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Did front & rear brake job, got ABS, Traction and brake light

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by PriusRay128, Feb 13, 2019.

  1. PriusRay128

    PriusRay128 Junior Member

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    Hello everyone,


    I recently got a 2013 Prius as a extra work car. Car only has 86k miles but I bought some Centrik premium front & rear rotors and oem pads as it looked like the rotors were never changed and the rear Pads were 30% or so. After installing the front and rear brake pads, my buddy told me to pump the brakes and I got distracted and put the car in reverse and the Abs,traction and brake lights came on and after pumping the brakes 4 or 5 times all the lights went off on its own. Drove 25 miles home and everything seems fine...
     
  2. tankyuong

    tankyuong Senior Member

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    Need techstream to reset
     
  3. PriusRay128

    PriusRay128 Junior Member

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    From what I read, that's what everyone is stating. Car brakes perfectly fine and no lights have come back on since they went away and I driven 50 miles so far. You still recommend to reset the system??? It's Ironic I did at the shop I run and we rebuild 30k bmw m5 and e63 mercedes engines and go figure this happens to my prius haha. We hardly ever get prius at the shop since they never break down. We got 3 or 4 the last few years and all had 250-300k miles and had Hybrid system codes.
     
  4. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Pulled the 12v negative off to do pillar involved project yesterday. When Car was ready again, same dash lights appeared as yours. Shut off car and turn back on, dash lights went away.

    This happens whenever I disconnect 12v battery.
     
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  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    @PriusRay128 did you do any disconnect of 12 volt? For DIY it's a good ploy to disconnect the 12 volt negative cable before doing anything, and only reconnecting after everything's reassembled AND the brake pedal has been pumped multiple times, for a couple of reasons:

    1. To take out excess brake pedal travel: the car can detect this and throw a code.

    2. If you open driver's door with the battery connected and a caliper off the rotor, there's a good chance the system will try to pressurize and pop a caliper piston out.

    Also, did you align the rear caliper piston so the cross-pattern on it's face is "X" oriented? There's a stubby pin on back of rear pads, that needs to be between the spokes, to lock the piston, prevent it from rotating when the parking brake's applied.

    You can check all is ok, by raising the rear and spinning the wheels; they should spin a revolution or two with a push. If they're dragging badly you need to check that alignment.

    Info regarding piston alignment in attachment:
     

    Attached Files:

  6. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    So......if everything really DOES seem fine, is there a question hiding in your post ??

    Notes: Since a Prius uses battery regeneration for a lot of it's braking under normal circumstances and not the physical breaks, it is rather unusual to "need" brake rotors at that age and mileage. And NO it is not necessarily good practice to change the rotors every time you do pads.

    It is, however, good practice to change the brake FLUID at least every time you change pads (probably more often) and that bleeding process can be a bit tricky with ABS. DID you change the fluid ??
     
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  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    A micrometer and dial indicator (with magnetic base) can check rotor against specs (per attachment). Those two tools will set you back maybe $60, last forever.
     
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  8. PriusRay128

    PriusRay128 Junior Member

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    Thanks for the replies guys, I had a fellow neighbor hybrid shop do a quick look and everything is normal with the vehicle he said no reset or anything needed. Just the fact the brakes were not pumped before it was driven what triggered the codes apparently and after it was pumped they instantly went away and did not come back. I did not disconnect the battery and doors were not open until the work was completed. My guy did double check the "X" when doing the rear brakes since he knew about that issue do to past Prius brake jobs and everything is working great. Flushes are overrated IMO, unless the fluids are sludge like than there's no need to perform a flush and it's a service I hardly ever do at the shop and one of if not the easiest way for a shop to make easy money fast $$$ Why BMW and Mercedes Dealers try to flush every fluid possible when suckers go into their dealerships for other services.


    I get parts at cost and i don't pay for labor so I replaced the rotors and pads earlier then needed along with denso cabin and air filter and some wiper blades. So far so good, getting 54 MPG on my drive to work and home on average..23 miles each way. Might never drive my other cars again haha jk. We just don't do many hybrid repairs since they hardly ever break down and the ones that do are not worth fixing anymore.
     
    #8 PriusRay128, Feb 13, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2019
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  9. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Pretty short sighted opinion.

    Brake fluid is not like any other oil, gas or water product.
    It will attract water out of the air.....slowly because the system to mostly sealed but it happens nonetheless.
    In itself, it is highly corrosive. Put a drop on a painted surface that you don't value to see.
    Old brake fluid tends to be hard on calipers too.
    IF......you changed the rotors that didn't really need to be changed, why didn't you do the calipers too ??

    EVERY auto, truck and motorcycle maker in the WHOLE WORLD recommends changing the brake fluid periodically; usually every 24 months.
    While it might not really need to be done THAT often, that does not mean that it needs to be done NEVER.

    You are welcome to do whatever you please with your own vehicles but making bad recommendations to others is just incompetent and potentially dangerous.
     
  10. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    3rd gen brake fluid change is pretty straightforward, there is a technique to do without Techstream, documented in the Repair Manual. @NutzAboutBolts has a video on it too, pinned at top of 3rd gen maintenance forum.

    Toyota USA says nothing on the subject, Toyota Canada says tri-yearly or 48K km.
     
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  11. nicoj36

    nicoj36 Active Member

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    Yes still reset the system. Also, do the zero calibration reset.

     
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  12. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    I think I solved mine without spending any money. What I did was after reading this thread I checked all my wheel speed sensors. For the fronts, I unscrewed the sensors from the hub, cleaned it with a rag and put them back in. They weren't dirty, just a bit dusty. For the rears, I didn't have the right pliers to take the electrical connector off from the hubs' speed sensors so I just wiggled the connection a bunch of times because I could sense some play in there, and pushed them back in as far as I could.

    I think the problem was dirt, freezing water and grime got inside the connector in this freezing weather messed up the proper electrical contact inside of there.

    This seems to have made the lights go away. I've driven it for about 5 hours without the lights after this. If these lights happen to you, you should try this first. Just try to clean your speed sensors and wiggle them back in tight to ensure a proper connection.
     
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  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    It is easy to get the trouble codes when these three lights come on, which is how you find out why the brake ECU has put those three lights on. It's approximately useless to base anything on just "had the same 3 lights" because those are the only 3 lights the brake ECU has to alert you to problems with, and it uses them for pretty much all one or two hundred reportable issues.

    If you don't have a scan tool, you can still get the trouble codes using nothing more than a short piece of wire, and counting the blinks of the lights. There are a lot of posts here on PriusChat on how to do that.

    If you retrieve the trouble codes and the ones you get are about wheel speed sensors, then that would give you a good reason to at those sensors, as robomoto has done here.

    If you retrieve the codes and the ones you get are about something else, then you would probably skip fiddling with the wheel sensors so you could spend your time checking out whatever issue is really being reported.
     
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