One Time "Christmas Tree of Lights"?

Last Friday, we took our Gen3 (2010) in to get the J0V software update. Over the weekend, we drove it normally and my wife went to work on Monday which is like a fifty mile roundtrip.

On Tuesday, as she was commuting into the office, she says the car beeped and pretty much every error light lit. After she pulled-off, she called me and I told her to turn the car off and back on again.

After the minimal "reboot", she only had the check engine light, the yellow triangle and the words "check hybrid system" which a search through this forum makes me think is kind of all-encompassing and not as ominous as it sounds. These were the only messages she had on her way home and after a restart at a store along the way home.

When she got the car home, after searching this forum for a while in the morning, I immediately went out and started the car. There were no error messages or warning lights of any kind. My guess is that I saw somewhere, three restarts may reset the lights and when I went out, it was restart number four after the "Christmas tree of lights".

I drove it around for a bit, everything seemed to work fine. I even used the EV mode for fun. By all appearances, everything worked and there were no error messages Tuesday evening or on Wednesday's commute.

My wife is one of those Prius owners who keep a check on her gas mileage figures and her instinct is that it's averaging a couple of miles per gallon less than what she considers normal and the plan is to take the Prius on a multi-state drive in a few days, but without having an idea of why she suddenly had all of those error lights at sixty miles an hour, we're a bit concerned.

Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts. I'm going to take it to the auto parts store to see if they get any codes, even though there hasn't been a check engine light for a few days. I don't have a Techstream myself and we don't have a relationship with the local dealer beyond them doing the service bulletins, followed by them giving us a list of mileage-based maintenance stuff, which if and when necessary, I've done.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

185k

A 36-mo Yellow-Top was installed 24 months ago. Plugs were also done at that time.

---
Maybe also worth noting because my editing window timed out: The backseat had been laying down. I'm not sure when they were put up, it could have been that morning. Also, I changed the oil on Sunday. Since the light thing, I've checked the oil. It was fine.

Car was driven around a hundred miles today. Still no warning lights.

 

The hundred miles were in four trips. To office in AM, home in PM, then a 50 mile roundtrip to and from a shop.

I'd have to look for info about an inverter failure. I've noticed the term looking at this forum, but haven't really paid attention. Could it make the car go from working fine to a Christmas tree of error lights without any noticeable change in the car's performance -- the only thing indicating something was wrong was the beep and all the lights, my wife says the car didn't vary speed -- to just the check engine, check system and yellow triangle, all of which disappeared on the fourth restart?

My instinct was that maybe it was related to the software update, but no one else has reported an issue.

I'm stumped, but by all outward appearances, the car seems to be fine.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

Coast, east of Orlando.

 

I didn't get to the auto parts store tonight. Wife had the car and didn't get back before they closed.

My experience with having them read on other cars in the past is that if there's no active check engine light, there are no codes. Maybe that's different with a Prius, but I'm not really expecting a lot. I'll try again tomorrow night.

 

Right now, there are no error messages. There was the sudden Christmas tree of every error light, then after she turned it off and back on again, there was the check engine, check hybrid system and yellow triangle for a while. After the third restart, even they were gone and none have come back. A quick, back of the hand count is that the car has been restarted at least ten times and driven more than a hundred miles since the CEL went out.

My wife decided this evening that she may be mistaken in the loss of two miles per gallon, so other than the warning lights, the car hasn't even coughed and everything appears to be working fine.

 

Finally got the car to the auto parts store for a code scan. Because the car has been working fine, the wife was reluctant to stop driving and because there hasn't been any error messages since the three-restart light reset, I didn't think it was going to give me a code.

What we got though, using a regular scan tool with the free scan from the parts store is a P261B "Coolant Pump B Control Circuit Range/Performance". A quick search of this forum shows that it's from the water pump. Oddly, a few of the posts say that it mostly occurs when the temperatures are low, but it was at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit, if not more than 80 when she got the Christmas tree of lights. I'm also seeing just mention of the CEL and hybrid system messages, not every error light like we initially had, but I've only read a few posts.

Other than more searching the forum, does this prompt any additional thoughts? I really only have two vehicles and this is the one I'm trusting to take on the 2k trip next week. I'll ask her again for her memory, but she didn't mention any loss of power like some people said in their posts. I didn't ask this morning, but at least one of the parts chains won't reset codes. Any ideas if this error might be left over from whatever happened on Monday morning, since other than the lights, I haven't had any additional problems? A quick look at the parts store which read the codes for me, says that if I were to replace the water pump, I'd have to get the part shipped to home.

I'd appreciate any experience or knowledge, anyone would like to share.

Thanks

ETA: I've reasked my wife, she did not experience any loss of power when the Christmas tree appeared and didn't notice any when it was just the remaining lights. She was driving through a construction zone, so there wasn't a lot of speed at the time.

Also, further searching says that if I were to check the wiring, clear the codes and if it doesn't return, all should be fine. I'm guessing that means the code will not clear itself, if something just happened that one day, the one time?

 

I found that my usual auto parts store will not erase a code for you, but they will "loan the customer the equipment to do it themselves". So, I erased the code with the plan to go back either just before closing tonight or in the morning to see if it comes back. Again, there haven't been any warning lights since the three restart reset and no indication of a problem.

@frodoz737: I don't really have a relationship with the dealer beyond the service bulletins and if the water pump needs replaced, I'll do it myself. They gave me a printout after the software update. I don't know if they ran any scans because the stuff on their list seem mostly mileage based, but looking at their big, new campus, I don't know that they do a lot for free.

Thanks

 

Lesson learned.

We had the one instance of a "Christmas Tree of Lights", then I cleared the P261B ODB code and tried to tax the car to see if it'd come back. I also didn't call the parts store to see if their shipment would come in faster than a ship to home, nor did I look anywhere else online because I didn't get the error again, so I thought the old code might have been a fluke.

Now I'm in a motel room in Southwestern Virginia, typing on a phone, 40 miles or more from any dealership waiting for a water pump to come in tomorrow, so I can install it in the parts store parking lot and hopefully it will do the trick.

I don't know if it compounded the situation, but my previous research on that error code showed that some people were tying it to a temperature. This morning it was in the 40s when I started driving and I only got like 15 miles and that was it.

Expensive lesson learned. Thanks to everyone for the advice. Now, after a bite, more research.

 

Update for posterity (and for anyone interested);

As I noted in my last post, I reset the error code at the local parts store and drove the car a bunch before starting on my trip. Before I left, even though I did not have a Check Engine light and it had not reappeared since the three-start reset, which was before I cleared the code, I got the auto parts people to check with their OBD and there was still no error, nor was there one after a hundred miles of interstate at 75mph.

It was the morning of the second day of my trip, approximately a thousand miles since the original "Christmas Tree of Lights", when I was starting out in a 42-degree temperature that the car died on the side of the interstate. What happened is that I got a Check Engine Light by itself for a couple of seconds, then a Christmas Tree and the car went into limp mode. Because it had worked for my wife (if her Christmas Tree had been rooted in the same thing), I tried turning it off and back on again and I tried doing it multiple times, but I was stuck on the side of the road in the mountains with no cell signal and a car that would not start.

Luckily someone came along and offered me a ride back to a truck stop at the previous exit, where I was able to call the three auto parts stores in town, found that two could have the water pump when they opened the next morning and all three said I could have the car towed to their lot and do the repair there, myself. After deciding which one I was going to use, I had the car towed there and before we ordered the water pump, I got them to connect their OBD which gave us the same P261B code, I had previously cleared.

The next day, changing the water pump was as easy as it appears in the online instructions. You just need a 10mm socket to move the breather apparatus out of the way and a long 12mm (or maybe a regular 12mm with a short extension) for the pump. Because the bottom bolt was deeper than the borrowed ratchet would comfortably reach, I bought a long flex-head ratchet and because there is some kind of wing on the front of the pump and you're working in such close quarters, I do think the flex-head helped and made the job easier. I'd definitely recommend using one for this job

After changing the pump, I was still getting the "Christmas Tree of Lights" and the car would not start or go into Ready mode. I had learned the previous day that it was about an hour to the closest Toyota dealer and no mechanic in town advertised in the Yellow Pages or on the web that they did Toyota repairs, so I was starting to resign myself to the idea that I might have to get an out-of-town dealer involved with my out-of-state car, when I went back into the parts store and asked if they knew of any garage a DIYer who might have the right software.

One of the clerks said they knew somebody "good with imports", so they called them and I fed the Techstream keyword to the clerk and though I wasn't talking to the mechanic myself, they said their computer could probably clear it and get me back on the road.

I was a bit disappointed when the fellow showed-up with Snap-On device. He managed to clear the P261B without much trouble, but the Christmas Tree remained and the car did not start. He kept fiddling with his device, said it was showing another P261B as "a permanent code" and when he couldn't clear it, he consulted his phone and suggested disconnecting the 12v battery.

I told him that I knew about disconnecting the 12v, but was trying not to do it because it would clear all the codes, which he said was the idea, but I tried to explain that the "Toyota codes" his software couldn't read would also be cleared and I thought that could make it more difficult to figure out what was wrong, if the water pump had not been the complete fix or if there were also problems that had come from the software update.

As I talked it through with the parts store manager who had come out to visit on his cigarette break, while I opened the cover on the 12v to look at it as I weighed the option, the fellow with the device got the car to start. He said that the code was also written to the hybrid section and once he had it cleared from it, the car worked. (Of course, he was a bit bewildered that after a couple of starts, the car cranked to EV and the ICE did not start, so he thought it might not be fixed and he didn't realize there was a push-button park, but he got the car started with no error lights. Yippee!)

Out of an abundance of caution, I drove around the town for about an hour and drove the next 1500 miles of my trip mostly on the old roads, whenever possible avoiding rural interstates. I don't know how many have driven through West Virginia, but there are huge stretches of highway with no towns, exits or cell reception. I decided it was best to go around on roads with towns every eight or so miles and because it didn't prove to be as bad as it sounds, I took a similar route home.

The car has now been about 1700 miles since my repair and all appears to be fine.

I guess the primary lesson I learned is that if the Prius tells you something and if a search of PriusChat says it is probably telling you the truth, it's best to believe it, especially if you're going on a long trip. I was reluctant to preemptively change the water pump because I only had the one error and it came within days of the software update, but if I had listened to the car, I would have saved the tow, an extra night in a motel and the money I paid the fellow to clear the code.

Thanks to everyone who weighed-in and to those who posted in previous threads. This community is great resource and though I was inconvenienced by my own stubbornness which also added to my costs, because of this forum, I knew what to do.

Thanks!