ABS light, brake light and annoying buzzer whine

few weeks back, when I began driving (2004 prius) ABS, exclamation point, and brake light suddenly came on along with whining buzzer. Brakes also got 'manual' feeling. Suddenly, it went away after a restart. Fast forward to tonight, same thing- this time they stay on. Checked brake fluid- fine. So......I'm assuming a bad actuator pump (?) It is a 2004- (16 years old) If so, I dread taking it to Toyota least they skin me alive. However, am I right to assume brakes must be bled if pump replaced? If so, I've read a million times in manuals that this is rather complex in a prius and you should take to a toyota certified mechanic. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

Ok, understood ($-ouch). (my "like" was of course, qualified) Frigid NE w/o a garage...no position to tackle this. ....and it looks like driving it with no ABS pump ::may:: work...but likely not advisable. I'll have it done by someone other than Toyota. Thanks.

 

reading up....I see actuator pump failure is in the top 5 "issues" with gen 2 prius. Since I only have 140K, I'll go ahead and have it taken care of.

no plans to drive without actuator pump- except to get it fixed......However, wondering about the difference between current state and ..let's say...my circa 1974 VW beetle. 1)Traction control is a double edged sword imo:- you could be nearing a baby carriage that darted into traffic and the prius brains might decided to ignore your foot on the brake so as not to make you skid. In some cases, i prefer to manually pilot vehicle. In new England snow- plenty of practice with skidding- getting out of them etc. 2) regen braking lost: my thinking is prius will compensate with no harm. (driving on hwy one uses no brakes(?) 3) no rear brakes (!!) wow, I did not know this. Seems odd. perhaps it takes too much foot power to use all 4 brakes (fr & back) (?) At any rate- no plans to drive extensively w/o pump. Now to find someone to do quality work installing the pump...w/o gouging me ::looking at you Toyota::

 

This is all good info. So....you are right. I did drive it to the mechanic....and ..braking distances increased dramatically. A bit dodgy for sure, but certainly not as bad as your steering wheel suddenly disconnecting from front wheels while driving and spinning like a roulette wheel . (law suit pending). Back to brakes.... so, my fear came true, bad actuator pump. I hear these go bad on Gen 2s. To be honest, I have a 2004 -140k miles. On a 16 year old car, I sort of expect things that tend to wear out...to wear out. So I'm having my trusted mechanic replace pump. I've seen cheaper online Toyota parts too. Have my doubts about a used one- quite a bit of labor involved in install...don't want to put in pump that goes bad soon. I've seen recondished pumps.....just not sure. Leaning towards getting new OEM pump- paying for the extra peace of mind. At any rate, I heard these go bad on Gen 2s...and sure enough. Thanks for input!

 

Re replacement pump: These tend to go bad on gen 2, so I have no interest in replacing with used and rolling dice. For one- a bit labor intensive to replace these, -in addition to being a bit of a safety issue. As far as reconditioned, I've heard of people putting them in and they would not work from the get go. However, I'm no mechanic....told my mechanic if he feels he can find a refurbished one and he is sure it is good as a new one- go ahead. Otherwise, I'll just bite the bullet (and pull out the wallet) and by a new OEM Toyota pump. I just don't know enough about the quality of reconditioned pumps. I'm assuming the new OEM pumps will have worked out flaws that made them susceptible to failure in first place.

 

So I drove with no actuator pump- front brakes only ...for about 15 miles. A little dicey.....just took me longer to stop. As I drove, I sort of adjusted/ compensated for that. However, left it with mechanic until new pump put in. Figure it will cost $800 -$1500 depending on cost of pump. [which is killing me as I just saw a nice 2007 prius on ebay for $1000- oh well]

 

Just talked to mechanic. He said codes pointed to failed actuator pump..or...failed power brake booster. He needs to dig a little deeper to find the problem....but he is sure it is one of those two.

 

update.....just wandered into this. !!! Ended up dropping this off at Toyota today. trouble codes c1252, c1253, c1256 This matches 3 of the 4 codes in this article and my year Prius is listed. Would be very sweet to have this fixed on their dime. Anyone know anything more about this? I guess letters went out 2019

Faulty Brake Actuator & Brake Booster Pump on Toyota & Lexus Cars

 

So found out more.....I'm on a learning curve. Vehicles have official 'recalls'...and they also have CSP warranty extension. With these, Toyota generally sends out notices. I called the 'Toyota Customer Experience Center'...they were great- never new they existed! Anyway, I found out my 2004 Prius had one of these warranty extension due to faulty actuator pumps....but that it expired in 2017. They contacted the main office, and they are looking into having it extended to cover my prius....waiting to hear. This is all very timely, because I found out about this while my car is at the dealer waiting to be serviced. Bad actuator pump and O2 sensor. Cost: $2,806 for actuator, $442 for sensor. Yikes. More than trade in value of my vehicle.

 

Got bad news from Toyota corporate...they won't extend the "limited service campaign" that expired in 2017 to cover my bad actuator. Dealer wants $2,806 (!!) for new one. I made the case that if the defect causes the actuator pump to wear out prematurely, would not a more 'fair' policy be for Toyota to cover actuator pump failures that happened before a designated amount of miles? No dice. So I'm frantically looking for a mechanic in eastern MA who would install one of these.....any help appreciated.

 

found a place -other than dealer- to put in new pump. I'm happy. Leo & Sons Auto Repair - Lawrence, MA Auto Care Since 1975