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SOLVED one of my two problems...

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Cross Country, May 22, 2011.

  1. Cross Country

    Cross Country New Member

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    2005 Prius
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    First the problem SOLVED
    -I started having my warning light (!) come on along with my check engine light.
    -After about 15miles of driving it would escalate to the VSC light and other warning lights.
    -If I really pushed it, the prius would actually switch iteself into neutral and die.

    I replaced my factory battery (battery warehouse said I had a bad cell), but guess what....didn't solve the problem. Finally after much debate to bring to the overly priced dealership, I did. And guess what!! A recall on the water pump. So far so good now!!! :)

    Problem I'm having STILL
    Smart key start! I have 2 keys and neither one works...But it does unlock my car with the push button. just not with the touch and wont start without inserting the key.
    The problem I'm having is when I brought the car in for the recall I told the dealership about this problem and they told me it was the system and they would have to replace the whole system for like $1500 or some crazy price!!! Anyone been told the same thing or could it possibly be either the brake switch some people talk about ot even the battery even though it does unlock the car?? Just sounds strange for the whole system to fail. 2005 prius 101k miles
     
    #1 Cross Country, May 22, 2011
  2. Corwyn

    Corwyn Energy Curmudgeon

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    I would try replacing the button batteries in the keyfobs before I tried a $1500 fix.
     
    #2 Corwyn, May 22, 2011
  3. Hal W

    Hal W New Member

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    Replace the batteries in the fob. You haven't got the switch turned off under the steering column have you?. Had to replace the batteries in my 2006 already. Hal
     
    #3 Hal W, May 22, 2011
  4. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Smart key: Are you the original owner? Do your keys have the silver Toyota logo, or the black?

    Regardless, the dealer, or rather, service advisor, doesn't know what they are talking about. If you have smart keys that were not original to the car, then you would need to have someone do a seed reset of the SKS ECU. Then the two keys can be added. It should be around $60 for the seed reset and then maybe another hour of labor, and then maybe a charge for fancy scan tool use. So, $300?

    If you have keys with a black Toyota logo, these are not smart keys. Then you would have to pay $200+ per new smart key in addition.

    But $1500? No.
     
    #4 seilerts, May 22, 2011
  5. Cross Country

    Cross Country New Member

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    Well as far as the $1500....they can take the smart key and shove it you know where. I would just put my key in like normal people do lol...but yea I'm going to stop by home depot and see if they have the batteries and try that first!
    yes the switch is on under the steering column
    and yes they keys are silver toyota nd original to the car.

    I'm hoping the battery just is too weak to do the smart key option!! We shall see...I'll let you all know, thanks for the input!!
     
    #5 Cross Country, May 22, 2011
  6. Hal W

    Hal W New Member

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    Probably the batteries are week! Hal
     
    #6 Hal W, May 22, 2011
  7. Corwyn

    Corwyn Energy Curmudgeon

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    I recall that switch not being in the obvious orientation. Try it in both states.
     
    #7 Corwyn, May 22, 2011
  8. Cross Country

    Cross Country New Member

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    So I stopped off after work and got 2 batteries for my key fobs...changed them out and guess what?? BOOOOOOOOOM, work like a charm!! I'm so excited! And we wonder why people hate dealerships!!! They had no error code so what do they do, want to replace the whole system. a difference of like $1455!!! Thanks guys for the input. Hope this maybe helps someone else...

    oh and to know the smart key is on the button underneath should be out not in
     
    #8 Cross Country, May 22, 2011
  9. olerox

    olerox Junior Member

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    Congrats and another testimonial to the power of PriusChat wisdom! I got 5 SONY CR2025 FOB batteries on eBay for $3 shipped. The best cheap fix around. :)
     
    #9 olerox, May 24, 2011
  10. fdf

    fdf Junior Member

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    Glad to hear changing the little batteries in the smart keys solved your problem! For reference, we had a somewhat similar problem with the keyless entry on my wife's 2006 Sienna. Some of the door open / close / tailgate lift functions worked; some did not. Changing the key batteries did not help; dealer suggested similar major surgery. Then, the mini-van's 12v battery happened to fail. Changing the 12v battery effectively "rebooted" and all the keyless functions worked again. Possibly a voltage dip while starting the mini-van (near the end of the battery's life) scrambled some volatile memory? Anyway, similar happy outcome.
     
    #10 fdf, May 24, 2011
  11. Prius 06

    Prius 06 Member

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    Do your cars not beep when the battery in the fob is dying?
    A few months ago our car would start to beep every so often when we'd shut it off.
    Again, thanks to Priuschat, we found out that it's the fobs battery was dying and needed to be replaced.
    Repalced it and haven't heard it again.

    Glad you got your 2 problems solved!
     
    #11 Prius 06, May 24, 2011
  12. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    From memory, if the fob battery is low (and SKS isn't disabled), the car will beep at shutdown after you've driven/had the car powered on for (IIRC) 20 minutes. Of course, it just seems like it's a beep out of nowhere w/no context, unless you've read the passage in the manual about this.
     
    #12 cwerdna, May 24, 2011
    1 person likes this.
  13. Corwyn

    Corwyn Energy Curmudgeon

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    Checks can be sent to... :)

    Seriously though, glad things worked out for you. Pay it forward indeed.
     
    #13 Corwyn, May 24, 2011
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