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P Lock Malfunction HELP!

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Jessemkane, Mar 14, 2016.

  1. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    OK, so long story short I was hooking up gauges in the interior of my car and needed a source for 12v power with ignition on. I tapped into the fuse under the hood in the fuse box for "Hybrid system, parking control system, power windows, inverter and converter". Its a 10amp fuse spot number 26.

    Was working on them a bit today and accidentally jumped the power and ground on the end of the wires. Ever since then the car wont move and is showing "P lock malfunction when parking, park in flat place and apply parking brake securely"

    I have tried applying the brake, letting it out, moving the shifter, pulling the negative battery cable off for a minute, nothing. Car wont go into gear or move at all. I have also checked the fuse under the hood that the wire was plugged into and it is not blown, have replaced it as well, same issue.

    Did I majorly screw something up or is this hopefully a simple fix? Help!
     
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Check your 12v battery voltage, you probably ran the battery too low messing around with what you were doing

    SM-N900P ?
     
  3. AzWxGuy

    AzWxGuy Weather Guy

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    I think the parking (P) lock malfunction is a classic symptom of a discharged 12V battery. Yours would only be maybe 4 years old now but could be suspect. The short circuit cinched the deal, or maybe your gauges are contributing to a parasitic drain? I would remove the 12V battery and have it load tested.
     
  4. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    Knew I forgot to mention something. I did remove the battery and take it to be tested at O'reilly, while the charge was a little low the voltage was 12.6 and the battery tested fine.Also im not sure if it matters or not but the LED in the P button no longer lights up at all, I would assume that is because the car does not know it is in park at all and won't allow me to put it in Park but im not sure.

    I would think if I shorted something in the system touching the wires that the fuse would have popped but it did not. At this point i'm just stumped.
     
    #4 Jessemkane, Mar 14, 2016
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 14, 2016
  5. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Try disconnecting the 12v negative for a few seconds to reset the car

    SM-N900P ?
     
  6. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    Are you sure you didn't blow the affected fuse?
     
  7. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    Ive got the battery out now since i took it to be tested, car is stranded at my work so itll be sitting overnight. That should be enough time to reset the car but we'll see if it helps in the morning i guess.
     
  8. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    I am. I pulled the fuse and replaced it just incase it was blown and I couldnt see or something goofy like that.
     
  9. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    since it's out of the car, you can fully charge it before putting it back in.
     
  10. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    I had the battery charged when it was tested at O'reilley.

    Just got back to work and put the battery back in, same problem still persists. Car still doesn't think its in park and won't allow me to put it in park when pushing the P button.
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    tell us more about these gauges you were hooking up.
     
  12. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    Pressure gauges for my suspension set up that's going on. The 12v power was just for the LED backlighting
     
  13. DonDNH

    DonDNH Senior Member

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    It is possible that your short circuit blew more that 1 fuse.
     
  14. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    I will go back out and check the rest of the fuses and see it maybe it blew something else at the same time.
     
  15. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    Alright the rest of the fuses and fusable links all look good. The other thing I noticed now is that that fuse has no power going to it at all. I used a power probe to check key on and key off power and can't get any reading on the fuse. Not sure if that would be because the car won't start or not? I would think they should still have power even with just accessory power inside the car?
     
  16. DonDNH

    DonDNH Senior Member

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    My last thought on what might be causing the problem is that somehow the parking lock (pawl) is somehow jammed and won't release. The pawl is the mechanism that locks when in P. It might release by rocking the car back and forth. If it won't, I'm out of suggestions and it might be time to get a tow to a service facility. Anyone else have thoughts on a solution?
     
  17. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    Even though the battery seems to be good, you could try jump starting the car, following the procedure in the owner's manual. Be certain that you don't cross the + and -. The + goes to + and the - goes to -.

    Another possibility; Think: Did you unplug anything else when you tapped into that fuse? Maybe you disconnected a control line to the transmission in order to gain access to the fuse, or maybe you disconnected something behind your dash to gain access for your gauges? Just take your time and think; it could very well be something as simple as that.
     
    #17 Rebound, Mar 15, 2016
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2016
  18. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    Techstream scan shows a code of C2309.

    The Toyota tech I had come look at it and scan it just thinks ive blown a fuse or multiple fuses and haven't found them yet. He also printed off the entire wiring diagram for me for the hybrid computer and said to check and make sure the wires going to the computer have power where they should, and if not then I fried the computer. But he doesn't think thats the case, just not sure yet.
     
  19. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    I updated my post. Maybe you unplugged a connector and forgot to reattach it. It happens sometimes. Try to walk backwards through the work you did.

    One guy on YouTube solved your problem by releasing the parking brake and then starting the car. For some reason, the car entered this fault mode and working exit until he did that.
     
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  20. Jessemkane

    Jessemkane Member

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    I had the gauges in and working for about a week with no issues so I know everything was plugged back in. I was only trying a different solution to mounting the gauges which was my reasoning for taking them out anyway. This happened in the process of attempting to remove them.