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Help If You Can? Oil Pressure Error

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by MazziMoz, Oct 11, 2020.

  1. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    Hello all,

    I have a 2010 Prius that currently has ~70K miles on it and I've owned it for about 1.5 years now with no issues whatsoever (So far! Knock on wood). Well, a few days ago I was leaving work and upon pulling out of the parking lot, it felt like it lost power and it made an alarming beep. I looked down at the display on the dash and all of the gear symbols (P, R, N, D, B) were flashing and there was an error that stated, "(P) LOCK MALFUNCTION WHEN PARKING, PARK IN FLAT PLACE AND APPLY PARKING BRAKE SECURELY".

    I quickly steered off the road and followed the direction, the car would not respond to me pressing the "Park" button, but it did engage the park once I pressed in on parking brake like the message said to do. I waited a couple minutes before trying to start the car again, it started right away and didn't give that error anymore - It just stated "Check Hybrid System" next to a giant yellow caution triangle. I drove home slowly (Luckily I only live about a half mile from my work). After doing some research online and on these forums I decided to check my 12v battery with a multimeter. The battery was manufactured about 8 years ago and it was reading just below 12 volts so I thought for sure this was the issue and replaced the battery with one purchased from O'Reilly's.

    A couple days go by without experiencing any errors or issues and I try to start the car this morning for work and the screen flashes all of the gear symbols again and displays a different error, it says "LOW ENGINE OIL PRESSURE" which sounds very alarming! I immediately check the oil and it looks fine, a medium amber color tone and it's right at the 2nd dot on the dipstick. I'm not sure what to do at this point, I got a ride to work from a coworker because I'm afraid to drive it and blow the engine up haha.

    I apologize for the wall of text, this is my first post here on the forums and I wanted to be as thorough and clear as possible! If anyone has any tips to troubleshoot or determine what's going on here, I would very much appreciate any assistance!
     
  2. SB6

    SB6 Member

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    Can you have the trouble codes read?
     
  3. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    I was actually about to share the codes this evening! I borrowed an OBD2 bluetooth dongle from my brother. There are quite a few codes, all seemingly related to losing a connection somehow. My brother thinks it had to do with the old bad 12v battery, which if so would be a huge relief. Also, I got an oil change done today at Valvoline and they said my oil plug gasket was bad so they replaced it. The oil wasn't really low though. Anyways, the codes are screenshots here they are:

    Screenshot_20201011-221458_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-221611_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-221829_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-221917_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-222022_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-222207_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-222306_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-222534_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-222605_HT200.jpg Screenshot_20201011-222631_HT200.jpg
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    That's upper or lower dot?
     
  5. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    I forgot to say also, after taking those screenshots I cleared the codes after the oil change to see if any errors came back and so far there'
    The upper dot, not the dot near the tip
     
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  6. SB6

    SB6 Member

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    Get your 12V battery tested. Stores like Advance Auto Parts, O'reilly, AutoZone etc should do it for free.

    As for the oil plug gasket, you're technically supposed to replace it at every oil change anyway.
     
  7. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    Thank you for the tip!

    I know it's a wall of text to read through but I stated in the OP I replaced the 12v battery because the old one was crap.


    I think the issue may have resolved itself, between the replaced 12v battery and the oil change/replacing the drain gasket, the errors I described above are not happening at least not at this time.... Hoping it's taken care of!
     
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  8. SB6

    SB6 Member

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    Ah, sorry. I did read your post, but then was looking at a different thread, and then came back to this thread, read your next reply, saw the errors you posted, and forgot you mentioned you already changed your battery. :oops:

    Anyways, I hope your issue stays gone!
     
  9. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    Hello again guys! I was hoping I wouldn't have to revisit this thread, but I sadly do!

    My prius hasn't shown any error codes or warning lights since I posted last but then this morning I went to start the car and immediately got all the same error codes I described previously: They all say "Lost connection:" to various areas of operation. The dash display also displayed "Low engine oil pressure" briefly.

    I did notice that we had very cold nights here when the errors first started popping up. The weather warmed up a bit and I had no issues to report, then last night it was really cold again and BAM the errors are back. Is this a coincidence or could the drop in temperature have something to do with it?
     
  10. cnc97

    cnc97 Senior Member

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    Even though it’s a new battery, check the manufacture date. Small round sticker on the side. If it’s more then 6 months old, charge it, then retest it AFTER it has sat idle for 8 hours after being disconnected from the charger. Here’s the reason for that. Parts stores have a battery rotation program. They are allowed to sit for 6 months, then they are supposed to be charged and tested. Then the sticker gets changed. Most new batteries come with a black sticker with white letters. Then it changes to green with white letters. Then red with white letters. Black is new, green is tested once, red is tested twice. It is theoretically possible to buy a two year old new battery from the chain stores.
     
  11. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    Thank you so much for this bit of information! I will give this a try!

    As a precaution, I made an appointment with Toyota to have it looked at, I'm just trying to understand what is happening! The battery thing seems to make sense with my brain haha.
     
  12. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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  13. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    Very interesting! I will research how to check these fuses and check them out, thank you for the tip!
     
  14. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    I checked the sticker on the battery and it was a black sticker with white numbers. The numbers on it were 06/20, so really just a few months ago. I am starting to think it is battery related though, because this morning I left my house for work and the car would not even unlock. It appeared to be completely dead. I didn't have time at that moment to figure out what was going on so I had a coworker pick me up on their way into work.

    I left my keys with my boyfriend and asked him to manually open the doors and pull the battery out to diagnose. He got up a couple hours later, went out to figure out what was going on and he said the door unlocked as it normally would with the key fob near it. He started the car and it started just fine. I'm thinking okay, what kind of voodoo crap is this! Haha... I asked him to use the multimeter to test the battery and he said it was at 12.3, which to my understanding is low. Especially for a battery I bought a couple weeks ago and it was manufactured this year. I'm going to call O'Reilly's where I got it and see about getting a replacement, I hope that all these issues I've had are a result of a bad luck battery
     
  15. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    They need to charge it with no more than 4 amps.
    Unless you have and AGM charger, they you could charge it overnight.
     
  16. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    Thank you for the info! I'll call him and check on the amps of the charger.

    Edit: Talking to him, I found out that the battery charger is a "Battery Doc" charger that runs 1.25 amps. Is this sufficient / okay for this purpose?
     
    #16 MazziMoz, Oct 24, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2020
  17. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    That should be enough for overnight.
    If you have a garage, you can put the battery back in the car, and leave the hatch open.
    Turn the light on the left side off too.

     
  18. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    We will do just that, thank you!
     
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  19. MazziMoz

    MazziMoz Junior Member

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    I just wanted to update this thread in case a future poor soul is in my previous predicament!

    The issues continued to happen and I was pulling my hair out, I scheduled a time for Toyota to check the vehicle out. It turns out that there were some electrical cables that were hanging down near the parking brake such that every time the parking brake was engaged or disengaged, it was tugging on those cables! They were able to verify the cables were intact, and they re-routed them to keep the issue from happening again!

    Thank you again to you all for providing me with tips and help along the way!
     
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  20. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    Glad they were able to find the problem and fix it for you.
    But, WHY were the cables in the way? Had someone been in there before?