Immobilizer not letting the car start after trans swap

Hey guys,
I have an 06 Prius. I bought it with a broken/leaking transmission about 3 months ago. I drove the car home and it sat for a few months, then I drove it into my garage to start working on it a few weeks ago. I just finished up with the trans swap this evening and I went to "start" the car to get the coolant circulating/blead, and the car would not start. I get nothing, I just get a blinking red light in the shape of a car with a key in the center. I am pretty sure this is the immobilizer symbol. What can I do to reset/fix this? This is my first prius and I have not driven this one more than 50 miles so it could be something silly that I am just not familiar with. This is what I am doing...I get in the car, put the key in the key slot, and I push the brake, then I hit the power button...I get nothing, other than the blinking light on the dash. Any help guys?

okay, a little more information. I went back out to the car and messed around a little bit. When I put the key in the slot I get what I described above...nothing. But if I don't put the key in the slot, and just push the power button the display comes on but I am not able to shift into any thing other than park or neutral. When I am able to power up with out the key in the slot I get a red car with an explanation point going through it at the top left of the screen. Then at the display just below the windshield most of the lights stay lit up. What does this point towards? Why would the car not try to go into Drive or Reverse? And what's going on with my key? The only two times I have driven this car i just put the key in the slot and it turned right on and I drove away, now with the key in it will not do anything.

 

Is that what they refer to as the service plug grip? Like I said this is my first time working on a prius so I am not super familiar with everything yet.

*edit*
I just watched a youtube video on removing and installing the service plug...you are right, I did not push it down to lock it into place. I only rotated it up 90 degrees and assumed that was fully installed. I'll try locking it into place when I get home today. Thanks for the tip!

 

Okay, I pushed the service plug down and I get no change. When I put the key in the slot it does nothing different...should it?

Where is the imobolizer module held? I also replaced my driver side front and rear doors while the car has been down. I would not assu
E anything important would be in them. Any ideas?

 

The battery had enough power to drive the car into the garage two weeks ago, and I charged it before I tried to start the car, so I assume its fine. Plus my overhead lights work, my headlights turn on and look fine...I think the 12v battery is good, but no I have not had it tested.

Thanks man, it was a pain in the A$$ mostly because of how heavy the trans is. I hooked it up to my engine hoist at the upper mount point and pulled it up from the floor, but that would make it tip towards the engine, so I had to use a jack on the leading edge of the trans, it was a real pain, I took me hours to get it lined up by myself. Another thing that was a pain was the sub frame needing to be removed...lame...oh and to top it off having to take the windshield wipers off to do anything...what in the world!! Anyway I'm not a mechanic, but I do work on cars a lot, I do engine and trans swaps regularly, I did like the fact that the cvt bolts together like a manual transmission, but it was still a royal pain for the first time.

When putting things back together I did notice that I did damage the connector that goes to the black connector on the firewall side of the trans. What is that one for? I don't think it is that messed up but I did notice that I smashed some of the wiring on that one.

The car is acting like it does not recognize the key when it is put in the slot...it does nothing, and it actually does less than when using it as a smart key. When it's used as a smart key the power will turn on, but it will on shift into Park or Neutral. It does not even try to go into drive or reverse. And all of the lights are lit up on the dash board (i.e. brake light, CEL, red triangle, maint required, etc.)

When I close all of the doors and lock them with the key fob the immobilizer light burns solid, but if I unlock the car it blinks constantly (about once every 3 seconds) even when I have the key in the slot.

I really don't know what else to try at this point...

 

I will try that, but what is the interlock switch? I have already tried steps 2 and 3 but I am not sure what the interlock switch is.

Is a "complete reset" just unhooking the battery for a little while?

 

Resetting did not change anything.

 

I am going to see if I can make sure that plug on the back side of the trans is plugged all the way in (the one I mentioned I damaged earlier).

Since I am new to prius I want to make sure I understand how a cold start up should work. When you first power the car on the ICE should start up for a little bit correct?

Here area few pictures I took. These two pictures show all of the dash lights lit up like I was talking about. When the key is inserted into the slot none of this happens, this only happens when I use the key as a smart key.

See the car with the exclamation point on it in the top left


and here are all of the lights that come on


And here is the black plug that goes in the black female plug on the fire wall side of the trans that I messed up

 

Thanks for the input. I just ordered this one New MINI VCI for TOYOTA TIS Techstream V9.30.002 16Pin Cable
It looks like it is the newest update, now I just need to figure out if I have a laptop with xp on it.

 

while I am waiting on this special cord to come in, will an OBDII scanner shed any light on what's going on? I have an OBDII scanner I just need to find it. Also how do you scan a prius with a regular OBDII scanner? With a "normal" car you turn the key to on, but not run when you are scanning for codes...how do you do it on the Prius?

 

I picked up another plug for the transmission today to replace the one that I smashed (pictured earlier in the thread) just to rule that out. I will be pulling the inverter back out this weekend to check all of the connections and replace that plug. Will report back.