2011 Throwing Codes After Driving Through Puddle

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Matthew716, Mar 29, 2022.

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  1. Matthew716

    Matthew716 New Member

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    I apologize if this is lengthy at all! As the title indicates, I drove through a puddle that turned out to be much deeper than expected. The car drove fine immediately afterwards. Hours later, when I started it, the check engine light was on and there was a burning smell that I suspect was water being burned off. Car drove fine and the light eventually went off.

    Since then, the check engine light comes on whenever it rains. Here are the codes:
    P0138
    P0607

    The light always goes off once the weather warms and dries out.

    A few weeks later, the dusk shield rusted completely off one of the back tires. It's possible that the car is driving a bit sluggish. I'm wondering if the water could have expedited some wear and now causing a caliper to stick.

    Any ideas what sort of damage could have been caused by the water that's resulting in the codes? I plan to replace my pads and rotors and would like to investigate and repair any issue that could be lingering back there.

    Thanks for taking the time to check out my post!
     
    #1 Matthew716, Mar 29, 2022
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Suspect all the salt on the roads is destroying the underside of your car... Now that it's Spring you need a deep clean and thorough inspection of your underside... Beyond just structural stuff, you're likely gonna find damage to the exhaust system that's the source of those error codes.
     
    #2 PriusCamper, Mar 29, 2022
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    These two codes are related, and they both have to do with the oxygen sensor located in the exhaust, after the three-way catalytic converter, or the wiring to that sensor.

    That sensor and wiring are pretty low on the car, and the deep puddle incident might have done some damage there.

    It will probably be worthwhile to just go ahead with the troubleshooting procedure in the repair manual (more info) for those codes, P0138 first.

    If you find the cause of the P0138 and are sure you fixed it, but the P0607 remains, that would suggest that a transistor in the ECM took some damage during the time the issue wasn't fixed.
     
    #3 ChapmanF, Mar 29, 2022
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