Hello I have an issue with my Toyota Prius V 2013. The car is overheating once a day. I'm driving around 50-60 miles per day. The car was driving fine without any issues. Few days ago radiator water sign appeared and I realized that ater was hot. I had to add around a gallon of water. At the Same time ac is only working car is going fast enough. In the traffic or in during a full stop ac is working white bad. What can be an issue?
Probably the water pump, radiator fan or a leak. The title said the fan was not running, is that true? Bottom line, don't drive it like this or your whole engine is at risk.
These are both bad things. If you continue to drive this car and overheat it once a day, you will damage the engine almost certainly. A gallon of water is a pretty good percentage of all the coolant volume, so it's a significant amount of coolant lost. Get it to a shop and get it fixed.
Yes fan is not running. I never heard any sound coming from fans. When I pulled over after the lights appeared I decided to check if fans had any reaction. Zero at all. The car is not in motion I'm trying to find a master who can help me but first I want to know what's wrong with my Prius.
I don't drive the car anymore. I'm just trying to find someone who can fix and before just identifying the issue. Thanks for your attention.
You may not hear the fans, they are pretty quiet in low fan mode. You have to visually inspect them with a good light. If you turn the ac on while in Ready mode, it will force both of the fans on. Otherwise the fans will only come on when the coolant temperature rises to a certain point. If the fans are not running at that point or while in AC mode, the power, control or the fan motor(s) are faulty. Power could be a fuse but fuses blow when there is a fault downstream. Knowing where to measure, one could check voltages and try to force on the fan with an advanced scanner. 50-90% of a mechanic's job is diagnosing the problem using scanners, meters and troubleshooting techniques gained through training and experience. So positively identifying the problem is not easy over the internet without someone who can use a meter, scanner and other tools. A dealer or experienced mechanic would charge a reasonable fee to id the specific problem, which very well could be the most obvious, eg the fan assembly. But a bad sensor, relay or connection could also cause a fault. Or maybe something else like the water pump or a leak. But I would not change fan motors before testing guarantees the diagnosis. The attached pdf shows the fuses, relays and temperature sensors that are directly involved with the fan control. By the way, the AC may not run if the engine temperature is too high. Sometimes driving causes enough air flow through the radiator to lower the temps until you slow or stop.
Thank you for your reply. Well there are some updates. Today I called the mechanic and he came on the spot. He checked the car on computer and found one error p261B fuel pump malfunction. We checked all fuses there was no issues. We put 12V on of the radiator fan, there was no reaction at all. Although tester was showing the cable coming to the fan was okay. This makes me think that fans are the issue, but what about water pump,? Do I need to change it as well?
First, P261B is a water pump code, not a fuel pump. That would absolutely cause overheating. Second, did you try the AC On test in Ready Mode with the fans? If you have not, do that test. It's likely the water pump is the issue and its a special electric operated unit. I am not sure that your mobile mechanic properly checked the fans as they are not that accessible from the the engine compartment and checking the circuit from the relays is not a guarantee since there are three fan relays and only one could easily be hot wired. It's hard to believe both fans would have failed at the same time. The three fan relays interlock with two fan speed controls as shown on the schematic above. But the AC Mode check is definitive on the fans without having to know the circuit.
I did try to turn on the fans with ac mode on. I visually inspected them none of them has any reactions, especially when the water is hot, but fans still are not working. So I assumed that fans have an issue. The only thing the master did, he plug out the radiator motor from the main cord and manually put 12V but it failed to operate. Im actually really confused, because I don't know from where to start. I don't want to buy water pump which costs around 300 and having the same issue
I might have cleared the water pump code and checked if it came right back on while monitoring the temperature with a scanner. See the attached youtube link on how to physically remove the pump. As long as the fans don't run in AC Mode, its a pretty good indication that one or both of the fans or the controls are bad. Since he hot wired them at least the first fan is very likely to be bad. As it turns out, the second fan gets it power through one relay and its ground through another relay. So hot wiring that fan may not tell the story. But a good tech with the diagram should understand. As JB in NE had said, go for the fans first. After repairs, the fans should work in AC Mode assuming the engine is not overheated. I would then drive it while live monitoring the water temperature and codes with his scanner.
