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Check engine light on, Parking Brake not registering in diag screen

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by bruceha_2000, Apr 14, 2014.

  1. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    Hi all,
    The CEL went on in my wife's 2006 Prius last night so she "stole" my '09 to go to work today and left me to deal with the issue. The car is behaving normally, it had a 90K check a few weeks ago and I put in a new Yellowtop battery a week before that (got 8 years on the original 12V). FWIW, the snow tires do not have pressure monitors in them and the TPMS light usually goes on immediately but didn't go on last night, really weird.

    I got into the diag screen. The parking brake check said the brake was off even though it was on. Releasing and resetting it didn't change it. Could this be the cause of the CEL?? And if so, what code should I find and where?

    I went to the LAN Monitor screen and all said CHEK. I pressed each and there were numerous codes on all of them. I suppose some could be related to the missing TPMS units. I cleared them all since I doubt the car would even run if it had that many problems. I figured I could get it down to a code or two that would actually be meaningful and current. I started the car and all of the LAN items said NoErr except NAVI. It showed:

    NAVI 01 - E3 Sub 00-02

    I'm not having any luck finding out what that code means. I cleared the code, turned the car off, then on again, CEL still on. Went to the Map, things looked OK. Turned it off and went back to the diag screens, all say NoErr, including NAVI. I rather hate to take it to Toyota and get charged $80 just to look at it without having some idea of what is going on first if I can.
    Update: I drove it with the diag screen up 25 miles, mostly interstate to a house I am working on. Pressed "recheck" several times during the trip and after I parked. All LAN Monitors show OK and NoErr. The TPMS light never went on, CEL is still on and the Parking Brake still shows off even when I set it when I parked.

    Thanks,
    Bruce
     
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    You need to retrieve the DTC and the best tool for that purpose is Mini VCI running on a Windows XP or Windows 7, 32 bit OS laptop.

    Since the check engine light is on, there is a reasonable chance that a generic OBD-II code scanner will be able to retrieve the DTC from the engine ECU.
     
  3. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    I have a Mac and found other threads related to using the mini VCI and boot camp on a Mac. I'm not interested in giving MS money for an OS I don't want to run just to get the codes. Plus, I would have to get the mini VCI which takes ?? days? The wife isn't going to want to wait in case something is seriously wrong.

    Would Advance Auto be able to pull the codes? I believe they do it for free.
    Then there is the other question: Is it likely something REALLY BAD or would I see errors in the diag screens in that case?
     
  4. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    Advance Auto should be able to pull the codes for you since it is a Check Engine Light for engine and emissions type problems.

    You will need a Prius specific scanner, such as the mini-VCI, for other hybrid system trouble codes or DTC's.
     
  5. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    As I previously mentioned, a generic OBD-II scanner will probably be able to retrieve the DTC since the check engine light is on and the DTC was logged by the engine ECU. So Advance Auto should be able to help you.

    Since you say the car is behaving normally, then the problem is not likely to be REALLY BAD.

    Mini VCI will provide most of the diagnostic power that the Toyota Techstream laptop provides to the dealer repair tech, but is not really necessary in this particular case. If you have a more serious issue that for example, impacts the hybrid vehicle ECU, traction battery ECU, or skid control ECU, then that software will be quite useful.

    Yes, I posted about running Mini VCI on a MacBook Pro and it works well, although it seems unnatural to see Windows 7 running on the MacBook.
     
  6. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    I called Advance and yes they can check it as long as I get there before 5. So I hop in the car and start over. And I notice that OF COURSE the CEL is no longer on. I figure it might go back on and arrive at AA but no CEL - usually something one would NOT be unhappy to see! So he can't check it unless the CEL comes back on. Hopefully it was just a one time hiccup, if not, I will go back.

    The NAVI code is up again but I'm not real worried about that one since it isn't "driving critical" but it would be nice to know what it means.

    Thanks for the help guys.
     
  7. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    You can ignore the Navi codes.