In Over My Head P1121 and P0A93

My family has had some exceptionally difficult medical and financial difficulties which means we have no alternative other than I do any auto repairs needed. In addition to knowing absolutely zero about cars, I am 61 years old, disabled, and only have partial use of my right hand. I was blessed with a successful careerr in hospice, but wearing a suit and sitting behind a desk. Two different shops I have come to trust over the years have now told me to replace the coolant control valve and inverter cooling pump. I'll absolutely do this without complaint for my wife and son, but I can't seem to find photos and instructions intended for a total novice. An unusual and inexplicable characteristic of my disability is cognitive in nature. Although I am fortunate to have an excellent learning curve, I am bewilderingly unable to absorb or retain anything I see in videos, hence the need for photos. Still, I can and will get this done. We already have the parts, but after climbing under the car and peering down through the hood I was reminded I could make this considerably worse without the right guidance. If I'm not asking too much, can someone please provide pictures, links, directives, or any useful details for us? Regardless, thanks to everyone who even considers it. Disability started out being an embarrassment and quickly evolved to humiliation, but at this moment I cannot let my wife and son suffer by dodging my responsibility.

Thanks again.

We have a 2006 Gen 2 Prius.

 

My son is 19 and has taken on the most demanding schedule I've ever seen. He was given a most generous grant for college and he is taking far too many credit hours plus a six day a week job. He won't admit it, but I'm certain he's done this because he wants to help financially. He doesn't yet understand how parents would rather just see their kids prosper, but I'm very proud nonetheless. He is helping when he's home, but I want to add a note regarding our car.

Yesterday I found a thread that simply said if I took the driver's side headlight out things would be easier. Sounded counter intuitive, but with little to lose why not? In short, I did and it was. In less than an hour I had everything removed, and then it took less than that to replace the two parts. Today I get to try and put which and what nuts, bolts, screws, and clips back where they belong. And you're right, our son doesn't have class today so he's helping. I need to ask, is there a diagram somewhere that will help remind us where all those go? I took some pictures as I went along but it's dubious at best how successful this will be. More importantly, I have seen a couple of threads that mention what I consider a complicated set of instructions about putting the new coolant in, "burping?", "bleeding", turn the ignition on, check this, check that, fill the reservoir, turn the engine off, rinse, and repeat as necessary. Can you please point me to the correct methodology?

Thank you for your interest and suggestion. As I said yesterday, a lot of my former "friends" shake their heads and want to pity me but it's obvious to me I am an exceptionally blessed old man.

 

Thanks again. I'm concerned because I saw a video where some guy went through multiple steps including not replacing a certain wire clip until a bunch is already done, running a siphon hose, using a multimeter on the relays, bleeding air from the radiator with a hex key, then the tedious start, stop, fill some more, etc... At this point I'm definitely OK with however much time it takes to get it right, I'm just not sure if all of those steps are absolutely necessary or the confusion may do more harm than good for a novice.

Thank you again. You've done a great job keeping my anxiety in check.

 

DONE!!! And so far, cross my arthritic hands, no more warning lights after 40 minutes and maybe 10 miles of city neighborhood driving. Thank you for your help, I was so despondent I beginning to think it wasn't possible. BTW, taking the headlight out seems counterintuitive, but three screws and two bulb connections made all the difference in the world.

 

Not done!!! My poor wife spent six weeks helping me this afternoon trying to find out why the red triangle came back on. Now it's a family effort, and all three of us went scouring the forums trying to figure out who's right and who's not so accurate because there's as many different answers as there are posts. The OBD2 is still coming up with the same codes as before. The primary question I would have at this point is did you actually mean 3 gallons coolant? I've read everything from 3 quarts to 3 half gallons and every possible number in between. We've also found several different methods to bleed/burp/eliminate air and although I'm perfectly OK spending extra time being careful to do it correctly, I'm simply not healthy enough to use up hours and hours of unnecessary mistakes in this Texas heat. If it needs a full 3 gallons (I'll save you the trouble by looking up the exact specs), then hopefully that's the answer. It ran a good 10 to 15 minutes before there was a problem. Any advice is appreciated more than we could ever possibly repay, but I assure you that appreciation is sincere

Thanks again for your patience and courtesy.

 

Took your advice and the car has been running perfectly. The only concern I have is if there's any way to know if it's safe for long trips. The tendency in the past has been whatever needed repairing would stop for a while, then the check engine light would come back on. It usually took multiple repairs until we got it right and the warning light would stay off. Thank you for your time and help. Hopefully we will be able to run from Fort Worth to Kansas City to see our daughter next week.

 

A bunch. Passed 200,000 last year but with maintenance as much as we can afford it is still a great car. I will keep it another 200,000 if it lets me. Next project is MFD which started freezing.

 

I need help again, if anyone is still watching this thread. I replaced the coolant control valve and inverter cooling pump thanks to you guys, and it ran better than ever for about 3-400 miles. Now, I get the check engine light and OBD2 codes P1121, P1122, and P1121 again. If I understand what I've been reading, all the coolant circulates between these 2 parts, the radiator, and their respective overflow tanks? Regardless if that's right or wrong, the pump and control valve are happy and circulating. I spent 6 weeks Sat and Sun bleeding, burping, and caressing the new parts and even then I don't think all the air is out, but it seems to be content. However, there's zero crossing from the radiator over to the pump and back. I'm wondering if I need to burp the radiator in addition to the other two parts? I've not seen the coolant cycle any at all in the radiator and its overflow. Is that normal? I need to remind everyone I am 61 years old, disabled, and a history of mini strokes is tough in this Texas heat. Disability means no money for a shop and barely enough to buy parts. My son and I will do whatever it takes, but there's no consensus on the entire internet telling me what to do or where to start. Thanks for any time anyone can spare us.

 

Thank you. As embarrassing as it is, the extra $50-60 for OEM meant we would have had to wait as much as a couple of weeks before we could start. We did, however, thoroughly research the Amazon vendor and his reviews before we bought 3rd party. Tomorrow morning I will be back at it again with a new radiator cap. I'm concerned we may have crossed the hoses, but if we did it wouldn't bleed/burp, correct? One more thing: the radiator is full and the reserve is slightly less than full. I saw multiple times where squeezing the hose running vertical from near the cap would help suck the coolant into the system but it doesn't change anything other than spill coolant.

Sorry for long diatribes. I want to be honest and try to anticipate your questions.

Thank you again.

 

I'm just not lucky. Tuesday I'm working on the Prius and a 250 pound tree branch fell on me trapping me face down on the street. Today is first day I'm able to walk without significant pain, so it's out to the car again. I'm still getting P1122, and P1122. I've replaced the pump and control valve, triple checked the hoses and connections, there is clear circulation in the new parts, but the radiator stays full all the time and never seems to cycle. I had quite a bit more injuries than just the leg when the tree fell, I'm already physically limited because of my disability, there's even less dollars because of the hospital bill, and my family needs the car running as soon as humanly possible. Any help/suggestions will be appreciated more than I could ever express.

 

Thank you.