2012 Prius - Shop says there's no issue; ABS lights were on

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by aquatikjustice, Mar 18, 2025.

  1. aquatikjustice

    aquatikjustice Junior Member

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2019
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    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Okay, here's the situation:

    I have a 2012 Prius III (I think) and around Aug/Sep of 2023 I was driving my kid home from school and the Brake and the ABS lights all lit up like a Christmas tree. We got it home w/o issue, but I wasn't able to pull any codes with my Carista OBD2 device and we definitely didn't have the cash to have it looked at, so I let it sit and my wife and I shared her car. I did run it every week or two for a bit, but then we moved on short notice around Halloween '23 and money definitely wasn't there to fix it, so it just sat in the parking lot at our new apartment. I'd run it, drive it up to pick up a prescription or a meal in our small town, but I even stopped doing that once we decided to take it off the insurance until it got fixed.

    Fast forward to the beginning of this month, we got our tax refund back and I had it towed up to the local service shop to finally have it diagnosed. They've had it for 2 weeks, and just called and said it was ready to go, w/o giving me any sort of estimate or anything. They said all they did was recharge the battery, which was low. I asked them about the ABS lights and was told there were no codes, and no lights. There were definitely lights when the tow truck driver took it from me.

    All of that to say, what should I do now? It sounds like the brakes are being pressurized almost constantly (as in this video on YT: /shorts/KriUq4-R6QE), and that started being way more frequent shortly before the lights first turned on.

    Any help would be great. I'm not sure if I should trust the place I sent it to, or have it looked at by a different shop. I'm definitely not going to take it to Toyota, b/c I know they generally default to "everything needs replaced and it'll be $20k just buy a new one from us".
     
  2. MAX2

    MAX2 Senior Member

    Joined:
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    Third planet from the Sun
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Are you asking us to tell you what happened?

    But you haven't provided the error codes.

    What could have happened? ABS failure? Bad wiring harness, hydride system failure, weak battery? Anything. Without diagnostics, there will be no correct answer.

    If you want to figure it out, then choose the diagnostic path.

    This is either the Techstream program installed on a laptop and a cable for connecting to the car.

    Or some device connected to OBDII and transmitting information to the phone on which the program is installed. Look at these topics.
    Gen2 OBD2 app review | Page 2 | PriusChat
     
  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2020
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    Location:
    Durham NC
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    12 volt was low probably original who knows nobody cares just replaced and everything's working now and that's that The 12 volt system is very important in this car and in all cars and when it's not 12 volts funny things start to happen they did you stop driving and that was that lot of people don't have that luxury to just share mom's car or whatever wife's car so they have to do other things or they don't and they're walking You were able to share a car and not have to walk and it back burners for a while. Now it's not and you find out it just needed a 12 volt battery charged I would suggest getting it replaced before it happens again It's probably time.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2010
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    Location:
    Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    Presumably not a Toyota dealership?

    Sounds like brake booster failure, which can set you back 2-3 grand.

    Maybe being a two-car family is too much of a stretch? What are your commuting needs?