotation ANGLE sensor because there is nothing in the actuator that can or should tilt between any angles. i think the actuator just rotates the shaft that itcs installed on, and the rotation of that shaft actualy swiches the transaxle between Park,Drive,Reverse and Neutral. am i right?

 

actualy from what i'm reading, the shift control actuator only engages or disengages the parki.g lock or parking pawl. it shoul be named PRACKING LOCK ACTUATOR or PARKING PAWL ACTIATOR and NOT shift control actuator. it's so confusing!!! i think there are a lot of miss translated terms that get people very confused...

 

is there a way i could disengage the parking pawl so that the carcan roll like in neutral? cause i have a hard time geting the car on and off a dolly with the front wheels locked. i can ise a friends flatbed car trailer which has an electric winch to pull the car onto the bed if only the wheels would roll freely

 

am looking into tactrix and so far from the threads i have read it's all good ... seems to work as good as mangoos at o third the price... thank you very much : it seams you just saved me 250 $ . thanks

 

got the prius back from the dealership. had just 20 min to play with the old transaxle before i had to run to work. i found that one can turn the rod using a wrench. if you turn it clockwise it realeses the parking pawl. counter clockwise it engages the parking pawl. if you don't know if the pawl is engaged or not just try to turn it both ways see which way is gooing. than apply more force that way until you hear a click.