2010 Prius Trunk Button and Rear Wiper don’t work

congrats and welcome!

hopefully just a fuse, or wire in the hatch. check the fuse continuity first, if that is okay, check the hatch wire connector for corrosion. if that's okay, you probably have to pull the inside of the hatch off to get to the wiring.

 

Welcome. Sounds like something happened to the cable going to the hatch. Most likely, either mouse damage or something got left disconnected during the Compustar installation.

 

As long as you are doing continuity testing, test the button itself when you have it unplugged. I'm hypothesizing that the previous owner may have been lifting the hatch by putting full force on the button after it unlatches, instead of moving back a half inch and using the stronger part of the back trim to lift the hatch..

 

Perhaps the compustar system is defective, or there is a wiring problem at the hub

 

I have a 2010 Prius and one day the rear wipers would not stop running. I am here at dealership now and they say they are completely clueless like they had never heard of this car having that problem before. But yet when I google it it pulls right up as being a problem for the 2010 Prius. What’s going on?

 

It's not a problem I've ever heard of. What do the sources you found with Google say about it?

The electrical circuit is simple, nothing but some wires from the switch on the steering column back to the motor on the hatch. The motor assembly has some electronics built in to give it the intermittent operation.

Wiper motors usually are built to return to the home position even when you turn them off. They have a switch built in that keeps the power on until they are home. If that switch sticks, it can keep running.

Potentially, the electronics in the motor assembly could fail in a way that would have the same effect.

If it's not one of those, it's going to be the switch on the steering column, or the wiring.

One could unplug the motor assembly, and just give it battery connections at pin 4 (+) and pin 5 (−). If that makes it run, the problem's in the motor assembly (either those electronics or that home switch; either way, a dealer would just replace the assembly). If it doesn't, then the motor's ok and the switch and wiring should be looked at.

I'm surprised the dealer even made that comment about whether they had heard of the problem before or not. Some things are so simple there's no point fussing over whether you've heard of it before or not; you just look at the wiring diagram, grab a meter, go find out why it's happening, and fix it.

 

My IV was listed as a V when I bought it. I wasn't disappointed; I could tell it was a IV, and I wasn't looking for a V.

It wasn't just a mistake (or worse) on the seller's part: I plugged the VIN into Toyota's site and it showed as a V.

It is very definitely a IV, with no V stuff, and IV stuff no V came with ... and there's no sign it was ever ... extensively modified.

So I don't know how much I trust Toyota's VIN lookup for trim levels.

 

So the alarm is able to pop the trunk but the button on the hatch won't. Add in the rear wiper no longer works. I would first hunt down the wiring diagram for the alarm so you know which wire is for the function to pop the trunk. From there google the FSM for the prius to locate the wiring diagram for the rear hatch release switch. Then use a DMM to test continuity from that wire to the alarm to the switch.

I have a feeling the crimps they used to connect the wires are starting to take affect...