Car won’t move, all dash lights on

There are multiple ECUs in the car, about a dozen in a Gen 2. Generic scan tools don't know how to get trouble codes from all of them. That leads to the most common time-waster phrase always written on PriusChat, "shows no codes".

If there are warning lights on the dash and the scan tool being used says there are no codes, that scan tool doesn't make the grade. One way to make progress is to read trouble codes by the jumper-and-light-blink method, which gets any scan tool out of the picture. Disadvantage of that is not all ECUs in the car play the light-blink game, so it won't give you codes from the ones that don't. But the brake/skid ECU definitely does, so if you have any of the ABS, VSC, or ((!)) lights on, you can at least count blinks to get the codes from those, and then you know more than you did. Those can be posted here while working on improving the scan tool situation to get any other codes that might be present.

Naturally, when the warning lights come on, you do want to collect the trouble codes before unhooking the battery or doing anything else that causes them to be lost.

 

The blinking gas gauge is normal due to the 12v battery being disconnected. It will recalibrate itself and indicate normally after a while. 5 minutes to 5 hours to 5 days. It seems to vary.

 

Just from your description of the sound, I'd be willing to bet that's one of the HVAC servos, common issue, easy to fix when there's nothing else of higher priority. But I'd say your "car won't move, all dash lights on" is probably higher priority and you'd be happy to deal with the HVAC servo at a later time.

 

You are in for an unenviable slog. What normally happens with those servos is not that anything mechanical needs help, but only that the sensor that reports back the current position starts to send a wavering signal, so the computer thinks the thing is moving off position, and keeps trying to position it back. Generally nothing more is needed than cleaning up the contact surface inside the servo, as that linked post describes, a job of mere minutes.

However, if something of the linkage or damper is now damaged mechanically and needs replacement, that will be the whole laborious out-with-the-instrument-panel procedure.

 

Not with a new one, I'll wager.

 

That looks like some kind of aftermarket widget. If it plugged inline to the MFD I would wonder if it is an add-on for the audio system. Cut off the covering on the circuit board and you might be able to pull numbers from the chips. (maybe a bluetooth interface?)

If you have warning lights on the dash then you need a scantool capable of communicating with all modules on your prius to find any codes. Many here use a mini VCI cable with a (pirated) copy of Techstream from amazon or ebay and is installed on an old windows laptop.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

One on each? Curiouser and curiouser.