OBD2 SCANNER FOR AUTO REPAIR

Many will use a 'mini-vci' cable and techstream (dealer technician diagnostic software). Since most modern versions of winblows can run 'apps', you should be able to use a newer bluetooth compatible laptop with a OBD2 device and run the desired app. But I've never seen it.

 

So far with that list you don't need to scan tool and I can all be done pretty easily straightforward You will need a scan tool that's true but to do these tasks so far not so much.. or I'll put it this way I didn't need the capable scanner to do these maintenance items on my cable scanner came a little after this brake fluid and Toyotas in this car is pretty stout You can test it and see if there's anything wrong with it and if it's still clear you can see through it etc You might not want to really bother with it because of break accumulator is in your future probably not too far away but whatever then you'll get the chance to really drain the brake fluid and you'll be right about the right time Good luck with it

 

OBD App review above sticky

Tactrix Openport, the original from Tactrix for Techstream

Tactrix Openport 2.0

Or the knockoff

Video showing how to install Techstream download link below

5 min to Download + Install Techstream V12 VMware for VXDIAG Toyota | OBDII365.com Official Blog

 

Many generic scanners will only talk to the first ECU in the chain- and there are literally dozens in a Prius.

The good tools are smart enough to ask that first ECU to forward reports from all the others. If the tool doesn't know how, you get no report, even if the car has a serious problem.

Toyota Techstream is Toyota's official software. You'd run that on a windows laptop. It's expensive to buy, cheap to rent and then there's always piracy.

Techstream allows you to use one of several interface cables. mini-VCI is probably the cheapest, Tactrix Openport is the gold standard.

 

"Expensive to buy" isn't a thing, as Techstream is never sold. You download and keep the software, but you rent the use of it, by buying activation codes that work for two days or for a year. It's $65 to activate for two days, or $1295 for a full year.

You need some J2534 dongle to use with it. The dongle you buy and keep. The one that Toyota tests and stands behind is the Drew Technologies Mongoose Pro Toyota 2, which is $495. There are counterfeit knockoffs of that, often misspelling the name in some way, like "Mangoose".

Toyota sells a $1500-ish "Techstream Lite" bundle you can buy, which is just a Mongoose Pro (yours to keep) and a one-year activation code for the software (normally $1295), and you bring your own Windows laptop. They have an even more expensive bundle you can buy that includes a pricey ruggedized laptop. But those prices don't matter to you if you just get a cheap Windows laptop and a dongle and pay the $65 for two-day activation codes.

Any interface dongle that says it supports J2534 ought to (mostly) work. J2534 leaves some features optional, and not all dongles will have all the features Techstream wants to use. Mini VCI is among the cheapest. I also have a Tactrix Openport, but I wouldn't call it "gold standard": at the end of the day, it's another alternative J2534 dongle that costs less than the Mongoose Pro and mostly works. Depending on the Prius generation and what I'm trying do, there are things where the Tactrix works and the Mini VCI won't, and vice versa.

Compared to the $495 Mongoose Pro, the Tactrix Openport is $169, there is a VXDiag VX Nano around $80 if I remember right, and the Mini VCI knockoffs can be around $20.

All of these dongles have been plagued by counterfeits. What makes the Mini VCIs so cheap is that they're now all counterfeits: there was a real company, XHorse, that originally made them, but the counterfeiters ate them alive. I only recently saw a post where somebody actually managed to find a real one (if you do, it'll be more than $20!), but good luck repeating that trick. The counterfeiters are shameless with that one, they don't even misspell it like they do for the "Mangoose", so good luck searching ... everything is an "XHorse Mini VCI" no matter where you find it. Honest.

There's still a chance to keep that from happening to the Tactrix Openport. Please, if you want to use an Openport, spend the $169 and get a real one. If you want to buy a counterfeit something, buy a counterfeit of something like the Mini VCI where the damage is already done. Tactrix is still a going US company that designs and makes and supports their dongles, and that is good for us, let's not blow it.

 

I don't know how you have this moisture whether it's like a terrarium in the brake container and you see the droplets on top of the canister or on top of the reservoir. So I mean you took a sample and had it tested in your what 17 25%. I would say with the nonsense you have going on with the pump running like it is you're on borrowed time you'll be doing the brake fluid soon enough The little bit of moisture you speak of however you know it's there is not going to hurt anything in the system until this crashes and then you can change the brake fluid to Dot 5 which doesn't collect moisture and put in your new accumulator pump assembly block and roll on for another 300k generally it looks like there's only happens to the gen too once. But like anything electrical it can just fail it's just the way of the electrical world..

 

That’s the one I bought, but it’s been superseded in the Techstream Lite kit by a new model, the Mongoose-Plus MFC3. Drew Technologies has also changed its name to Opus IVS; they were acquired by Opus Group in 2015.

In other markets, Toyota also supports DENSO DST-010, DENSO DST-i, and TS3-ETH interfaces.

 

"Also the information about the DOT 5. I had not idea about that. GREAT TIP!"

Sorry but NO! Tom has given bad advice- this is wrong!

DO NOT PUT DOT 5 BRAKE FLUID IN ANY MODERN CAR!!

DOT 5 is a silicon based brake fluid that's incompatible with the glycol based DOT 3 that's been used in (all) factory production cars for most of the past century.

Besides compatibility, DOT 5 has the wrong viscosity for most any type of ABS system (it can aerate when pulsed rapidly).

It is mostly suitable for use in say, an old school classic muscle car that has had all the brake parts freshly replaced (there are arguments for and against its use even here).

DOT 3, 4, 5.1, and (DOT 4 - "class 6" or "class 7") are all glycol based fluids that are "downward compatible". These fluids can mix. You can use DOT 4 where DOT 3 is the required spec, but not the other way around, and so on.


Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I have Motul Red top DOT 5 in all my Prii today 4 of . I also have the same fluid in five Italian Aprilia motor scooters that are on my property that I've had for 10 plus years I'll let you know when anything fails because of the motul For 5 thanks . I realize it's not in the manual and it's not protocol for lots of people That's okay these are in my vehicles I'll be waiting for a fail and waiting to rear in somebody etc it's never happened yet I've been using this fluid since it's inception I love it I even used to use it in old Corollas and old celica's You can see my posts about using it way back in the beginning of the internet under racetoy @ AOL.com. And I will keep using this brake fluid until I expire or something better comes along It will not take on water etc It works very well My brakes have never been any of a problematic issue on any vehicle I've ever owned from powersports equipment to big 18 wheel trucks no problemo but I do understand the comment above and have no problems with it.

 

All the scooters mentioned above made by this Italian company have ABS on them they make the same noise that a generation two or three does when the brake pedal is applied or when you get in or out of the car has a pump and accumulator system exactly like the Prius just a little smaller and I've had all of these vehicles practically since they were new and boy do I have brakes . And I already know this information that Mr Man is posted but unfortunately I've been doing this for so long that none of this has ever reared it's ugly head and I sure can aerate the fluid and I drive like a crazy person or used to I don't anymore I'm old now none of this really matters. But I don't have any of the funny pad wear that I see pictures of here and certainly don't have any moisture in my brake fluid system and then the other systems on the other machines that I own everything is clear no rust nothing so I'll stick with it thanks

 

I'm sure some companies do that, but they won't stay in business long doing it. Then there are the off-shore places that don't care about anything after the initial sale. That is a volume game and they sell cheap so it is not worth people's while persuing recourse. Gullible people in search of a 'bargain' fuel that fire, and as long as they do, the suppliers will keep doing it. The biggest laugh is the gullible people will blame the OE manufacturer for the failure of the cheap (and more often counterfeit) parts. Hilarious!

Most responsible manufacturers will make parts that will last the designed lifetime. If you want to have the equipment last longer than that, be prepared to replace parts as they fail.

Not everything in life is a conspiracy.

 

It's actually probably the accumulator or a leak by a valve sticking open by a piece of crud in that big aluminum block of valleys and ways. And because when one of those solenoids tries to close there's a little piece of something that doesn't allow a valve to close all the way and now it creates a leak all the time or what the computer thinks is a leak because the flow is not closed off or something along these lines. So the pump just keeps running and running not because it can't pump up the pressure because the pressure can't be brought up because something is open that's not supposed to be.

 

I don't care what you have done with your cars. If I did any of that "stuff" at my shop, I would have a great big bullseye on my back for any lawyer (or state prosecutor) to go after me. And they would be correct to do so.

Just because "nothing has gone wrong for you" (yet), you shouldn't recommend doing stupid things on safety systems to other people (like compression fittings on brake lines).

All the manufacturers have specific procedures and fluid specs FOR A REASON. Lots of it has to do with people getting killed- because of stupid things.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The big difference is DOT 4 fluid has a higher boiling point than DOT 3. As long as the fluid is changed / flushed occasionally, DOT 3 is fine for any car where it's specified.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.