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Prius chirping 10 times when using handle to unlock

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

  1. apigeon

    apigeon Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 13, 2019
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    Location:
    Seattle
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    edit: D'oh! I forgot to mention my car! This is a 2010 (generation 3) Prius.

    I have just finished fixing my driver door lock actuator such that the door will now lock and unlock using the keyfob, the electronic button on the door, the keyless entry (handle sensor) system, and the manual rocker on the door. So, at this time, the locks on all of the doors are functioning correctly. I have verified this by examining each lock while unlocking and locking the car.

    My issue is that when unlocking the door using the keyless entry (handle sensor) system, the Prius is chirping 10 times in a row (5 pairs of chirps) like it did when the actuator was not functioning. Based on my reading of other posts in this forum, it appears as though the car does this when it senses a faulty actuator. Given that the problematic actuator has been dealt with, it seems as though the issue is that the car is not recognizing the fix, or that it still senses there is a faulty actuator. I am not sure how to get the beeping pattern to go back to its ordinary single pair of beeps. This is what I am trying to fix. To reiterate, the locks themselves are all functioning as they should.

    I have tried the following:
    - Manually and electronically locking and unlocking each door multiple times
    - Starting and turning off the car several times
    - Opening and slamming shut each door including the trunk

    Is there a way to reset the computer in such a way that it will no longer flag the actuator problem if it is no longer present?

    I have heard that the actuator motors tend to fail around the same time - people have written about being forced to replace several motors in each door over the course of a couple weeks. That might be the situation here, but at this time each door is functioning correctly, which is contradictory.

    Any and all help is appreciated. I realize this is a small issue but I would like to resolve it if at all possible. Thanks!
     
  2. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Location:
    Wilkes Land
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    Unplug the12v battery for couple of minutes.
     
  3. apigeon

    apigeon Junior Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    Hi Grit - thanks for your prompt reply!

    I disconnected the 12V battery by removing the connection between the negative pole and the car body - I found a few posts on this forum and they indicated it was the safest way to approach the disconnection. I let it remain disconnected for a couple of minutes and then reconnected it. When I started the car again, the computer gave me a boot up screen which it doesn't typically show and flashed an indicator about the map disc. However, none of my settings or anything were reset - the car still uses the single-beep backup sound as I have configured it to and has all of my information for mileage, Bluetooth setup, etc. The door is also still beeping 10 times when I unlock it using the handle sensor.

    Is there an alternate method I should be using to disconnect the battery? I can't think of a way that the car would know the difference between a disconnection at the negative or positive terminal, but I am new to these things...
     
  4. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    Did you try to pull any OBD codes?
     
  5. apigeon

    apigeon Junior Member

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    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    Hi Rebound - I used my Carista adapter to diagnose the car, and it didn't show any codes. Is this what you're referring to? Thanks!
     
  6. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    Sorry, I’m all out of ideas. Well, the only other thing I can think is some OBD readers don’t read all of the vehicle’s ECM’s. All the OBD tools read the general fault codes, but there are other computers in the car, and some readers don’t read them all. But I’m afraid I don’t know much about the Carista and whether it reads all of the ECM’s or not.
     
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  7. alanwagen

    alanwagen Member

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    Vehicle:
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    Model:
    Three
    If any of the locks are sticking, it will try to keep unlocking and also keep beeping. Mine was doing that the other day so I lubed the inside lock with some spray silicone.
     
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  8. apigeon

    apigeon Junior Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    Thanks everyone for your responses - I appreciate your help.

    Alan, can I ask how you went about lubricating the lock?

    Also, did you find that your Prius beeped several times because it was unable to unlock the door at all, or because it was initially unable to but eventually succeeded? I ask because mine never seems to fail to unlock after the ten beeps - this is what made me assume there was an errant code or something.

    Thank you very much!
     
  9. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    You may still have a bad actuator, but it's still functioning. Maybe it's taking more power to lock and unlock.
     
  10. PriZilla

    PriZilla New Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    V
    I would like to share my experience of the multiple beeping door handle sensor.

    My front left side door decided to stop locking and unlocking one day out of the blue when the central locking was being activated.
    Either by the key remote fob or using the door handle sensor.

    After searching for information on this site and elsewhere for a reason as to why this was happening I figured it might be the servo motor in the door actuator.

    A couple of days after ordering a replacement servo motor from Amazon the door lock went back to operating as normal (Murphy’s law).

    I know this doesn’t give a definitive answer as to what went wrong but I put it down to a temporary glitch in the electronics.

    The only thing that might have contributed to it resetting itself was that I took out and replaced the fuse for the door that is in the fuse box on the front left side footwell.

    But it didn’t reset immediately after removing and replacing the fuse. It was a day or so later.
    The takeaway from this is that it appears it can reset itself after several days to a week.