1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

I have a few questions... HELP!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by priusNlondon, Dec 31, 2011.

  1. priusNlondon

    priusNlondon Pingu 2.0

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2006
    49
    0
    0
    Location:
    Somerset, England, UK
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    ----UK----
    Hello,

    I have a UK model 05-06 T-spirit in the UK approx 80,000mi, purchased off the boat almost all services done at dealer. This year we had to have the traction battery replaced, luckily still under warranty by the skin of our teeth! They also replaced the water pump at the same time. Since all of this some of the buttons on my steering wheel have stopped working, or only work when the wheel is turned to a certain rotation. Main buttons not functioning are 'info' and the two defrost buttons. The A/C, Mode, Temp, Volume, Map, Speak and directional ones all work fine. As do all the dash buttons. I went back to the dealer and asked them about it and they checked and said it was damaged/faulty wires in the steering spiral something or other... It's now to the point were none of them work anymore not even when steering wheel is turned. I'm a little irritated as these were not issues before the big battery went wrong... SO my questions are, is it possible the wires being faulty shorted out the battery in the first place? OR were these wires damaged when they put the new one in or took the old one out OR even when they were doing all of the diagnostics trying to work out why all my evil lights were on, They originally told me there was no way it was the traction battery as that was rare... THEY WERE WRONG! lol to replace the wires they are asking a lot of money...so i'm skeptical.

    I also had a headlight melt down a couple years ago where i had to replace the wires to the front headlights as they housing had melted. Could this have affected the traction battery?

    Second set of questions...
    I apparently have a hole in my exhaust somewhere? Is this common? They want like £400+ to repair/replace it, that seems a bit excessive, but it is a dealer so I will shop round.

    Thanks in advance for your responses! :cheer2:
     
  2. priusNlondon

    priusNlondon Pingu 2.0

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2006
    49
    0
    0
    Location:
    Somerset, England, UK
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    ----UK----
  3. andyprius

    andyprius Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2005
    2,212
    188
    0
    Location:
    Sacramento, California.
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
  4. priusNlondon

    priusNlondon Pingu 2.0

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2006
    49
    0
    0
    Location:
    Somerset, England, UK
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    ----UK----
    Re: I have a few questions... HALP!

    erm, was that a rehtorical question? lol "but i don't feel confident enough to be doing it myself."

    No, I am not. :p
     
  5. andyprius

    andyprius Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2005
    2,212
    188
    0
    Location:
    Sacramento, California.
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Re: I have a few questions... HALP!

    Then it is best to take to the right shop. Always look to the last place the car was worked on.
     
  6. andyprius

    andyprius Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2005
    2,212
    188
    0
    Location:
    Sacramento, California.
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Re: I have a few questions... HALP!

    It sounds llike you have a loose wire in your steering wheel and as you are continuallly turning it the problems multiply. Should the loose wire be "Hot" things short out and other systems fail As for the hole in the exhaust system, we have in California a long term emission systems warranty of 15 years/ 150,000 miles, Don't you have the equivalent in the UK?

    :cheer2:
     
  7. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2010
    3,326
    1,512
    38
    Location:
    Santa Fe, NM
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    1. You need a new clockspring a.k.a. spiral cable. No relation whatsoever to the high voltage system.

    2. Hole in the exhaust -- Have you received the yellow Check Engine light, with a diagnosis of lean burn?
     
  8. priusNlondon

    priusNlondon Pingu 2.0

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2006
    49
    0
    0
    Location:
    Somerset, England, UK
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    ----UK----
    Re: I have a few questions... HALP!


    The last shop was a Toyota dealership. They were pretty useless and denied the problem occurring after the battery problem. :mad: but i had non of the issues until they did the work...
     
  9. priusNlondon

    priusNlondon Pingu 2.0

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2006
    49
    0
    0
    Location:
    Somerset, England, UK
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    ----UK----
    Re: I have a few questions... HALP!

    Well hopefully it's not hot, because i can't afford to fix it at the moment. :(

    As for the warranty, I was never told of such thing, they immediately wanted £300 for it to be done. It's the pipe to back box were something has been welded on, it's leaking where the welding was done. Quick Fit have put some putty on it in the mean time and it's passed it's emissions/MOT for the year. But I don't like the idea of it so would like to have it sorted really.

    Thank you for your reply. :)
     
  10. priusNlondon

    priusNlondon Pingu 2.0

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2006
    49
    0
    0
    Location:
    Somerset, England, UK
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    ----UK----
    1. yep, i know that already. toyota know what the problem is, just wondered why it would all the sudden be a problem after having the work done. Could they have done anything while trying to find out what was wrong with the car? they seemed pretty clueless at first and claimed it couldn't be the traction battery... makes me wonder what they did. :(

    2. No engine lights, the hole is about a cm or so big, just a crack in the welding. I had a look at it tonight when they had it up on the lifts to do the tires. there's a piece of metal that's been welded on and it's just weakened the pipe metal there.

    Thanks for your reply :)
     
  11. andyprius

    andyprius Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2005
    2,212
    188
    0
    Location:
    Sacramento, California.
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Welding is not usually expensive.