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2014 PiP ABS ((!)) and Trac/VSC orange lights on, no engine codes

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by Arkay, Jan 12, 2022.

  1. Arkay

    Arkay Junior Member

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    Hi
    I would appreciate any help in diagnosing the problem.
    I have a 2014 PiP (US) that I really love. It suddenly showed two orange lights in the Multi-information display:
    1. The Trac/VSC orange light on the left corner
    2. The ABS ((!)) orange light on the right
    I used a VeePeak OBD II to get the OBD 2 data and used the Dr. Prius app on my iPhone.

    Dr. Prius gives NO battery errors and NO engine errors.
    Resetting didn't do anything as there are no error codes.

    Here are a few things that could have led to the issue:
    1. I parked at an incline yesterday and might have caused an issue when backing up (no hits or anything)
    2. 12v Battery is original.
    3. Since this was in the mountains, RATS may have gotten to the wiring or something
    4. These tires seem to spin a lot, (Michelin X TOUR A/S T+H 195/65R15). The rains and the skidding could have tripped something?
    5. I could have tripped a sensor. They are fairly new though as I haven't driven a lot.

    Any idea how to diagnose the problem? Car drives fine (as of now). I am a DIY kind of guy but not at the skill level of a trained auto-mechanic. I am completely comfortable with electrical systems.
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you made need tech stream for proper code reading and diagnosis, but start with the 12 volt health. what does it measure at the jump point under the hood with the car off?
     
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  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I am kind of curious about that aspect of the Dr. Prius app.

    On the spectrum of scan tools you can use on a car, Toyota Techstream is the ultraviolet, and will definitely show you whatever information any of the car's ECUs have for you.

    Moving down from there, most generic scan tools will show you trouble codes from the most common ECUs in a car (pretty much every car has an engine, brakes, transmission, etc.), even if the tool doesn't know much about what the code means. And I think that doesn't even require a lot of effort from the tool app developer: if I remember the OBD-II protocols right, there is a query the tool can send with no specific ECU address, just "anybody with trouble codes please transmit", and then the tool just shows whatever comes back.

    But as far as I can tell, Dr. Prius seems to be in a whole class by itself, where it will show you codes from the engine's ECU, and will show you codes about the battery from the power management control ECU, and it has all those nifty battery details it gives you, but just won't even show you trouble codes from anything else in the car.

    I kind of think it missed the boat there; kind of means you should have at least two apps on your phone that can both talk to your VeePeak dongle; Dr. Prius for the nifty battery info, and any other decent OBD-II app for, like, any time something goes wrong with your car and you need to find out what.

    There is a saving grace here, because both warning lights you have are the skid ECU's department, and that ECU knows how to give you its trouble codes by blinking the dash lights. You need a short piece of wire, and you get two-digit codes by counting the blinks. If you google search on site:priuschat.com for something like blink code slash tc cg you should find lots of posts on how that's done.

    Once we know what the car is trying to tell you, we can have much more specific ideas what to do about it.
     
  4. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Active Member

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    @Arkay , Try the Car Scanner app on your iPhone. See if it will give the DTCs for your car. Until you have the DTCs, everyone is just guessing what the problem is.


    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
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  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    what is the 'car scanner app'?
     
  6. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Active Member

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    Web site is carscanner.info

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    thanks!
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    elm, i never heard it called car scanner. but a rose by any other name...
     
  9. Arkay

    Arkay Junior Member

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    My first scan with the Car Scanner (thanks!!!!) gave a bunch of error codes (first image)
    ABS Control Unit #2
    C1241 Possible decryptions (note control module)
    C1465

    Electric window/Rear right door
    B2312
    Entry & Start/Smart Key
    U0142
    Possible decryptions (note control module)
    U00155
    Possible decryptions (note control module)

    After clearing all of them, I get C1465 which does not go away.
    The internet says:
    C1465 TOYOTA code possible causes Faulty Front Speed Sensor Left Front Speed Sensor Left harness is open or shorted Front Speed Sensor Left circuit poor electrical connection Faulty Skid Control ECU (Brake Actuator Assembly)

    I'll check if RATS (or ROUS) got in and bit the the wires or it is something else.
    IMG_2250.PNG IMG_2251.PNG
     
  10. Arkay

    Arkay Junior Member

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    Thanks for the explanation. Car Scanner seems to work. The error code doesn't go away though.

    Worked!!! Cleared the other codes but not C1465.
     
    #10 Arkay, Jan 12, 2022
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 13, 2022
  11. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Ok, now that you've done that, I've got good news, and I've got bad news.

    Good news first; the Car Scanner app worked and you got the codes.

    Now the bad news: some trouble codes are industry-standard, some aren't. Your C1465, like all C1 codes, falls in the manufacturer-defined range:

    [​IMG]

    In that range, the same code is allowed to mean completely unrelated things in cars from different manufacturers, maybe even different models from one manufacturer. Which is a big red flag for you about trying to search the internet for what the code means.

    You can usually get away with internet searches for codes in the P0, P2, C0, U0, B0 ranges—the ones that are standardized. Even if your search lands on some page about a different car, it probably won't be wrong about what the code means.

    For something like a C1 code, you have to be a lot more careful. If your internet search, or even what's built into your scan tool, gives you a fortune cookie like "C1465 - Damper High Side Front Circuit Short To Battery" you just have to shrug it off as complete bogosity for a Prius, though it might be right for some other car.

    The one absolutely safe place to look then is in the Toyota repair manual for your car's model and year (more info). That wiki page lists some ways you might have access for free, and even if you go straight to Toyota TIS, $20 gives you a couple days' access to everything there, and that's often worth the time you save and the rabbit holes you don't go down.

    I tried finding that code for you in my 2010 copy, but it isn't there—that's why it's important to look in the manual for your model and year.

    Looking very selectively through a Google search, throwing out the obvious bogus matches, I did find this PDF covering C1465 for a 2013 Prius v, still not quite yours, but close enough the codes might match up.

    If that's right, it is a left front wheel speed sensor code, and there might be a 3-digit "INF" subcode that goes with it, having around seven different possible values that tell you more about the problem, and the rest of those 13 pages will have troubleshooting steps to help pin it down.

    I would still recommend looking in your model's and year's manual if at all possible.

    What's weird is that in my 2010 manual, the same problem would have been given a C0205 code, which is in the SAE standardized range.

    I'm used to seeing Toyota start out with codes in the manufacturer ranges and move them to standard ones later. In the first-gen Prius, all the codes about the traction battery were P3 codes, because there weren't any standardized P0 codes about hybrid car traction batteries yet. :) Then later when SAE standardized a bunch of hybrid codes in the P0 range, Toyota used those codes in the later Prius models.

    I'm not used to seeing a code get kicked out of the standard range and made into a manufacturer-specific code. Somebody must have decided that even though C0205 was a standard left-front speed sensor code, there was something about the Prius meaning of it that didn't quite match what SAE intended it to mean. Odd.
     
  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    take a look at the speed sensor wiring harness. maybe you ran over something, or corrosion
     
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  13. Arkay

    Arkay Junior Member

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    Thank you. Planning to look at it over the weekend. Do I need to take the wheel off?
     
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  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    not sure, but i think you can see it inside the wheel. might make it easier though. you might need to look insidethe wheel well in the engine compartment.
     
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  15. Arkay

    Arkay Junior Member

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    Good and bad:
    I was able to take the wheel off and examine the vehicle speed sensor. It is one of the Hall effect types. Everything seemed okay, clean.
    The bad: I was not able to trace the wiring in the engine compartment. I don't know where it goes.

    I paid $20 to techstream and it would not let me login. Password resets don't work.

    Still not sure about the C1465 code for 2014 PiP.

    So, some progress. Mainly disappointments.
    Question: where are the wires and connectors in the engine compartment as I want to test the sensor and the wiring.
     
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  16. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Their system is rather clunky. Between the part of it that takes your money and the part that lets you in, there seems to be some process that takes about ten minutes to update. Then there are the email verification hoops. It has given me grief at times too.

    Don't be shy about using the tech support phone number or the support contact form you see there. They do answer, and in the past they have extended my subscription to account for time I couldn't get in.

    But they answer something like Monday thru Friday 6 a.m. - 5p.m. PST, so I learned after a while that I should not start a project where I will need TIS over the weekend. If I feed the meter on Friday afternoon and make sure I can log in then, it will work fine all weekend. It's just the getting in at first that has hiccups, so I try to do that during their support hours.
     
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  17. Arkay

    Arkay Junior Member

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    Finally got around to tracing the wiring. The 2 wires have broken off from the connector. I measured the resistance of the unit and it seems like an open connection.
    1. Is that normal?
    2. Should I just connect it back in to the connector in the wheel well and see if it works? I doubt anything will go wrong ...
    After all, even Toyota believes in multiple speed sensors vs. Boeing with 1 speed sensor ...
    3. Is polarity important?
    4. The Toyota parts cost $271. Any suggestions for other vendors? This is for the left front speed sensor.
     
  18. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Broken off where, which connector? Can you post pics?

    If only the wiring is damaged and you have the ability to repair that, it could be an inexpensive alternative to replacing the pricey sensor.
     
  19. Arkay

    Arkay Junior Member

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    I took out the connector and photographed it. It is a 2-pin connector.
     
  20. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I don't see the photo.