Multiple warning lights…what to do?

Discussion in 'Prius v Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Ponderosa, Sep 3, 2025 at 6:51 PM.

  1. Ponderosa

    Ponderosa Junior Member

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    My 2014 Prius V, ~80K miles, suddenly shows three yellow warning lights: slip indicator, brake system warning, and hybrid system. This happened while I was about 10 miles from home and I decided to drive the car home on back roads.

    Now that it’s home, I’ve looked through the forum and note that there could be multiple reasons for these lights to go on at the same time. I’m not a DIYer but I’m thrifty. I also found out that there’s a warranty for the inverter and see that that could possibly be part of the problem.

    The local Toyota dealer is known to price gouge—I’ve had the privilege of learning that first hand.

    Do I take the car to another shop and if I find out it’s the inverter have it brought to the Toyota dealer so it’s covered? I don’t think I should drive the car with all these warning lights. I’m not sure the best way to proceed. Thanks for any insight you can provide.
     
    #1 Ponderosa, Sep 3, 2025 at 6:51 PM
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM
  2. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Yes you should take to a shop that has a hybrid compatible scanner. The brake booster (master cylinder/abs/skid ecu) is a likely problem although it could be something simpler like a speed sensor.
     
  3. Air_Boss

    Air_Boss Senior Member

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    Did you have an OBD2 device plugged into the onboard jack?
     
  4. Ponderosa

    Ponderosa Junior Member

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    I don’t have that device
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    There are many such devices. There are a couple different reasons Air_Boss might have asked about it.

    First, those devices (the better ones, anyway) are the way you can find out why your warning lights are on. So it is good to have one on hand to use in situations exactly like this.

    Second, there are some such devices that people keep plugged in all the time (to display extra gauges, for example)—and some people, using some of those devices, have reported that they seemed to cause warning lights when left plugged in all the time. I think that could be the possibility Air_Boss was checking into. As you don't have one, that possible explanation can be ruled out.
     
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  6. Ponderosa

    Ponderosa Junior Member

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    Thanks for the explanation :)
     
  7. Ponderosa

    Ponderosa Junior Member

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    thank you!
     
  8. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I take it that by "hybrid system" you mean this one (which was a different shape, a triangle, in earlier generations and in the gen 3 liftback):

    [​IMG]

    It is likely that the other lights (brake and slip) are on because of this one. You can review this page about blink codes for more about the C1259 brake code and the C1310 skid code, which simply mean that a hybrid-system code is present, and needs to be attended to.

    By contrast, an actual brake or skid system problem (like the booster / master cylinder or a speed sensor) would generally not have turned on the hybrid light.

    The blink-codes page linked above describes a useful way of getting brake/skid system trouble codes, which I do suggest in cases where those codes are likely to be useful. In this thread, though, it's the hybrid-system code(s) that you should find most useful, and the blink method does not retrieve those. A suitable scan tool is needed.

    You could use the blink method to get the codes explaining the brake and skid light, but in this case those are likely to just be the C1259 and C1310 codes telling you to pay attention to the hybrid-system code(s).
     

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