My 2009 Prius recently lost power while driving on a highway and wouldn't restart. It ended up being towed to a Toyota dealer. The error codes were P0A0F, Engine Failed to Start; B2799 Immobilizer Malfunction; P3190 Poor Engine Power; C1259 HV System Regen Malfunction, and C1310, HV System Malfunction. They eventually got it working again, presumably including a jump start. On the first day at the dealer they said it started but then it lost power after they ran it for a while. On the second and third days they ran it for several hours each day without it having any problems. According to our invoice, they checked fuel pressure, which was good, engine compression test was good, and 'fuel test' was good. On the third day they replaced the starter battery (at my recommendation, since we had never replaced it), cleaned the throttle body, and performed fuel induction service. They also suggested that the original problem may have been a bad fuel pump and suggested replacing it for $2362, but also said they weren't sure if that really was the problem or not. My son and I picked up the car (which was about 100 miles from our home) and drove it home with no problem. We've been using it around town since then with no problem, but we're wondering if we do indeed need to be concerned about the fuel pump. Is there a way to test for this? Could a bad starter battery have caused the car to die while driving and might that have been the main problem in the first place or is it likely something more? Is it common for the fuel pump in a Gen2 Prius to need to be replaced around this mileage (it has 146K miles on it) and is this something that would be good to do proactively even if it wasn't what caused the car to die if we hope to keep the car for another 100K miles or so? I'm uncertain what the best way to proceed is. We had not noticed any decline in fuel economy or performance or any difficulty starting, etc. prior to this event. Thanks for any suggestions that you may have.
A near 14 year old car is going to destroy your bank account if you take it to a dealership that specializes in warranty work that maximizes the cost of repairs because Toyota pays for it. You need to find a legit mechanic closer to home. Or just a family member or friend who works on cars and us folks at PriusChat can coach them through any repair. If you lived near me and you really did need a fuel pump (which you don't) It'd be barely over $200 to fix it. A mechanic near you would charge more because of the overhead of running a shop, but nowhere near what a Toyota Stealership will scam you for. All of your symptoms are likely related to a bad 12v and that's been fixed. So forget about all the nonsense Toyota Stealers are telling you!
You're going to do a fuel pump job on a Gen 2 for $200? You may need to research that job again. Requires an entire replacement fuel tank, and I doubt anyone getting this job done would want a used one installed.. ToyotaPartsDeal has them for around $1300, and I believe you can get a decent aftermarket assembly for around $700-800.
So you cannot get the pump out of the tank in a Gen 2 Prius? I think it's a plastic tank right but it does not have the big nut on top to access the pump so do you have to buy a whole tank because of the bladder business right yep that makes sense I guess I wonder how the dealer knew the fuel pump was a little bad or a little weak does that show up in tech I don't think I've seen that?
Yeah... I second guessed that claim once I thought it through, but not counting the cost of a used fuel tank assembly I could likely swap that system out in a few hours, so $200 plus the part. And a near 14 year old car doesn't deserve new parts unless they're near the same price or designed for lots of wear, like break pads, spark plugs, etc..
I'm wondering what would happen if you put a fuel tank without a bladder in the car I haven't looked at the schematic are there special things sensors connected to the bladder or something I mean the bladder must operate very similar to the one in a well water pressure tank as the water rises it expands the bladder so the bladder is pushing down on the water or in this case the fuel to keep it tight in the tank I guess no room for air and evaporation something along those lines but that would be so minimal I was wondering if you could stick a regular Yaris type fuel tank or something like that in there with the fuel pump and the access to the pump on the top of the tank and all that might have to take a look at that in the spare car I have and see what's up that's a roaring joke $1,300 for a fuel tank with a pump and bladder in it hysterical That's a get rid of the car thing for sure for me because I wouldn't pay that I might go six
I'd think the Bladder-free Gen2 tanks sold outside the US would be the same but would not have sniffer system and would have a standard Toyota tank vent system and likely the car would only throw a warning light for the sniffer system if it first detected the system and was able to use it. But who knows, really?
There are a couple tests that could be done. One would be to connect a scantool to the engine computer and a fuel pressure gauge. Have the scantool record engine data and watch the gauge while driving the car HARD. The idea is to put heavy demand on the pump and see if it can deliver. Also review the scan data to see if the engine controls (such as fuel trims) are "happy" during the test. A shop that uses an oscilloscope can view the pump's amperage waveform to see if there is a "gross" fault with the pump motor, which can cause intermittent failures. (unfortunately, very few shops can do this). Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
But then again this seems to be a very rare problem so here in my world in the southeast United States I would have no problem walking up to The cars I find here and take a tank out and slap it in one of my cars and be good for another long time now in other states and places where things are not as clear and nice that could be a problem. So I guess in the one or two that I have sitting here I need to drop the gas tanks clean them out hang them up and store them or something along those lines I know most of my Toyota EFI fuel pumps and most of my other Toyotas last a long time I'm talking hundreds at the thousands of miles they're so reliable that I use them on my fuel injected motor scooters which are notorious for the fuel pump in the tank going out It looks just like my Toyota pump so I put a Toyota pump in my 500cc motor scooter and have never looked back other friends on my list of this scooter are replacing pumps every 2 years not me
Thanks. We do have a good local mechanic, who is generally reasonably priced, but they also said it would be over $2000 to replace the fuel pump since it requires replacing the whole gas tank, etc. I explained the overall situation to them today and they didn't think it sounded like a fuel pump problem anyway. But they also didn't think a bad starter battery would cause the car to die while it was already running, so they didn't know what might have caused the original problem. Their advice was just to keep using the car, as long as there is no "check engine" light or "triangle of death" showing, and hope for the best.
I guess you don't remember this clusterf**k that was attempted by a member? Corolla to Prius gas tank swap | PriusChat
