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Need help deciphering blink codes for my first car!

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Tyler04, Dec 26, 2021.

  1. Tyler04

    Tyler04 New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2021
    2
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    Location:
    17086
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    Hey everyone. I was just given a 2010 Prius with only 24 thousand miles on it. And it runs, which I'm really excited about! I'm 17 years old and this is my first car, so sorry for any novice questions. The previous owner was a friend of our family and just wanted it gone. The car sat unused for a little over a year and had rat poop under the hood and in the air filter compartment. Also the previous owner hit a curb at one point on the front drivers side. I don't have a lot of money, so I'm trying to fix as much as possible myself (with the help of my dad) before sending it to the shop.

    I used a jumper wire on the obd2 port to get these blink codes:
    Slip Indicator 4-3
    Tire Pressure 2-4
    ABS 3-1
    The exclamation mark in a circle which I think is the Brake System 3-6

    Also the brakes seem a little soft and I'm not sure the Regenerative Braking is working. We got 42 mpg on the way home from a two hour drive on highways. My dad and I put a brand new 12 volt battery in it.

    How do I look up what he blink codes mean? Is there a Prius repair manual online?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    Thanks!
     
  2. Elektroingenieur

    Elektroingenieur Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2017
    2,515
    3,253
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    Location:
    California
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Three Touring
    For information about getting access to the Repair Manual, see this Wiki page. Once you have access, see the Diagnostic Trouble Code Chart pages for the Electronically Controlled Brake System and the Tire Pressure Warning System to decode the blink codes, which are listed as two digits, on their own or separated by a slash from the longer codes used with a PC-based Toyota Techstream diagnostic system.

    For the brakes, the codes are defined separately for the ABS, slip indicator (vehicle stability control, VSC) and brake warning/yellow (electronically controlled brake, ECB) lights; in other words, both the code and the light that blinked it matter. For example, your ABS 3-1 code is C0200/31 Front Speed Sensor RH Circuit. The other two codes (43 and 36) are just those subsystems acknowledging that an ABS problem has been detected.

    Keep in mind that the part named in the one-line “fortune cookie” (@ChapmanF's term) description of the DTC isn’t necessarily the one that’s faulty; the troubleshooting procedure for each code in the Repair Manual explains the possible causes and how to check them. Here, the problem could be in the right front wheel speed sensor, its wire harness, or less likely, in the skid control ECU. (That’s the computer that controls the brake system, part of the brake booster with master cylinder assembly.)
     
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