2007 Prius Bricked by Techstream

I was just coming here to tell you that you're 12 volt is the problem when you have communication problems on the can bus in a car like this your text stream even though it's hacked and you're using a funny cable and all the nonsense usually will not break a car I'm not sure about the turning on the text screen before the car that doesn't seem right usually I have the car on sitting there ready or sitting there in accessory mode with all the lights on the dash I have text stream up on the cf-13 toughbook with the VCI cable plugged into the USB port and the other end that goes into the OBD2 port in my hand and then I stick that into the OBD2 port and then I look at my screen and then I click on the nonsense connect to text stream or whatever it has to detect the car and blah blah blah throw up the serial number it has to ask me if it has SKS or not and all that and so on and then that's it if tech can't connect to the can bus it's usually not a car problem it's a 12 volt battery problem if you discovered this is usually one of the first discoveries for us owners get to make or hear about if you're 12 volt is not above 12.5 in this AGM group size you're starting to lose voltage get down in the 12.2 and the 12.1 range and you are low and beyond that you might be in all those u codes or whatever they are I don't know those that well I only know the codes that come off the scanner off the MFD have no idea I have to look them up manually it's quicker for me to plug up the scanner and get the real codes I know a lot of those pretty well

 

I've not read of techstream bricking a prius before... And sounds like you got it out of being bricked, which raises the question of it ever really being bricked?

Once you have full power at 13ish volts and ideally a full charge and balance of hybrid voltage battery and reset and see if those codes return, let us know?

If they do, It points to bad plugs and wires or the boxes they plug into.

 

The thread doesn't say much about what dongle was used with Techstream.

I had a gizmo once built on a cheap J1962 connector with no plating on the pins, and it worked great for a few years, but then got to a point where just physically plugging it into the car (before even trying to send any signals!) would instantly produce a pile of comm errors. The same gizmo built on a slightly more expensive J1962 plug with gold-plated pins doesn't do that.

 

Seems to me a lot of these not known manufacturers are just doing whatever they want with these j standards so the number you have for the j standard that they're manufacturing a cable to they've altered wires and pins like just haphazardly see if something would work or not weird stuff like that just kind of makes no sense then they're no longer standards and that's the whole point I guess

 

The main thing I ran into was just that the connector was so cheap it used completely unplated pins. It worked great for the first few years, until they oxidized and made poor-enough connections that noise on the comm lines resulted from just having it physically plugged in. Nothing else was changed, and it didn't have anything to do with altered pin assignments or anything.

 

The 14 volts is probably with the car ready no 12 volt battery is going to read 14 volts just sitting there after the car is turned off generally even right after it would be down to 13 volts by the time you got your test meter out and or it would be falling while you're looking at the screen 14 is usually ready take it out of ready mode and the charging stops from the inverter to the 12 volt then you'll be seeing 12 volt realistic voltage in non ready so two presses of the button with the brake not touched all the lights on the dash on an accessory mode now read the 12 volts in any scanner Toyota software included you should see the battery at 12:00 something and probably falling a 10th every few seconds or whatever until it stabilizes it whatever it's going to be at

 

Yes I didn't mean yours necessarily rewired but it seems some of these companies are flying very loose with the j standards it just seems that way it seems it would make it hard to keep the standard a standard by doing things like that I don't see the financial benefit or any reason to do that somebody thought maybe or they tested one car and something kind of sort of worked and they said oh this is the way it needs to be oh boy

 

You want to check the 12 volt with the car off and the alternator not charging the battery that's how it would be in a regular car so in the Prius we want to check the battery in accessory mode when nothing is charging the 12 volt battery or with the car completely off in the remote in your pocket. In the ready mode we're just being told that the DC to DC converter in the inverter that charges the 12 volt battery is in fact charging the 12 volt battery so we know nothing about the 12 volt battery in ready mode if that makes any sense,. Or not.

 

Okay let's go back and regroup lot of times you lose a volt through transfer through the car so what do you have at rest at the 12 volt back at the 12 volt in the back of the car right on top of the battery after the battery has been sitting 15 minutes after the car's been out of ready mode not charging not on a tender nothing just sitting there if it's the same voltage you just reported 11.7 to 11.8 your battery is not up to snuff you are less than 12 volts at rest that's not good you should be 12 5 to 12 7 for this group size and an AGM format

 

Totally discharged. Get that battery on a charger quick smart and it will not hold the charge, replace the battery.