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Honking sound in Park when brake is applied

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by [email protected], Jun 24, 2009.

  1. mcazares@san.rr.com

    [email protected] New Member

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    Bought 2008 Prius over a year ago. Immediately after I took it in for oil change service around 10k at Toyota dealer the honking sound started. It occurs when in Park & not on, depress brake pedal and 3 short honks sound. It is the horn, not a beeping inside. If you're outside standing in front of the car you can tell it's the horn. This occurs consistently every time when in Park & brake is depressed.

    After a trip to Santa Monica, we had to valet the car to park it overnight. Mysteriously now the honk was gone and did not come back, until . . .

    I ran out of gas on the freeway (oops!) and car completely died. After adding some gas & starting up again, the crazy honk-honk-honk is back.

    Told same Toyota service about this yesterday when I went in for oil change again. They claimed it's an after market alarm device probably installed by dealer where I bought it, and they have no idea what to do about it, why it started when they changed my oil in the first place, why the Santa Monica valet guy could make it go away, and that since it's "not Toyota" wished me luck on the way out.

    Any ideas?
     
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Is it feasible for you to take the car back to the dealer where you bought the alarm?

    If not, is it feasible for you to disconnect (or disable) the alarm and see whether the honking symptoms go away?

    Do you have a manual for the alarm system that would shed any light on your situation?
     
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  3. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    A few sentences into your post and I was thinking "third party alarm system". You need information about your alarm. Talk to the original dealer.

    Tom
     
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  4. timberwolf

    timberwolf New Member

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    Check through all the manuals that came with the car, maybe there are few pages in amongst the manuals that describe the alarm.

    Check the health of the 12v battery. Maybe the valet people didn't really figure out how to disable the three horn toot but instead left your Prius running all night thereby helping to charge the 12v battery a little more than usual.
     
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  5. mcazares@san.rr.com

    [email protected] New Member

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    Thanks for all your input. I made an appt with service at dealer where car was purchased this morning. Just when I finally decided to attack this problem that has been going on consistently for 6 months, joined this forum, posted, then made appt - what do you think happened???

    The triple-toot stopped!!!! Completely. I'm not kidding. My husband and kids will all attest to this. I don't know why. Just stopped after grocery shopping.

    Cancelled appt since it's not happening now, but if it comes back I'll take it in (& will definitely check out battery scenario as well as alarm. . . )
     
  6. mcazares@san.rr.com

    [email protected] New Member

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    FIXED!!!

    Took car into dealership where I bought it. They install alarms on all cars, then deactivate them if you don't want to pay for it. The alarm deactivation chip was not making a good connection, thus the triple-honk. The device sits just under the steering wheel/dash, and all I had to do was push it up to snap it in better.
     
  7. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    Which dealer is that, by the way?

    I wonder how often they cause more serious problems by installing their un-asked-for aftermarket crap.