I have had my 2012 prius for around 1 1/2 years. Bought it when it had 45000 miles now has 128000 miles. had the traction light, abs light, brake light, and (!) light come on. Took it to the dealer and they performed a diagnostic that came up with brake hydro buster and actuator pump needs replaced. $3500 to fix it. I am learning that mechanic jargon is similar to medical jargon. They use words that don't match regular speech to trip you up. After a day of research I have concluded this is a hydraulic brake booster and brake booster pump. Anyone disagree? I hope not because the words brake hydro buster and actuator pump don't seem to pull up the right parts. So I have a real problem with the $3500 quote. I don't have that kind of money. I hate working on cars but find myself doing it often because repairing them myself seems to come up to a third of the price quoted at repair shops. I downloaded a PDF file that includes the repair manual and is so far the most helpful thing I have found. I Found the parts on it and found I need the tech stream software. Currently I know I need Tech stream (bought mini vci from amazon for $49) Hydraulic brake booster (found on eBay for aprox. $700) Brake booster pump (found on eBay used excellent condition for $169) Looking at the repair manual I think I can do it. I can replace the parts but I worry about the software aspect. This is the first car I will work on that I have to fidget with the computer side of things. Is there anyone out there that has done this replacement and can give me any suggestions, pointers, assurances, hand to hold, shoulder to cry on, tissue for my tears, a spare small violin, etc. $900 dollars in my book is still expensive but much better than $3500.
some are installing salvage with good success. 128k seems early, get tech stream first and confirm the diagnosis with the service manual at techinfo.toyota.com try calling toyota corporate for good will warranty help.
I got an estimate of 3800 from the dealer. What really got me concerned was the part was on sale from the same dealer for 501 and I was charged 901, just for the part! The 501 was also just for the part, no labor.
Did you ask the dealership about it? If I ran into this type of situation that would be my first attempt at solving the problem. Posting it on PC just makes finding surrounding yourself with ignorant comments. FWTW
Using the inexpensive Chinese know off of techstream can be a big question mark in any mechanics mind while doing a repair on a Prius. The alternative is spending big $ on the approved pass through adapter and renting the latest techstream software from https://techinfo.toyota.com There are a lot of other posts here at priuschat about the DIY proceedures involved with the brake booster brake accumulator repair I found by searching brake booster ! priuschat.com at duckduckgo.org - the 5 pages of posts might inspire you or the opposite and it's not all DIY recommendations as you'll hopefully understand as your read, if you do read it. https://priuschat.com/threads/brake-booster-accumulator-actuator-issue.228295/ there are plenty moire on the subject besides that may also show up for you as they did for me using the search box here at priuschat after finding just one thread on the subject, read up before diving in . I have a post for the easier brake job issues I found with my Prime at 36K miles. https://priuschat.com/threads/brakes-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly.220344/ @Mendel Leisk was a big help and may have links in his signature for brake booster tips too....
have a Toyota TSB in pdf format, with instruction on replacement, but Priuschat won't allow pdf upload.
Thanks Mendel After reading @ChapmanF s post https://priuschat.com/threads/braking-by-wire.245350/#post-3409663 I realized I'd forgotten to mention that I think it would be a good idea to get a $20 - 2 day subscription to the official techstream documentation for your model from techinfo.toyota.com So you can compare the trechstream you already have with the full versions documentation which includes the latest procedures for the job, and may have more reading of tips and recommendations linked with blue dots in the documentation that might not be included in the version you have. this post by @Elektroingenieur referencing the Gen 4 brake systems documentation may also provide some insight into what is included with a techstream subscription https://priuschat.com/threads/prius-4th-gen-brake-diagram.208330/#post-2921472 found after following @ChapmanF link in his post - I linked to above.
Little naming quibble to keep things straight: TIS (technical information service) is the name of the website where you can go subscribe and look at the repair documentation for the car. Techstream is the name of some software you can put on a Windows laptop to talk to the computers in the car. There is a connection between the two: if you have the official Techstream installed on your laptop, you have to go to the TIS website and subscribe, in order to activate the software. But still, Techstream is the name of the software, and TIS is where you go to find repair documentation.
I don't have the Techstream software yet, which might be one of the reasons I keep getting the details wrong, even after being reminded so many times. I have registered for the Technical Information Systems 2 day standard subscription few times already and hope to get the details correct when recommending it in the future. Thanks for being patient as well as continuing to remind me.
Another thing about repair manual and TIS is that with TIS the repair manual is also available with a subscription, so I lumped them together as a package deal and just referred to the both as Techstream or Techstream subscription. One of the reasons it's taken me so long to get on board with the TIS moniker is it confused me even more when I searched TIS and got hits to non public logins as well as the techinfo.toyota.com and didn't even know what TIS stood for after seeing the dealer logins when searching TIS. I hope this makes sense and I'll be able to keep the differences separate enough to be a bit less confusing to me and perhaps others, while being technically correct enough to not need to be reminded that the Techstream software and the repair manual R actually different products. And an up to date repair manual might not even be included with many of the Techstream bundles available at Amazon, eBay and Ali.
Thank you very Much! Turns out I did not need the info there. . .and It was helpful to have and understand. After being quoted $3700 to replace the ABS modules, I found the parts online for $1100(ish) and replaced them myself. I figure I made about $130/hr for the time spent and amount saved. Win! I did discover that having the car level for the Linear Offset calibration *is* actually required. Once level everything went off without a hitch and my brakes are solid, no more dash warning lights or error coeds. Could not have been successful without the forum here and, specifically, your involvement. Very Grateful for you! Cheers, Wayne
