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Warning Lights - safe to drive to dealer?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Javert, Jan 24, 2023.

  1. Javert

    Javert New Member

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    Drove my 2010 Prius to a nearby shop this morning. When I switched it back on again I get 4 warning lights:

    Red exclamation mark
    ABS
    Yellow brake warning
    Orange traction control.

    The car seems to be still drivable but brakes feel a bit spongy - can tell brakes are not "normal". I'm wondering if this just means the ABS has malfunctioned? Drove it back from the shop.

    My main question is, is it safe to drive to the dealer in this state? (about 6 miles away).

    Edit - car was serviced by 130K service recently (December).
     
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    It's never safe to drive a 13 year old car to a Toyota Stealership... As far as they're concerned you should of bought a new Prius from them 8 years ago and even if there's only a minor issue with the car they're gonna do all they can to give you a repair estimate higher than the resale value of the car. As in dealerships are warranty repair specialists who don't fix older cars in an affordable way but replace major components with massively inflated prices on the parts because a car under warranty is repaired for highest price possible because Toyota pays the bill... They don't understand proper car repair that's affordable after the warranty expires.

    The nearby shop needs to read the error codes. Or you can buy one of these devices to connect your phone to your car: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265484403768 via Dr. Prius app or Car Scanner app so you can read and clear the error codes yourself. Once you know those codes we can walk you through your repair options.
     
    2010moneypit? likes this.
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    yes, you can drive on side roads and be prepared to press the braes hard than normal if necessary. keep a good distance between you and the car in front
     
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    With that combination of lights, it probably means something in the powertrain has malfunctioned, and the brake warning lights (and different brake feel) are just because the brake system knows about it and has compensated.

    We'll know more once you can post the trouble codes. If you don't have a scan tool to get them, you can at least get the ones behind the ABS, brake warning, and traction control lights, using just a piece of wire:

    Blink (a/k/a Flash) Codes – How to. | PriusChat

    Sadly, that won't do for the codes behind the exclamation mark, and probably the brake codes are going to turn out to be the ones that say "we know about a powertrain code, have you read that one yet?".

    So access to a good scan tool, or to somebody who has one, will help.