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2007 Prius won't turn on after changing Brake Actuator

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by realmentereal, Oct 2, 2020.

  1. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    Figured I'd write this post because I can't seem to find any information on my situation online. Maybe this can help someone out in the future so I will try to update this post throughout with hopefully a solution if I find one. Just a heads up I am not a mechanic or anything. I can do regular maintenance work and this is most difficult thing I've done to a car other than brakes and struts.

    So I purchased a used 2007 Prius about a month ago and a week later I started hearing weird noises when I pressed on the brakes all the way. It was a chirping/squeal sound. After doing some research I learned that it was a sign of a bad ABS actuator. They're expensive new so I ordered a refurbished one online for cheaper. Came with a warranty so I figured I would give it a go.

    Of course to do any work to the car I had to disconnect the 12V battery and the hybrid battery. I took the old part out and put the refurbished one in and it went smoothly. I connected the batteries back up and opened my car door expecting for the actuator to turn on since that's how it works. I have the smart key feature.

    The actuator did not turn on so I decided to turn the car on but not to start the engine. Still nothing the actuator would not turn on. So before I took it all apart again to see if I could find out what went wrong I decided to turn the car on. The car turned on and the actuator turned on as well! Success! I thought.. next I would have to bleed the brakes and I would be good to go.

    When I turned the car on there was a bunch of weird lights turning on and there was a constant beep going off which I later learned that it was a brake pressure alarm. If it wasn't for the lights and the beeping the car would have seemed fixed. I was hoping this would all go away after I bled the brakes.

    My issue was when I came back to the car I was again expecting the actuator to turn on when I opened the door but it did not. So I tried to turn the car back on and it wouldn't. I kept trying for about 5 minutes and I realized all the electrical things in the car weren't turning on except a light on the power button that did nothing when pressed.

    I tried holding the power button and got nothing. I tried disconnecting the batteries and connecting them again and got nothing other than the power light turns green and when I press it it turns red and blinks slowly getting dimmer. Sounds like the battery a bit so I went to test the battery with a multi meter I purchases and barely know how to use and the battery said 8V. That's a really dead battery but how is it possibly that low?

    I will be charging it and testing it later tonight or tomorrow to update more on this situation.

    If someone can help by pointing me to the right direction on where to check next if it's not the battery I'd really appreciate it. Again I'll keep this post updated since I plan on using this forum to learn more about these cars since it is easily my favorite car I have ever owned.
     
  2. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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    Welcome to PriusChat!!

    Sounds like the 12v drained while you were working on the vehicle.

    What is the plan for properly bleeding the brakes, and the actuator/accumulator assembly?

    Be sure to keep us up to date on the refurbished part, was it a Dorman branded part with a lifetime warranty?
     
  3. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    I'm going to have to do some research on batteries. It don't understand enough to make sense of a battery just dying from not being used. I've had similar issues with working on different vehicles and batteries dying while I work on them.

    I ordered a techstream kit off amazon with the cable and software. We'll see how that works but so far the software included has terrible instructions.

    edit: Also the part was not Dorman it was a refurbished Toyota part. Not sure I believe if it actually is refurbished but the ebay seller had excellent reviews with past sold actuator parts and had a 30 day warranty. They probably just yanked one out of a junked prius.

    edit2: Thanks for the welcome! Hope to not be another user that just posts for help lol.
     
  4. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    There's no telling what could happen with that little bitty 12v battery running the brake accumulator motor over and over again with the car not in ready...........you have to really stay on top of the 12v battery on these cars. It doesn't take much to drain a medium age/old 12v.
     
  5. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    I'll keep that in mind next time I work on the car. I'm still learning a lot about these cars.

    Update: So I charged the battery and after less than an hour I checked it to make sure it was charging and it said it was at 12.2v. Popped it back in and the car was clearly getting more power. The car door open beep was working and the little screen was working but then it started to quickly started losing power again. I checked the battery again and it read at 9v and was pretty quickly dropping.

    Took it to autozone to get it charged and tested and after an hour I learned that it was a bad battery. According to their device that tests it. It makes sense from how it was behaving so I purchased a new one (one of the yellow cap ones) and will be getting it tomorrow. I will update after that.
     
  6. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    EDIT: I just realized the title is supposed to say "ON". My prius won't turn on after installing the actuator.

    Update: Still waiting on new battery. Should be here tomorrow. Is there anything I should know before dropping the new battery in? So it doesn't die again? I still have to bleed the brakes. From what I understand the battery turns the electric parts of the car on and the engine. The engine then charges the hybrid battery and then the hybrid battery charges the 12v battery. Does that mean that I should start the car in order to bleed the brakes? My car has been sitting for about a week.. I feel like the hybrid battery might be drained..
     
  7. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Titled fixed
     
  8. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    The first part is true, but the second isn't. The 12 V battery never turns the engine over. The electronics bring the hybrid vehicle (HV) battery online and the engine is turned over by the HV battery turning one of the motor/generators which in turn spins the engine.
    Nope, just follow the prompts in Techstream. To preserve your 12 V battery, just ensure it is connected to your battery charger the whole time. You will not likely make it through the entire bleeding procedure unless you have the 12 V battery on the charger.

    Your HV battery will likely be fine as long as you are not continually trying to start the engine and getting a no start each time.
     
  9. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    Okay got it thank you! Also probably a dumb question but do I connect the battery and the charger directly or from the front (under the hood) positive and negative connections? I've read too many other posts about people trying to jump start their cars wrong and breaking something else so I am trying not to mess up here. I know I'm not jumping the car just being precautious.
     
  10. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    Did some research and found a lot of people add a trickle charger to their 12v battery in the trunk. So it is safe to charge your battery when it is still in the vehicle. Thanks anyways!
     
  11. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Either place is safe and acceptable. Some advocate using the front jump start point in lieu of connecting directly to the battery in the back. The reasons being that up in the front it is more open and therefore often better lit so mistakenly crossing the positive and negative is less likely. As well, there is a red cover over the positive tab so it is harder to mistake that for the negative. I have a pigtail permanently wired in the back to the correct terminals with the other end with the socket fed up through the access flap (to the rear lights) and sitting on top of the battery cover, so I just plug my charger to this socket and go. It takes five seconds to connect up my charger and it is always correct.
    Correct.
     
  12. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    Update: Tried using techstream to do the brake bleeding and it would not complete. I kept getting an error message. I did a bit of research and found that the actuator/accumulator assembly was suppose to turn on during the bleeding process and mine was not.

    I read that I had to reset the ABS memory and run the Linear Valve Offset service with techstream. It requires the battery to be fully charged so I am waiting a couple hours for the 12v battery to charge and will be proceeding with the service after. Hopefully the actuator/accumulator assembly turns on after that.

    IF it does NOT turn on is it due to a bad actuator/accumulator assembly? Or is there anything else I can check before I start trying to take it out and ask for a replacement/refund?

    Edit: Got the diagnostic codes: C1203 (Engine Control System Communication Circuit), C1256 (ACCumulator Low Pressure), C1345 (Not Learning Linear Valve Offset), C1392 (Un-Correction of a Zero Point of the Stroke Sensor)
     
    #12 realmentereal, Oct 8, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2020
  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I'm not sure what you mean by the actuator assembly turning on. It's pretty much "on" whenever the car is, but it doesn't really make noises or anything, except some clicks when valves operate, or a whirr at times when the pump runs.

    When you say the bleed procedure "would not complete", what exactly happened?

    I had headaches when using Techstream with a flaky dongle and it would start the bleed process but nearly always say "lost communication with vehicle" part-way through and make me start over. A different dongle solved that in my case.
     
  14. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    I get no whirr sounds. The whirr sounds I'm assuming is the actuator assembly running and building pressure so this should happen when I try to bleed the brakes. It does not happen when I try and bleed the brakes.

    I lost communication a couple times but that wasn't my issue my issue was the break bleeding process would fail. I would get an error and it would tell me to make sure the car is on a flat surface, parking break is applied, ignition switch is on and the vehicle is stopped. I am assuming the reason why the procedure won't complete is because the actuator assembly is not building pressure as in it is not turn on.

    Let me know if that makes sense. I also watched this video and this is how I learned that the actuator assembly should turn on when bleeding the rear brakes.
     
  15. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    Update: Let me know if this sounds familiar to anyone. I can't seem to find any more info online on how to get the actuator assembly working.

    Using techstream:
    I read that I was suppose to reset the memory with the ABS/VSC/TRAC Utility. I double click on Test Mode and run through those instructions. Then I was suppose to the ECB Utility and do the Linear Valve Offset. This is suppose to get the actuator assembly running.
    I'm not exactly sure how in all the youtube videos people that installed their actuator assembly just popped it in and it right away started running after putting everything back together?!

    Anyways my problem now is when I try to run through the Test Mode instructions to confirm that it had successfully ran that utility I should see the ABS light blink. It does not blink. Techstream does not verify if it successfully completed. It instead says if it does not blink retry until it does. I retried and it does not cause the ABS light to blink. If I ignore that part and continue to the ECB Utility > Linear Valve Offset part during that process is when the actuator assembly is suppose to start running and to show that that utility is working 3 lights on the dashboard are suppose to blink rapidly according to techstream. I tried this multiple times and they do not blink.

    I will try it one more time tomorrow and if it doesn't work I am going to try removing the actuator assembly and will try these tests with my old actuator assembly since that one did somewhat work. I will also be returning that part since I believe it does not work and will be requesting for a replacement or refund.
     
  16. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The whirr sound is the pump. The pump is part of the actuator assembly (on a Gen 2), but there's a lot more to the actuator than just the pump. Hearing or not hearing the whirr sound tells you the pump is or isn't running.

    It might help if you were to post here the actual error that you get whenever you say "I would get an error". Even if what it says doesn't ring any bells for you, it might for somebody else.

    Also, you could go to the data list for the brake system and take some screenshots and post those. It's not uncommon for people to do that.
     
    SFO likes this.
  17. Michael Wood

    Michael Wood Active Member

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    When you touch the door in a typical situation, the brake system is in an under-pressurized state. So the actuator motor will turn on to bring the system to full pressure. In your situation, after the part was installed I'm guessing the system was pressurized enough to keep the motor from stating when you opened the door. However, when you started the engine, the pump started, and put the system in an over-pressurized state, which caused the system shut-down.

    If there's a way to get the actuator installed and then make sure the system is under-pressurized, them simply touching the door should activate the pump and bring the system up to the correct pressure.
     
  18. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    The error message was that simple message I posted above. Did not say anything other than "Air Bleeding has failed. Verify the initial conditions: 1 The vehicle is stopped. 2 The parking break is applied. 3 The ignition switch is on. Do you want to try again?"

    I didn't post screenshots but I did write down the codes and the descriptions (as posted above)... Got the diagnostic codes: C1203 (Engine Control System Communication Circuit), C1256 (ACCumulator Low Pressure), C1345 (Not Learning Linear Valve Offset), C1392 (Un-Correction of a Zero Point of the Stroke Sensor)
     
  19. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The C1256 sure enough means you don't have adequate working pressure, which means normally the pump would run to build it up.

    If the pump won't run, that's why you have C1256.

    The linear valve offset can't be learned without pressure to work with. So finding out why the pump doesn't run has to be first.

    Do you have a multimeter? Have you located where the relevant connectors, fuses, and relays are?
     
    SFO likes this.
  20. realmentereal

    realmentereal Junior Member

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    Funny that you mention that. I just now starting looking for a list of all the fuses and relays to test them. Purchased a multimeter not long ago for the actuator assembly removal. Will do research tomorrow on how to test all that.

    At a quick glance it seems like I will have to test the (fuses) - ABS MAIN1 - 3 fuses, ABS-1, ABS-2 and (relays) ABS No.1, ABS No.2, ABS MTR, ABS MTR 2.

    Thanks for the response. Makes me a little less stressed when I understand a bit more of what is happening.