Changed out ABS Actuator now Prius won't shut off :>(

Thanks to member Timbuk2 for supplying me with an ABS Actuator. He was very professional with the transaction. THANKS!!

So, today I had the time and good weather to do the transplant. Watched a youtube vid by Mr. Electric on how to pull the old on out and replace it.

Once I did the replacement, I hooked up the 12v battery and the HV battery, put the key into the ignition and hit the start button. A high pitch screech soon permeated the cabin, all the dash lights were on and the Prius would not start. The red triangle of death appeared and it got me wondering if I had forgot to plug in something or is this a computer reset symtom?

My Pruis is a 2005 model with 273K miles on the clock. As far as I can tell this is the first time the ABS actuator has been replaced so I think that is a reasonable timeframe for it to fail. When I pulled the brake lines off the actuator I let the brake fluid drip onto the top of the transmission because I didn't have any way to block the open lines. It took darn near a quart of Dot3 brake fluid to refill the reservoir.

Once I slipped the key fob into the dash I hit the start button and the annoying noise was very appearent. All warning lights turned on, I tried to shift into drive but it only went into neutral. I then hit the start button to turn the car off but it would not shut off. I had to pull the wire on the 12V battery to get the dash to turn off along with the annoying noise.

I've read threads that I could hold the start button down for a few seconds and that might help the situation, but I haven't done that yet. Tomorrow is a better day to do diagnostics, it's too late today.

To be honest, I don't think I missed any wiring connections. I made sure that all connections were secure and totally plugged into its mate. So the problem must lie in the computers trying to reset themselves. \\

Does anyone have ideas or hints as to what to do to get my Prius back on the road and fix these electrical gremlins?

Thanks.

 

I know its hard to manage my problem from your computer screen. But before I get started, I just want to say thanks for any help or direction of attack that you think I need to pursue.

I have finally gotten my fob out of the dash. Two quick taps on the start button and the key fob is released. I noticed the high pitched noise is directly related to my depressing of the brake pedal. I the pedal is NOT depressed the noise is present, when the brake is depressed the noise goes away.

I used my Harbor Freight Zurich ZR11 code reader and received NO trouble codes. It did however show green ovals related to other conditions. Each green oval had a three letter code and the codes are thus: MIS--Misfire monitor. FUE--Fuel System Monitor. CCM--Compressive Component Monitor. There are red ovals and they are CAT EVA and O2S. Nothing to do with the braking system. These three red ovals are flashing on the screen.

There is a screen on the Zurich code reader that states this: No Powertrain DCTs or Freeze Frame Data is presently stored in the vehicles computer.

At the top of the MFD, when I press the start button one time, I recieved a banner with a yellow triangle inside of which is an exclaimation mark ! and the word PROBLEM beside the triangle.

This banner is soon replaced by a symbol in the top left hand corner of the MFD which is red in color and looks like two front ends of cars but pointed away from each other. (I do not know what this two-headed car symbol is related to)

I used the paper clip trick to see if it would show any flashing symbol trouble codes on the dash but the MFD came back with an OK on all code checks.

So here I am with a 2005 Prius and I cannot bleed the brakes. I've tried the drivers side rear brake and attached a hose and catch bottle to the nipple and then depressed the brake pedal but I did not get any flow of brake fluid into the catch bottle. Not even air bubbles were produced. This car has a very different brake bleed system compared to a old regular American made hunk of steel. Does simply depressing the brake pedal bleed the air out of the system or is there a more involved procedure to follow? I've seen YT vids and they say you need a computer to talk you through the bleeding system, yet another YT vid shows it can be accomplished by simply depressing the brake pedal.

. Is Mr. Electric full of something or will his procedure work?

Any help or guidance is appreciated. If you need more information before making an informed reply, please feel free to ask me for that info. Thanks.

 

I appreciate your candidness, ChapmanF. I'm sure you are sitting there rolling your eyes at me and thinking "If I have to put up this this nonsense one more time....". I understand that sentiment completely. Sometimes it takes a 2 x 4 between the eyes for me to open them to knowledgeable advise. Thanks .

Now, I will tell you what is on my dash board starting from left going to the right.

Blinking seatbelt light. BRAKE light. Fuel gauge with one bar blinking. Red triangle of death. ((!)), ABS, and a car slipping on wet pavement. Aside from the seatbelt and fuel gauge there are no other blinking lights.

Thus, I think I do not have any trouble codes. The car's engine will not start since I've done the transplant. I wonder if this has something to do with extracting the codes.

After reviewing a YT vid I've come to the conclusion I need a techstream program/app in order to bleed the brakes. I've seen online where the cable and disc run around $50 give or take a few bucks. Would this be a good route? I think the package purchased from Toyota would be fairly expensive. Advise on this issue would be appreicated as well as a supplier if you have a personal favorite.

 

Codes for ((!)) 53, 54, 57, 61, 68, 69

Code for ABS 42

 

And the drama continues.

You ever have one of those days???? Today was mine. Last week I got the ABS Actuator installed and tried the "self bleed" way of bleeding the brakes. No Bueno. ChapmanF and I chatted about how that way is not the way to bleed the brakes. I'm glad he put me on the right path. Now, in the mean time I had to procure a copy of tech streem. Finally got it and the single page instructions written in English by a Chinese individual was, well to be fair, a bit lacking in step by step instruction. Ugh. They did put a video along with the download but the computer which was being recorded had icons labeled in Chinese. I watched the vid, my wife watched the vid, we both watched the vid and we still could not understand what was being conveyed. I tried to contact the seller yet they only wanted to converse via WhatsApp and after seeing the way that app wanted to look at on my phone I decided to go another route to get the tech streem to work. I dropped my laptop and app CD off at a local computer store and they got the program running.

Now, my son and I set up the tech streem to my Prius and we were ready to rock and roll. He rode in the drivers seat depressing the brake pedal, watching the computer, and relaying to me what needed to be done next. Was going very well until I started bleeding the rear brakes. I do not know why, but absolutely no fluid came out of the nipples. We were very diligent following the program step by step and after four attempts we gave up. When we got to the part where we bled the right hand rear brake a warning sign appeared stating that the 12v batter was low. Now, after the second try to bleed the rear brakes I put my battery charger onto the 12v battery and that seemed to keep the power level of the battery within the 11v range.

This begins me wondering if I did something wrong, is the actuator to blame, or is my day going to swirl around the toilet bowl until midnight when my turds turn into a floating ice cream sunday?

The tech streem codes showed the following: C1202 C1253 C1256 C1364 C1365 and C1391

Pretty much actuator fault codes.

If you have any links to YT vids showing how to properly do a Gen2 actuator reset and brake bleed I'd be most interested in watching it.

Thanks to everyone who's read this thread. I hope someone can gleen a wee bit of knowledge through my experiences. If you have specific Q's about my experience I'd be more than happy to answer them.

 

Dolj, I keep an eagle eye on the fluid level while bleeding the brakes. The reservoir never went below the half full mark nor did it even go down while trying to bleed the rear brakes. The front brakes....that process went great. No problems and the fluid flowed out of the nipples. I went to the rear brakes, heck I even about took off the nipples to see if the brake fluid would flow and there was no flow, what so ever.

What did I do wrong? Why isn't the rear brake fluid flowing? Would it be electrical related or would it be a bad valve within the actuator? Maybe I put the wrong brake line into a port (switched the two rear brake lines going into the actuator) and now the computer is having a hard time deciding what to do?

This is a puzzling situation and I don't have the expertise to understand the results I'm getting from the tech streem. Is it operator error, a glitch in the computer software, or something on the car?

I know one thing for certain......the Prius braking system is a completely different animal than good old American steel.

Dolj, after reviewing your reply one thing that stands out is the Harness and Connector. Where exactly is that located? Maybe I need to look again at that connection point to be certain that it is seated properly. Would that be the large black connector on top of the actuator? Could some grit/dirt been pushed into one of the pins, thus causing the brake fluid to the rear brakes to not flow due to a bad contact between the pin and the pin receiver?

 

Thanks for the brain trust in PriusChat. You guys ROCK!! I am so glad of the seach feature and that allowed me to use my tech streem and hunt down possible problems. I hooked up the TS and downloaded the DTC's.

On a post on another thread I read where when you load the DTC's you will see a blue "cloud" next to the code. Now I figured that if I looked on the wwweb I can figure out where my troubles might lay.

This is what i've found out.
C1256 DTC Accumulator Low Pressure:
Faulty Accumulator Pressure Sensor
Accumulator Pressure Sensor harness is open or shorted
Accumulator Pressure Sensor circuit poor electrical connection
Faulty Skid Control ECU

Read more: Code C1256 Toyota: Accumulator Low Pressure

Code C1391 Toyota Possible Causes:
Fluid Leakage
Faulty Brake Actuator Assembly
Brake Actuator Assembly harness is open or shorted
Brake Actuator Assembly circuit poor electrical connection

Read more: Code C1391 Toyota: Abnormal Leak Of Accumulator Pressure

This leads me to thinking that either the electrical connector on top of the accumulator is wonky or the accumulator is bad. How do I test the connector? Maybe someone will give me a hint.

Thanks for following along.

 

Thanks for the brain trust in PriusChat. You guys ROCK!! I am so glad of the seach feature and that allowed me to use my tech streem and hunt down possible problems. I hooked up the TS and downloaded the DTC's.

On a post on another thread I read where when you load the DTC's you will see a blue "cloud" next to the code. Now I figured that if I looked on the wwweb I can figure out where my troubles might lay.

This is what i've found out.
C1256 DTC Accumulator Low Pressure:
Faulty Accumulator Pressure Sensor
Accumulator Pressure Sensor harness is open or shorted
Accumulator Pressure Sensor circuit poor electrical connection
Faulty Skid Control ECU

Read more: Code C1256 Toyota: Accumulator Low Pressure

|Code C1391 Toyota Possible Causes
Fluid Leakage
Faulty Brake Actuator Assembly
Brake Actuator Assembly harness is open or shorted
Brake Actuator Assembly circuit poor electrical connection

Read more: Code C1391 Toyota: Abnormal Leak Of Accumulator Pressure

Will the tech streem show if there is a fault in the accumulator connector? Can it diagnose and verify that the connector is bad?

I'm beginning to think that the problem lies within that connector or the accumulator itself.

Could the ABS Master relay #1 and #2 be bad? How do you test those relays? With a multimeter?

 

I'm up to doing the "watching of the accumulator pressure sensor" yet I'm not familar with that activity. Can I perform the "watch" with the tech streem or do I need to unplug some sensor and take a reading? Sorry to sound like a three year old asking simple question to a grandfather, but I'm trying to do my best. The techs with years of experience toss out very good suggestions and I'm trying to figure out what those suggestions mean. "Watch the accumulator pressure sensor" is probably within my capabilities, yet I don't know how to watch it. Plug in the Tech Streem and hit a series of buttons or pull the sensor and do readings with a multimeter. Not trying to be a pain, just trying to understand what is being so graciously being relayed to me.

Thanks mr_guy_mann, I appreciat your help.

 

Hope these pics help you guys figure out where I need to look. Thanks.

These pics were taken seconds apart. The speed in one shows 55 mph, but the car is up on blocks and cannot move. Earlier today I hopped into the car, put it into drive, hit the gas and stomped on the brakes hoping to purge some air out of the brake lines. Maybe the 55mph was captured while I was speeding while standing still. IDK, but I'm just trying to relay all the info I can accumulate so you can understand some of the values.